The Mammy

Mammies, Matriarchs and Other Controlling Images Patricia Hill Collins slow Feminist plan Chapter Main Concepts As it relates to African-American women, the intersecting oppressions of hurry, class, gender and sexuality could not continue without powerful ideological justifications for their existence, which is perpetuated through controlling images. Controlling societal images is 1 of the many powers held by the dominant group ( discolor males) in the U. S. to manipulate ideas about fateful womanhood. Through the perpetuation of these controlling images of the dismal woman as the mammy, matriarch, welfare queen, jezebel/hoochie and cruddy lady, black women become objects instead of subjects ? i. e. domestic workers are often referred to as work mules/animals or girl Like other people of colour in and subordinate groups, black women are seen as the other in our society. By not belonging, black women emphasize the significance of belonging. ? ignominious feminist thought derives from this good-hearted of thinking, as a means to resist these controlling images.Black women insist on the right to establish and define their own reality Controlling Images and Black Womens Oppression During this slavery era images of black women were socially constructed to maintain their subordination Unlike Black women, white women were encouraged to possess four cardinal virtues piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity ? ma Asexual, faithful, obedient domestic servant yardstick used to measure all black women behavior Image aims to influence maternal behavior raises children to know issue in society Matriarch Spends too much time out the home working overly the aggressive emasculates husbands and lovers unfeminine. Unlike mammy, she is the bad black begin Introduced in a government report on Black poverty in 1965 called the Negro Family The Case for National Action (Moynihan report) ? The report blamed black mothers for their childrens failures working le ad to a lack of anxiety and care delinquency Further asserts that slavery destroyed black families by reversing roles of men and women Black backlash- Diverts attention from the reality of political and economic inequalities that shape black children experiences ? Welfare Queen Makes use of social welfare benefits to which they are entitled by law senseless fails to pass on work ethic alone updated version of breeder woman during slavery This image provides justification for the efforts to control black womens rankness to the needs of a changing economy ? i. e. during slavery children were valued as property the more slave children you have the more assets you have After WWII black women and their children seen as a economical liability During the 1980s, despite Reagan and the Republicans opposition, Black women and children could not be soldiersd to work, and Black men dropped out of legitimate labor force ? Prison Industrial Complex ? Jezebel/ Hoochie Represents a deviant black female sexuality originated under slavery to justify the many assaults against slave women by white men ? These women are seen as having a strong sexual appetite which leads to an expected outcome of increased fertility Hoochie unlike the Jezebel is an image accepted by the Black community ? Three types of hoochie plain, gold digger, hoodrat Normal female heterosexuality is expressed in terms of true white womanhood unlike the black hot momma Because of black women sexual appetite is seen as inappropriate or worst, insatiable, black women are characterized as freaks and become stigmatized in society Black women sexuality and fertility is defined by the dominant group (white men) ? Black Lady Combination of the mammy and matriarch Claire Huxtable, The Cosby ShowControlling Images and Social Institutions Schools, news media and government agencies show important sites for reproducing controlling images usually based on the idea of black women having some kind of deviant se xuality ? Social science research support and teen pregnancy ? Popular culture Black hip hop music ? Accessibility to birth control measures Controlling images are also perpetuated in Black institutions ? Family, church and civic organizations are all sites where controlling images of black women are simultaneously resisted and reproduced.Color, Hair Texture and Standards of Beauty Despite the resistance of Black women to being objected as the other, controlling images still influence their lives, becoming even more visible. They impact how Black women interact with the world ? Speaking measuring rod/proper English somehow makes you less black i. e. I never think of you as black I dont see race when Im with you The binary thinking between Black and white beauty ? Thin, white, blonde hair and blue eyes are not stunning without the other, full lips, broad noses, dark skin and kinky hair White skin and straight hair privileges white women by being the exemplar of beauty No matte r what a Black woman subjective reality is, shell never meet the main stream standards of beauty All women in U. S. are objectified, and their value determined by how they look, but Black is the most un-American Black Womens Reactions to Controlling Images Historically African American belles-lettres by women generators usually provide a comprehensive view of Black women struggles to form positive self-definitions in face inferior images many a(prenominal) fictional characters of Black women have themes of pain, violence and death that make up their lives experiences of internalized oppression ? These characters use drugs, alcohol, excessive religion, and even retreat into madness to attempt to execute painful black female realities ? Denial is another response to controlling images Im not like the rest Black female writers also document the responses of positive self-definition by Black women ? The Color Purple (the conclusion) ? Waiting to Exhale ? How Stella Got Her Groove Back