Gender, Race, and Media Representation

Home , Ethnic media, John Fiske (philosopher), Ling Woo, Olive skin

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GENDER, RACE, AND MEDIA REPRESENTATION

Dwight E. Brooks and Lisa P. Hébert

n our consumption-oriented, mediated society, much of what comes I to pass as important is based often on the stories produced and dis- seminated by media institutions. Much of what audiences know and care about is based on the images, symbols, and narratives in radio, television, film, music, and other media. How individuals construct their social identities, how they come to understand what it means to be male, female, black, white, Asian, Latino, Native American—even rural or urban—is shaped by commodified texts produced by media for audiences that are increasingly segmented by the social constructions of race and gender. Media, in short, are central to what ultimately come to represent our social realities. While sex differences are rooted in biology, how we come to understand and perform gender is based on culture.1 We view culture “as a process through which people circulate and struggle over the meanings of our social experiences, social relations, and therefore, our selves” (Byers & Dell, 1992, p. 191). Just as gender is a social construct through which a society defines what it means to be masculine or feminine, race also is a social construction. Race can no longer be seen as a biological category, and it has little basis in science or genetics. Identifiers such as hair and skin color serve as imperfect indicators of race. The racial categories we use to differentiate human difference have been created and changed to meet the dynamic social, political, and economic needs of our society. The premise

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that race and gender are social constructions and democratic societies. Cultural studies underscores their centrality to the processes scholars have devoted considerable atten- of human reality. Working from it compels tion to studies of media audiences, institu- us to understand the complex roles played tions, technologies, and texts. This chapter by social institutions such as the media privileges textual analyses of media that in shaping our increasingly gendered and explicate power relationships and the con- racialized media culture. This chapter struction of meaning about gender and explores some of the ways mediated com- race and their intersections (Byers & Dell, munication in the United States represents 1992). In addition, we draw considerably the social constructions of race and gender from research employing various feminist and ultimately contributes to our under- frameworks. Generally, our critical review standing of both, especially race.2 of literature from the past two decades Although research on race, gender, and demonstrates the disruption of essentialist media traditionally has focused on under- constructions of gender, race, and sexual represented, subordinate groups such as identities. women and minorities, this chapter dis- cusses scholarship on media representations of both genders and various racial groups. Therefore, we examine media constructions ♦ Black Feminist Perspectives of masculinity, femininity, so-called people and Media Representations of color, and even white people.3 On the of Black Women other hand, given the limitations of this chapter and the fact that media research on race has focused on African Americans, we A feminist critique is rooted in the struggle devote greater attention to blacks but not to end sexist oppression. We employ femi- at the exclusion of the emerging saliency nism as a multidisciplinary approach to of whiteness studies, which acknowledge social analysis that emphasizes gender as a whiteness as a social category and seek to major structuring component of power expose and explain white privilege.4 relations in society. We believe media are Our theoretical and conceptual orienta- crucial in the construction and dissemina- tion encompasses research that is com- tion of gender ideologies and, thus, in gender monly referred to as “critical/cultural socialization. We acknowledge feminism studies.” Numerous theoretical approaches and feminist media studies’ tendency to have been used to examine issues of race, privilege gender and white women, in par- gender, and media, but we contend that ticular, over other social categories of expe- critical/cultural studies represent the most rience, such as race and class (hooks, 1990; salient contemporary thinking on media Dines, 1995; Dines & Humez, 2003). Black and culture. More important, unlike most feminist scholars have acknowledged the social and behavioral scientific research, neglect which women of color, specifically most critical and cultural approaches to black women, have experienced through media studies work from the premise that their selective inclusion in the writings Western industrialized societies are strati- of feminist cultural analysis (hooks, 1990; fied by hierarchies of race, gender, and Bobo & Seiter, 1991; Valdivia, 1995). class that structure our social experience. Black feminism positions itself as critical Moreover, cultural studies utilizes inter- social theory (Hill Collins, 2004) and is not disciplinary approaches necessary for a set of abstract principles but of ideas that understanding both the media’s role in the come directly from the historical and con- production and reproduction of inequity temporary experience of black women. It and for the development of more equitable is from this perspective that we begin our 16-Dow-4973.qxd 6/11/2006 1:42 PM Page 299

