Madonna/ Whore Versus Jezebel/ Sapphire/ Mammy

I read a post over at Reggie's blog. He talks about women of questionable repute. Of course Reggie being Reggie he uses much stronger words to describe these women.

What it really boils down to is the good old-fashioned Madonna vs. whore. Which is basically that all women fall into either the Madonna or whore category.

To illustrate his point Reggie mentions women like Amber Rose, Kim Kardashian and the infamous Karrine Steffans. All of whom have questionable reputations by almost anyone's standards.




And although not mentioned in Reggie's post there is the Madonna. I'll use Angela Simmons to represent the Madonna part of this. She is young and beautiful and most importantly has publicly stated that she's a virgin.

Madonna vs. whore on the surface seems to be about women and their behavior. But in truth this has to do with men and them trying to control women.

Karrine Steffans: Jezebel?

The fear of being thought of as a whore has been used to control women from the beginning of humanity. Men have always helped some women become the whore in order to use them as the examples of what a woman should not be. This continues today.

But for African American women this is complicated by a competing set of sexist and racist stereotypes; Jezebel vs. Sapphire.

Jezebel, the bad-black-girl, who is depicted as alluring and seductive as she either indiscriminately mesmerizes men and lures them into her bed, or very deliberately lures into her snares those who have something of value to offer her.

Tyler Perry as Madea: Modern day Sapphire?

Sapphire, the wise-cracking, balls-crushing, emasculating woman, is usually shown with her hands on her hips and her head thrown back as she lets everyone know she is in charge.

So as you can see for Black women not only do we have to deal with Madonna vs. whore but we also have to deal with the Jezebel and Sapphire stereotype. A stereotype began by White men but kept alive by many African Americans including, unfortunately, some Black women. And of course the media.

Oprah: Modern day Mammy?

But where there is the Madonna, for Black women there was also the Mammy stereotype. The Madonna is seen as a woman of high morals who any man would consider wife material. The Mammy stereotype is a racist take on the Madonna image.

According to Freudian psychology, this complex often develops when the sufferer is raised by a cold and distant mother. Such a man will often court women with qualities of his mother, hoping to fulfill a need for intimacy unmet in childhood. Often, the wife begins to be seen as mother to the husband—a "Madonna" figure—and thus not a possible object of sexual attraction.

Mammy is first and foremost asexual, and accordingly, in this society she had to be fat. Most portrayals of Mammy depict her as an "obese African American woman, of dark complexion, with extremely large breasts and buttocks . . . ."


Now add to all of this both old and new words and phrases meant to shame women into falling in line with what men and society want.

"Throughout human history there have been hoochies, easy women, harlots, strumpets, hookers, chickens, molls, floozies, tarts, tramps, trollops, Jezebels, broads, jades, minxes, scarlets, vamps, sluts, jumpoffs, spoogies or the ever popular "hoes"."

Not so amazingly there aren't many words describing sexually promiscuous men.

My point? Men and society will create many ways to try to control women. Some old, some new. As we move into this new century I hope that women will be smarter and not let all of these feeble attempts to control us have the desired effect. Too many generations of women have been subjected to this already.

I also hope that soon we, African Americans, will stop perpetuating these stereotypes for profit. There is way too much of that going on.