I've been reading something very interesting and have to say I never really thought about it until seeing this blog. It was about an ABC report about how couples were handling the husbands staying at home while the wives go to work. One couple apparently was an BW/WM IR. The stereotype prevailed. The wife was your regular neck-twisting, loud mouthed, overly aggressive, emasculating woman while her husband was timid, no backbone, didn't say much and would jump at his own shadow.
I've seen this image so many times before it hurts. And it's always with a BW/WM couple. When there is a WW/WM couple on tv or in the movies that man will move hell and high water for his woman. In BW/BM shows that man is most of the time promoting himself and looking down on his woman. It's sick and twisted. And just like the above example, in BW/WM relationships on tv the woman is usually a "bitch" while the man acts like a punk.
The commenters to this blog kept asking one question that bugs me now: "how can we fix this problem with the black woman's image in the media?" Personally as I feel everyone is responsible for their selves and their own actions I don't believe it's possible. Think about it, angry black women in media make money, passive black women in media don't. Angry black women are entertaining and get ratings, others don't. I think when black women wake the hell up and realize that they are getting paid to be clowns (just like the black men that are portrayed as no love thugs) maybe they would think about which roles they decide to put out there.
Then again it's all about the money so who knows. I think if we got enough people in the media we could be our own advocates (as in successfully getting a better image out in the media). If we got enough Black Women that really cared about our image and the future image of our daughters we could turn things around. Until then the only real solution is to teach our daughters to be better, and teach their friends to be better (because it takes a village and all that). Our hope lies in future generations. But that's just my opinion.
This blog is inspired by a group of women that have seriously opened my eyes. It is my way of sharing my thoughts on the lives and loves of AA women. I'm hoping to connect with the wonderfully intelligent women of this site to gain insight as to the state of today's AA woman.
"Until then the only real solution is to teach our daughters to be better, and teach their friends to be better (because it takes a village and all that). Our hope lies in future generations." Ditto, but I also I think that we can do a lot right now and pave the way for the future generation. Money talks so the first step is to promote black female media personalities (actresses, producers, directors, authors, musicians etc) and also STOP supporting those who broadcast these negative images of black girls and women i.e. change to another channel when such anti BW programmes are shown and commenting on i.e.amazon, youtube or imdb when a positive movie, documentary of black women are presented. I see a lot of this going on lately.
ReplyDeleteThe theme is support those who support you.
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