- Jan 2025
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viewingblackgirlhood.com viewingblackgirlhood.com
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Most tellingly, Bernstein argues that “whereas thewhite child manifested innocence, the pickaninny deflected it: the picka-ninny made not itself, but its violent context appear innocent.
I think it's very inntresting that the chrhacterziation of the picka-ninny is that not only does it feel no pain the sterotype is that it is even attracted to violelence.
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: Ms. Weiss (a welfare worker), Ms. Rain(her teacher) and her lesbian partner, and Nurse John. The only mean-ingful support that is offered Precious comes from these light-skinnedpeople, reifying whiteness as the savior, as the answer to Precious
I noticed this too. All the people kind to her and her friends in the story are all lighter than her or not even black at all. Essentially saying the success and removing yourself from poverty is getting as close to whiteness as possible. Success = whiteness
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Precious visually suggests deep familial corruptionby showcasing four generations of black female monstrous others: the inef-fective grandmother (perhaps a victim of abuse herself), Mary (Precious’mother), Precious, and her daughter Mongo.
the continuous cycle of abuse. - showing how black families protect our families even it means hiding and perpetuating abuse.
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“dysfunctional black family.”
why must Precious going out her own and rejecting essentially the white man's help be consider her creating a dysfunctional black family?
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a child-mammy who has been “dehumanized and devalued ...AFRICAN AMERICAN GIRLS IN HOLLYWOOD CINEMA
" a child - mammy" is very interesting oxymoron to be used. It calls to the audltification of black children specifically black girls.
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a young teen girl in schoolwho daydreams about being on the cover of a magazine, about her whiteteacher being in love with her, about finding a light-skinned boyfriend,and hoping she will someday live in the suburbs
It very interesting that all things that precious dreams about are as faraway from blackness as possible. It is as if she relates her blackness to her torture and all her misfortunes in life.
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What is most disturbing about the aesthetic geography of Precious isits validation—indeed, its naturalization—of the monstrousness of blackfemale mothers and their children: Precious’ abusive mother, Preciousand her daughter (by her own father) whom she calls “Mongo,” slangfor Mongoloid. (The child has Down Syndrome.) This trilogy of blackfemales suggests a generational aberration
Precious and her mother's relationship in the film particularly highlights the contentious relationship between black women and black girls specifically mothers and daughters
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nd never innocent but always street smart.
Reminds me a lot of Amy from The passage. She seems to be very familiar with the foster care system as she calls out/ notices that there isn't any lady coming to pick her up—the beginning of the adultification of black children.
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Ed Gonzales, of Slant magazine (slantmagazine.com),describes the film as an “impeccably acted piece of trash—an exploita -tion film that shamelessly strokes its audience’s sense of righteous indig-nation” and a film “For The Stuff White People Like” genre.
Gonanzlalez perfectly at some points what precious: exaggerated trauma that seemed never ending when she moved a couple of steps forward something bad would happen two scenes later that seemingly set her back. Honestly, the continuous portrayal of these types of films doesn't bring awareness to anything anymore but just shows the constant torture and suffering of black people.
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beaten by her mother (whohates Precious for “stealing my man”)
this notion of black GIRLS stealing the much older adult men that push predatory advances on them but being spoken to like a grown women for staling someone's "man" shows how the Jezebel has been deeply ingrained into the Black community and is used as a scapegoat for sexual abuse and predatory behavior.
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African American women are often portrayed as hypersexual,materialistic, and amoral
Many men specifically black men accuse black women of being this way when citing reason for disliking black women as romantic partners and as people in generally but the gag is this how black men portray black women in the media that the youth consume and yet they partake in the over sexualization but at the same time in disregard of black women.
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. Historically, whitegirls in popular imagery are the desirable romantic partner, while blackgirls are rarely the desirable romantic partner. Instead, black girls are oftenpositioned as the le fruit interdit, or the exotic dark temptress, the Jezebel
White women are seen as desirable and innocent for essentially not doing anything extraordinary while black women have to fight harder and do more to be seen as. valid love interest and not someone who you can have sex with and dispose. This reminds me of the relationship the doctor and richards have in " The Passage" They only have sex and never talk about their feelings for real and when he is intimatley sleeping next to her Richards is dreaming of the blood sucking white girl demon he created.
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music videos, cinema, and the Internet.
This comment shows how widespread the jezebel narrative is in-our modern media that many black girls are so used to seeing it and consider the over sexualization of themselves as their way to get love and attention. A question then comes to mind that as so many black consume this type of media that portrays women who like them like this , do black girls today truly know what love is and have they seen the proper representation of love?
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she is morelikely than not to be viewed as hypersexed because black women’s virtuehas had no place in the ‘feminine’ mythos of US culture.
essentially black women were not deserving of virtue and innocence.
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“perceived absence of femininity,”
meaning essentially the standard of femininity that white women were use to was something that African women did not adhere as they had their own standards of beauty.
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first, that black women could not be raped, and second,that black men threatened white women’s virtue.”
this idea is till perpetuated today that just by existing in their natural bodies black women are open to ridicule, sexualization, ans harm. By being who god made them to be they were a threat to white women and the white idea of beauty.
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nd the persistent depiction of blackwoman as “sexually lascivious provided an excuse for imagining that theyalways consented.
I think this quote really highlights the idea and the notion that black women, natural bodies are seemingly an invitation for any sexual advancement and being denied of that just seems so shocking to so many people because well they never expect black women to say no.
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black women have historicallyhad to fight the racism battle on two fronts: their humanity and theirfemininity
I think this statement is super powerful in acknowledging the intersectionality that black women sit in when it comes to being black women fighting racism and misogyny on both fronts
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TylerPerry’s Medea characte
I think in most recent time Tyler Perry's Madea character and honestly his movies generally show some of the most problematic portrayals of black women.
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Jezebel role)or the passive and non-sexual mammy character
black woman can only be considered two things - this over sexualized essentially animalistic person who has no self control or the this unattractive who is just there to take care of everybody else and affirm white people decisions
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sought out in forbidden white sexual adventures and fantasies; it is con-structed as a source of white despair and anguish, an anomaly of nature,the essence of vulgarity and immorality
Essentially the beginning of the Jezebel stereotype that we not only see in real life but also in media. Many of the romantic relationships that we see is only related to sex and sexual adventure. Black women this exotic thing they can try once and then dump later. Not as an actual love interest.
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the black body is criminal-ity itself. It is the monstrous;
to justify their mistreatment of black bodies especially the female. The must consider it as other as not even human. Also avoiding their attraction to the black female body by dehumanizing while at the same assaulting it.
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reinforce cultural notions of the superior beauty (milk-whiteskin; straight, flowing hair; small nose and lips; “delicate” facial features)and femininity (weakness, modesty, self-control, compassion, sensitivity,tolerance, fragility, submissiveness, and graceful movements
I find how while using black female bodies for entitlement and ridicule and to further uplift white female body as the standard of beauty for many years later for the black female essentially " coke bottle" body to come back into essentially and everyone seem to want it now just seems so jarring.
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During the years of heightened colonialism (seventeenthto the mid-nineteenth centuries), such ethnographic displays were com-mon throughout Europe and America.
I find this practice not surprising. but the early practice of white people using non white cultures for economic gain and entitlement not considering these cultures sacred or important.
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“Hottentot Venus.
the origins of black girls being over sexualized and what would we describe as the jezebel character/persona .
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