Only the relatively recent thrust of feminist politics has brought women into the discourse of economic productivity. Typically, the fiscal significance of black women has been woefully overlooked. However, it didn’t escape the profiteering eyes of the slave-owners, who always traded their female property for higher prices than their male counterparts. A female slave represented an ongoing labor supply once her owner could ‘breed’ her. However, when slavery ended capitalism didn’t die with it, and a new market for black female flesh had to be created.
Intrinsically intertwined with economic exploitation of black women is the objectification and denigration of their bodies and sexuality. In the nineteenth century, the sentiments of race commentators such as William Wright and Josiah Nott reigned supreme in the characterization of black women. Wright states, in reference to mixed-race women, “Most of the women are public prostitutes to the Europeans, and private ones to the negroes,” while Nott invites readers to consider, “the African wench, with her black and odorous skin, woolly head and animal features.”
Unable to be quite so openly offensive in the twentieth century, it fell into the hands of the media to perpetuate the image of the degenerate black female as the mammy, the whore and the tragic mulatto. As esteemed film historian, Donald Bogle, notes, these characters have been recreated, transformed and repackaged throughout the history of film.
Familiar images of the sexless, strong black woman and the “ho” are just rehashings of the same old themes of the neutered or sexually deviant black woman, who, as distinguished feminist sociologist Dr. Hill Collins explains in her ground-breaking book “Black Sexual Politics,” can again, be exploited and disrespected. Her body is for sale in music videos and films, and she continues to be devalued and undervalued in the workplace.
It is time for black women to reclaim their bodies, redefine their sexuality, and express their woman-ness in all its glory.
The portrayal of Black women as lascivious by nature is an enduring stereotype. The descriptive words associated with this stereotype are singular in their focus: seductive, alluring, worldly, beguiling, tempting, and lewd. Historically, White women, as a category, were portrayed as models of self-respect, self-control, and modesty – even sexual purity, but Black women were often portrayed as innately promiscuous, even predatory. This depiction of Black women is signified by the name Jezebel
Jewell's conceptualization is based on a kernel of historical truth. Many of the slavery-era Blacks sold into prostitution were mulattoes. Also, freeborn light-skinned Black women sometimes became the willing concubines of wealthy White southerners. This system, called placage, involved a formal arrangement for the White suitor/customer to financially support the Black woman and her children in exchange for her long-term sexual services. The White men often met the Black women at "Quadroon Balls," a genteel sex market.
Jezebel in the 20th Century
The portrayal of Black women as Jezebel whores began in slavery, extended through the Jim Crow period, and continues today. Although the Mammy caricature was the dominant popular cultural image of Black women from slavery to the 1950s, the depiction of Black women as Jezebels was common in American material culture. Many of the Jezebel objects caricature and mock African women. For example, in the 1950s "ZULU LULU" was a popular set of swizzle sticks used for stirring drinks. There were several versions of this product but all show silhouettes of naked African women of various ages. One version read: "Nifty at 15, spiffy at 20, sizzling at 25, perky at 30, declining at 35, droopy at 40." There were versions that included depictions of African women at fifty and sixty years of age. ZULU LULU was billed as a party gag as illustrated by this advertisement on the product:
The Jezebel images which defame African women may be viewed in two broad categories: pathetic others and exotic others. Pathetic others include those depictions of African women as physically unattractive, unintelligent, and uncivilized. These images suggest that African women in particular and Black women in general possess aberrant physical, social, and cultural traits. The African woman's features are distorted – her lips are exaggerated, her breasts sag, she is often inebriated. The pathetic other, like the Mammy caricature before her, is drawn to refute the claim that White men find Black women sexually appealing. Yet, this depiction of the African woman has an obvious sexual component: she is often placed in a sexual setting, naked or near naked, inebriated or holding a drink, her eyes suggesting a sexual longing. She is a sexual being, but not one that White men would consider.
An example of the pathetic other is a banner (circa 1930s) showing a drunken African woman with the caption, "Martini Anyone?"22 The message is clear: this pathetic other is too ugly, too stupid, and too different to elicit sexual attraction from reasonable men; instead, she is a source of pity, laughter, and derision.Black Jezebels in American Cinema
In the 1915 movie The Birth of a Nation, Lydia Brown is a mulatto character. She is the mistress of the White character Senator Stoneman. Lydia is savage, corrupt, and lascivious. She is portrayed as overtly sexual, and she uses her "feminine wiles" to deceive the formerly good White man.
The portrayal of Black women as sexually lascivious became commonplace in American movies. Grier, for example, in Coffy (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974) goes undercover as a "whore" to get revenge on Whites who have victimized her loved ones. In The Big Bird Cage (1972), Carol Speed plays a spunky Black hooker inmate. The 1973 movie Black Hooker is a movie about a "White" boy whose mother is an uncaring Black whore.
In the made-for-television movie, Dummy (1979), Irma Riley plays a Black prostitute. Lisa Bonet, one of the daughters on the Cosby show, plays a voodoo priestess in Angel Heart (1987). Her character, Epiphany Proudfoot, has a sexual episode with Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke) that was so graphic that the movie almost received an X rating. In Harlem Nights (1989), Sunshine (played by Lela Rochon) is a prostitute so skilled that a White lover calls his wife on the telephone to tell her that he is never returning home.
To learn more go to: http://www.ferris.edu/htmls/news/jimcrow/menu.htm
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