What is considered a slut? Do you have to only be a woman? Does it relate to the term whore? Is it only based on your body count? According to Google Dictionary, a slut is a person who has many casual sexual partners. Taking a further look at the relationship between the term slut and black women in tv shows will give insight on how we have yet to move beyond history.
Recently, I’ve noticed that black women with leading roles in popular tv shows are portrayed as what we may consider a slut or a whore. Shows like Scandal, How To Get Away With Murder, Being MaryJane and Insecure all have main characters that are seen as powerful, yet sexual beings. Each show portrays different forms of being a slut. Each show provides different reasonings as to how the main characters choose to react to life events which leads her into entering the hoe life. In Scandal, Olivia Pope has sex with the President and decided that she wants to continue the affair. In How To Get Away With Murder, Annalise Kenating cheats on her husband and continues the fling once her husband is murdered. In Being MaryJane, MaryJane enters this lifestyle due to several heartbreaks and aging. Insecure is a bit different. In Insecure, Issa Rae presents this lifestyle as a phase due to her unsteady relationship with her boyfriend. It still suggests that this lifestyle is a part of maturing.
Portraying this particular image of black women are diminishing to black bodies for several reasons. This image relates directly to the hypersexuality of black bodies throughout history. White men romanticized black bodies in the past. This fetish with black bodies, particularly with black women, has only expanded to our television screens. These women bodies are flaunted by being seductive and desirable to their multiple sexual partners. Furthermore, it provides false information to the inexperienced. If a person knows nothing about women, specifically black women, one might believe that by watching one of the shows mentioned may be an actual representation of what black women are like- strong, powerful, fun sexual objects. We have done this with men without realizing it. We portray black males as gangsters so much that the world in which we live in has accepted all black males as such. It’s almost as if we’re moving back in time. Black people can’t walk on the street without being harassed or discriminated against and black women bodies are continuously being sexualized. Last but not least, it suggests that powerful women must have multiple sexual partners in order to achieve this power. It’s as simple as black women can’t have their shine or power without some sort of negative aspect that may or may not be hindering her.
Kynnedy, I hear you and agree with you that black women are overly objectified in mass media as sexual objects. The shows that you utilized for examples are where my questions lie. How to Get Away with Murder and Scandal are run by Shonda Rhimes and Insecure by Issa Rae, both black women. I personally watch How to get Away with Murder and think that her power is what is made attractive by Rhimes not her body. There are few instances where you see Keating in skimpy outfits normally associated with the "hoe life." That being said I think these shows are more of sex selling as all of these shows have cult followings as shown by the gatherings on social media to watch with people across the world to watch these shows when they premiere on television and gathering these networks some of their highest ratings every week. Do not get me wrong in the slightest I agree with you black people are overly sexualized, but in this case I do not think this is the case.
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ReplyDeleteI think what's so interesting about these moments you bring up Kynn is that these are shows are coming up in an era when people, especially men, have no sort of understanding of female sexuality. So here we are in the contemporary moment where TV shows are including powerful women who are also having sex, and people are shook. People aren't sure if they're sluts or not, but indeed these women are not sluts. When thinking about the oversexualization of black women, one must first observe and question the role of black women in these sexual dynamics. And, one would see that the key attribute to the oversexualization of black women is the concept of a submissive women. And that's where the key difference lie between a sexual being and an oversexualize body. Like you said, Issa, Olivia, and Analise all have agnecy over their sexual encounters. Issa has her "hoetation", Olivia clearly has the power in her relationship with the president, and Analise... Well we know she is the Queen. Essentially, I agree with you Kynn we are in a society where these characters sexuality are being misunderstood as well their humanity being a respresentation of black women and not a relatable experience.
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