Racial stereotypes

So... For my first year women's studies class I wrote a final research essay on the racial stereotypes and disadvantages that happen to black women. The most common stereotypes are the mammy, the Jezebel and the Sapphire. The mammy is the fat ,unattractive, asexual housemother who took care of the home and children of their white master while neglecting their own. A popular image of a mammy would be Aunt Jemima , wearing a rag atop the head and always cooking good food. A Jezebel is a hypersexualized woman who always was hopping from different men's beds, or stealing other women's men. An example of this would be like Thandie Newton's character , Tangie, in For Colored Girls. Lastly , a Sapphire is a woman who is very sassy and emasculated the men around her with verbal put downs. An example of this is Tichina Arnold's character Pam in Martin Lawrence's Martin. She continually teased him about him lack of height and his big ears. With images like these in the media, young black women did not have a positive image to emulate, and non blacks don't see any other images so they assume that all black people ate like that.

The Cosby Show introduced a change in the overall image of black people, showing a positive image of black people being doctors and lawyers. I know that I really enjoy watching reruns of this show, and growing up it gave me a positive image to try to live up to. The Cosby Show paved the way for other awesome programing showing black people in a positive light like, Girlfriends and the Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

The only way to fix stereotyping in media is to stop supporting it. If you notice that there is stereotyping ,tokenism or typecasting, stop watching the show ! If you stop watching and explain to others why and get them to do the same, ratings will go down and the producers and networks will have no choice but to correct they way they portray people on their shows.

Superficial

Today while in psych lecture, a friend of mine started talking about penis sizes. I was teasing her about marrying a certain in school politician , then she commented that she could never marry him because of his lack of genitalia. What do you think? She says that he is a really nice guy... Shouldn't that be enough? This particular friend has dealt with different ends of the spectrum. Jerky assholes who are packing to a nice social guy who isn't that good in bed or have a nice bod. Do these superficial things matter in the long run? A good husband shouldn't only be all about the physical right? He should be a caring person who is hardworking and loving.

Rain , Rain, Go Away

Rain, rain, go away, come again another day! Today it is raining, and when it rains, I feel really sad and lazy. I feel like curling up and watching a movie with friends, and thats exactly what I'm gonna do later. But first I have to go downtown to do groceries with my friend, and possibly buy new shoes to go with my new purple dress for Mardi Gras. I asked a whole bunch of people what colour shoe would go best, and majority ruled silver or black. This is the dress:

I have gotten positive reviews so far, and I hope the night that I wear it will go swell. Planning for this night is making this rain day feel a little more bright.

Happy March!

Yeah! Today is March! I am taking a break from doing my bio lab report, so I will talk about March. As any "normal" person knows, March is the third month of the year, and one of the seven month that has 31 days. The name of March originates from the ancient Rome, when March was the first month, and named Martius after Mars. The Roman god of war that is, not the planet, because the planet was named after the god. March starts on the same day of the week as November every year and February in common years only , like this year. March ends on the same day of the week as June every year. March is Women's History month, International Women's Day is on March 8th. Unfortunately Easter does not fall in March this year, but in April : ( The First day of spring is March 21, but I hope we get spring weather before then. I know quite a few people who have birthdays in March, so I will tell you that March has two birthstones, aquamarine and bloodstone . Their birth flower is the Daffodil.
Celeb Birthdays:
Today-March 1: Justin Beiber turns 17, Ke$ha(24),Alan Thicke(64)
March 2: Daniel Craig
March 3: Jessica Biel
March 4: Chaz Bono
March 5: Sterling Knight, Eva Mendes
March 6 : Shaquille O'Neal, D.L Hughley
March 9 : Bow Wow
March 10: Emily Osment, Carrie Underwood, Timbaland, Jasmine Guy, Chuck Norris
March 11: Benji and Joel Madden, LaToya Luckett
March 15: Eva Longoria, Will.i.am
March 16: Flavor Flav
March 18: Vanessa A. Williams, Dane Cook, Queen Latifah
March 19 : Glenn Close, Bruce Willis
March 20: Christy Carlson Romano, Spike Lee
March 21 : Rosie O'Donnell, Matthew Broderick
March 22 : Reese Witherspoon, Elvis Stojko, William Shatner
March 23 : Chaka Khan
March 25: Sarah Jessica Parker, Elton John, Aretha Franklin
March 26: Diana Ross, Kiera Knightley
March 27 : Mariah Carey, Brenda Song, Fergie
March 28 : Lady Gaga, Vince Vaughn, Reba McEntire
March 29: Lucy Lawless, Elle Macpherson
March 30: Celine Dion, Ian Ziering , Piers Morgan, M.C Hammer, Norah Jones

February is Black History Month

Why is it that February is Black History month and no one even aknowledges it? When you say February, the first thing that pops into people's minds is Valentines Day. I have nothing against V-Day, but that is exactly it...a DAY. One day out of 28/29 days. But everyone seems to forget to celebrate Black History MONTH, the one time a year that we should be reminded how a set of people overcame hardships and broke free. Teach people to become aware of the acheivements that Black people have done. Not only stuff that has happened a lifetime ago either, but in our own life time. Like Barack Obama becoming president of the Free World, Toni Morrison being awarded a Nobel Prize in Literature becoming the first African-American to win the highest literary honor in the world in 1993. Or in 2002, Halle Berry and Denzel Washington win Academy Awards for best actress in "Monster's Ball" and best actor in "Training Day" respectively. Tyler Perry has his own studio and makes some of the best plays and films. now there is more and more young black people coming out into the scene, and I like to keep up with it by going on a Black Celebrity Kids website.Black Celebrity Kids

I know quite a few people who told me that they don't celebrate this month or take a black/African studies class because it is only a bunch of other black people and no diversity. But how can we expect for other races and cultures to learn about us if we don't even want to learn about our own history?