The One About Stereotypes in Media and Literature
Patricia Hill Collins argues that connecting all controlling images and stereotypes of Black women is “the common theme of Black women’s sexuality” (84). This need to control Black women's personhood is rooted in oppositional thinking where elite white men are human and Black women are animals to be controlled. The jezebel describes “sexually aggressive [Black] women” with “excessive sexual appetites [and] increased fertility;” the gold digger or hoochie mama are the modern iteration of the same theme (Collins 81). These stereotypes didn’t disappear with time—they simply shifted form. As Mammy, Jezebel and Sapphire: Stereotyping Black women in media by Al Jazeera English points out, tropes like the jezebel reappear in characters like the welfare queen, the sassy Black friend, and the oversexualized music video vixen. The video explains how these modern caricatures still reduce Black women to symbols of deviance and desire, shaping how audiences perceive their worth and humanity. Toni Morrison and Nella Larsen explore the idea of the jezebel through Sula and Clare, respectively.
Morrison’s subversion of the jezebel is seen in Sula’s disregard for a woman’s traditional role in society; Sula was brought up surrounded by women whose personhood and bodies belonged to them, first. Eva cut off her leg to provide herself financial stability and her mother had sex with whoever she wanted whenever. Though they were shamed by outsiders, they were successful and independent. Sula was not only free from shame but she was also free from men. She did not require a man to have her needs met and quite often, it was her who was in control. It was her who made their lives purposeful. The people of Medallion would have accepted Sula, as a nuisance, if she had simply been like her mother, but because Sula “was trying them out and discarding them without any excuse,” they villainized her instead (Morrison 115). Her indifference was more of a problem than her sexuality. Collins explains that the insistence on Black women’s right to define themselves, their realities, and their relationships is a core theme in Black feminist thought (114). Sula's refusal to let anyone else define her—whether through gender roles or community expectations—makes her dangerous to a society that depends on predictability and control.
Larsen’s subversion of the jezebel is more subtle and alludes to the gold digger stereotype. Clare, whose desire for economic and social stability led her to pass, could be viewed as a gold digger. Collins argues that gold-digging hoochies “often aim to snare a highly paid athlete and can do so by becoming pregnant” (82). John Bellew, a wealthy white man who saved her from poverty, represents Clare’s “highly paid athlete.” When news of Clare with white men first began to spread, her former friends knew that “Clare had always had a … having way about her” (Larsen 20). Similarly to Sula, Clare was shamed for her perceived sexuality, but unlike Sula, her independence was restricted by the whims of a man. The video also calls attention to how modern-day versions of Clare’s story play out in the media, where Black women’s attempts at survival and success are flattened into one-dimensional labels like “gold digger”—erasing the structural barriers that shape their choices. But Clare’s choices challenge both white and Black communities’ ideas of respectability. As Collins puts it, “when Black women define ourselves, we clearly reject the assumption that those in positions granting them the authority to interpret our reality are entitled to do so (114). Clare may not be admirable to everyone, but her choices are a form of defiance—a refusal to be boxed in by anyone’s rules but her own.
Works Cited
Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. 2nd ed., Routledge, 2000.
Morrison, Toni. Sula. 1st ed., Alfred A. Knopf, 1973.
Larsen, Nella. Passing. 1st ed., Alfred A. Knopf, 1929.
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