Ebony Women Research Paper

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Danielle Jones Honors Media Literacy Mrs. Sheldon March 20, 2009 The Fallacious Portrait of the Ebony Woman “Let’s watch some TV,” suggests a man. “Yeah, sounds good, what’s on?” replies a woman. “Oh the usual, hot blondes in corporate offices and the ghetto lady on the streets causing a fuss,” informed the man. “Oh, these shows are the best!” exclaimed the woman, as she is about to partake in an element of society that affects sub-groups and sub-cultures daily, the mass media. With its kernels of truth and highly hyped advertisements, mass media is always influencing what the public should think or feel. In this case, a concern in the media…show more content…
They play the token role on a TV show if anything. Times are changing and things are getting better, but according to Beth Potier, reporter for Harvard University stated, “. . . Black women are more visible in media and popular culture, the range of their visibility remains narrow. And although they are no longer being bought and sold as slaves, they are still commodities,” (Potier). African-American women are the “sluts” in the music videos and the “B-words” in the song lyrics. In example, the song “Hoochie Mama” by 2 Live Crew has lyrics that say, “Hoe I love your big brown eyes and the way you shake your thighs.” This is distasteful and humiliating. They are being thrown around like rag dolls and being glamorized for their figure rather than their mind or opinions. It is even happening within the African-American communities. “ . . . In popular culture, black people are creating the media that portrays them, often as commodities. Yet in many ways - rap videos, for instance, that glorify the ghetto and present women as sex objects - they are reinforcing negative images,” (Potier). Many rap videos, lyrics, and TV characters, and the limited amount of diverse images of black women is poison to the African-American female community. These negative elements of the media only create a harder obstacle, creating equality in the mass media, for African-American women to

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