Shows like Candy Girls glamorize the stereotyping of black women.
Misogynistic images slap you in the face every time you turn on the television or open a magazine. Pop culture has brought the objectification of women to the mainstream, and it’s especially detrimental to communities of color, which are already so delicate. But this topic is nothing new.
Now it’s 2009, and while there is more diversity in the way black women are depicted, it seems like they’re the ones doing the dirty work.
“Everyone wants to be rich and famous, women fall victim to it as much as men,” said Asha Jennings, a former Spelmanite and one of the driving forces in 2005′s Take Back the Music campaign. “To what bounds will they go to get that has resulted in the phenomenon of exploitation, both ends are willing to go as far as it takes — men will sell out the women, and women will sell themselves out.”
Ciara lets Justin Timberlake put a dog leash around her neck in her new video, former industry girls Carmen Bryant and Karrine Steffans have published books about their sexcapades with famous rappers, and of course, there’s reality TV shows like Candy Girls, which glamorizes the video girl lifestyle.
“Candy Girls depicts a strong black woman (as the agency owner), but at the same time, look at the industry she’s in,” said Rashaun Hall, former online editor at GIANT magazine. “They’re portraying her as a business woman, but (the business) is a form of visual prostitution.”
Which came first?
So what came first, the chicken or the egg? Are we as black women objectifying ourselves or being exploited?
“I think they were being exploited first, when they didn’t have control of their own images and were depicted by black and white men. But now there are women with the opportunity and power to define themselves,” Hall said.
It’s all about money, and the black female sells. Again, nothing new, but some women seem very comfortable with visual prostitution — which makes it worse for everyone. But if there wasn’t money to be made, then they’d stop doing it.
“Sex sells as much as it ever has,” said Smokey Fontaine, head of media company Interactive One. But that sex might be easier to sell when it’s coming from black women.
“I did a video shoot with (singer) Chrisette Michele the other day, and she was talking about all the curvier girls wearing stilettos and tights, and everyone says they’re dressing provocatively. But you take your family to see the Rockettes, and they’re wearing the same thing, kicking their legs and it’s an American pastime,” Fontaine said.
“Women of color by nature are taken to be more sexual … so there’s an inequity in terms of perception.”
Regardless of what came first, we’re all to blame. And some images can’t be written off as a double standard.
Music executives would stop producing certain types of songs and videos if we weren’t dancing to them, if there weren’t 50,000 girls auditioning to be in them, if the radio stations stopped playing them, and if artists opted for a bit more creativity than the cliche poppin’ bottles party scene.
“I never want to take responsibility off the woman to take control of who she is,” Jennings said. “But we can’t deny that video directors and producers have more power, mental power than we acknowledge.”
The link to hip-hop
Hip-hop has been publicly criticized over the past few years because of its degradation of black women. In 2005, students from Spelman College threatened to protest rapper Nelly’s visit to their campus due to the graphic images in his video, Tip Drill. ESSENCE magazine jumped on board. Its Take Back the Music campaign was meant to create dialogue around the issue and to find a solution.
“One thing that was always mistaken about our movement, which was probably the direct result of how it started, is (the idea) that we were blaming one part of the problem for the entire problem,” Jennings said.
Well, the conversation might have helped, but it certainly didn’t solve much, because two years later, radio disc jockey Don Imus called the Rutgers women’s basketball team a bunch of “nappy-headed hos,” and hip-hop was blamed for his racially-charged comment.
And thus, the dialogue began again: hip-hop degrades black women and is detrimental to the black community.
The number of black women rushing to participate in negatively portraying us in any form of media speaks more about a lack of education and self-esteem than the quest for fame, which is why boosting the self-esteem of young girls is important in ending the cycle.
“We have to teach kids to say ‘no’ whether it’s (Young) Jeezy or the man on the corner,” Jennings said. “I think you have to work on both sides of the perspective.”
Fontaine, whose company owns GIANT Magazine, NewsOne and Black Planet has noticed more dialogue around this issue, which could lead to better choices going forward.
“I think there’s a movement among young women to think about and talk about what it means to objectify themselves … it strips it of its fantasy and fascination,” Fontaine said. “Ownership of our images is progress…. We’ll never be able to mandate what’s too much, it’s always going to ebb and flow.”
One win is the folding of KING magazine, known for its half-naked, booty-accentuated pictorials.
“Maybe there aren’t enough black women willing to (pose), maybe there aren’t enough people willing to advertise in those magazines,” Hall said.
Maybe. Or maybe it’s simply because those same provocative images can be found on the Internet — for free. Which brings me right back to where I started.
Crystal P. Smith is TheLoop21.com’s editor. She writes the Inside the Loop and Across the Afrosphere blogs.