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discussion of black female representation in Queen fell in line with “traditional stereo- the media. typing of other bi-ethnic characters as beau- Much contemporary academic writing tiful, yet threatening, inherently problematic, has criticized mainstream media for their and destined for insanity” (p. 117). Larson’s negative depictions of African American (1994) study of black women on the soap women (Bobo, 1995; Hill Collins, 2000, opera All My Children found the show con- 2004; hooks, 1992; Lubiano, 1992; sistently embraced the matriarch stereotype. Manatu, 2003; McPhail, 1996; Perry, In fact, the image of the black woman as 2003). Challenging media portrayals of oversexed fantasy object, dominating matri- black women as mammies, matriarchs, arch, and nonthreatening, desexualized jezebels, welfare mothers, and tragic mulat- mammy figure remains the most persistent in toes is a core theme in black feminist thought. the media (Edwards, 1993). Author bell hooks (1992) contends that Black feminist thought also challenges the black female representation in the media way some media outlets run by black men “determines how blackness and people are engage in misogynistic depictions of black seen and how other groups will respond to women. Burks (1996) notices the saliency us based on their relation to these con- of hooks’s phrase, “white supremacist capi- structed images” (p. 5). Hudson (1998) and talist patriarchy,” in many black independent Hill Collins (2000, 2004) both advance the films. She explains that “black independent notion that media images of black women cinema is not necessarily free of the dominant result from dominant racial, gender, and white, male, heterosexual hegemony that has class ideologies. Furthering hooks’s discus- succeeded, at one point or another, in colo- sion of representation, Hudson (1998) nizing us all” (p. 26). Several cultural critics argues that “these stereotypes simultane- have focused their studies of black female ously reflect and distort both the ways in representation on majority-produced and which black women view themselves (indi- directed Hollywood films (Bobo, 1995; vidually and collectively) and the ways in Bogle, 2001; Holtzman, 2000; hooks, 1992, which they are viewed by others” (p. 249). 1994). Many other media scholars have The study of black female representation is focused their analyses on the way black film- informed by whiteness studies and, accord- makers depict black femininity, as part of a ing to Dyer (1997), “the only way to see trend that Burks (1996) argues leaves main- the structures, tropes, and perceptual habits stream (white) Hollywood producers free to of whiteness, is when nonwhite (and above construct the black female image in any way all, black) people are also represented” they like and to reach a larger viewing audi- (p. 13). ence in the process. Scholars have studied black female repre- Black female scholars Wallace (1990) sentation in a variety of media contexts. and hooks (1993) both have written exten- Meyers (2004) used discourse analysis to sively on the work of black writer/director examine the representation of violence against Spike Lee’s portrayal of black women. African American women in local TV news Hooks contends that while Lee is coverage during “Freaknik,” a spring break ritual held in Atlanta, Georgia, throughout uncompromising in his commitment to the 1990s. Her study concluded that the create images of black males that chal- news “portrayed most of its victims as lenge perceptions and bring issues of stereotypic Jezebels whose lewd behavior racism to the screen, he conforms to the provoked assault” (p. 95). Orbe and status quo when it comes to images of Strother’s (1996) semiotic analysis of the females. Sexism is the familiar construc- biracial title character in Queen, Alex tion that links his films to all the other Haley’s miniseries, demonstrated how Hollywood dramas folks see. (p. 14) 16-Dow-4973.qxd 6/11/2006 1:42 PM Page 300

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McPhail (1996) continues hooks’s argument representation of racial difference, it was and argues that Lee’s films “subscribe to oblivious to the ways gender and class inflect essentialist conceptions of race and gender race (Byers & Dell, 1992). that reify the same ideological and epistemo- Much academic writing has focused on logical assumptions that undermine both historically situated negative portrayals of the representation of race and gender in black women, and the most recent theoreti- mainstream media” (p. 127). According to cal trend in black feminist media scholarship our (Brooks & Hébert, 2004) study of Lee’s is the representation of black female sexual- Bamboozled, he creates female characters ity in the media (Hill Collins, 2004; Manatu, who become defined by the men in their lives. 2003; Perry, 2003). Sexuality is not dis- We claim that although his films fight to cussed in reference to sexual orientation but challenge racist frameworks within the mass to how popular culture has commodified media and society, they simultaneously per- the black female body as hypersexed. Some petuate sexist norms as they relate to black theorists (Guerrero, 1993; Iverem, 1997; womanhood. Although Spike Lee is not the Manatu, 2003) contend that black women only black male filmmaker who perpetuates are portrayed only as sexual beings and negative representations of women, he has not as romantic characters, as indicated by garnered the most attention by cultural crit- Halle Berry’s Oscar-winning performance ics. This is an area of study that requires addi- in Monster’s Ball. It has been argued that tional work, as African American filmmakers she played an oversexed jezebel and tragic are moving from the margins of independent mulatto at the same time (Hill Collins). films to the center of multibillion dollar stu- Others assert that the habitual construction dios and networks that are run by heterosex- of a subversive woman’s sexual image may ual white males, thus potentially contributing come to define women culturally (Kennedy, to black women’s oppression. 1992; Nelson, 1997). Prime time television has tended to While the black jezebel mythos is not confine black female roles to white models new to film and television studies, it has of “good wives” and to black matriarchal found a home in music videos. Much as stereotypes. Byers and Dell’s (1992) analysis black music of the 1950s was repurposed of characterization in the CBS workplace by the industry as a new category called ensemble Frank’s Place demonstrates that it rock and roll, and made its way into subur- was no exception to this trend. Their study ban white homes, popular culture today provides an excellent example of a feminist “draws heavily from the cultural produc- textual analysis of the intersection of race tion and styles of urban Black youth” (Hill and gender from a cultural studies perspec- Collins, 2004, p. 122). It is within this tive. Despite drawing inspiration from the black cultural production, reworked situation comedy’s association with the fem- through the prism of social class, “that the inine, the series worked from a distinctly sexualized Black woman has become an masculine perspective. Although Frank’s icon in hip-hop culture” (p. 126). A theory Place presented a fairly wide range of repre- of the body and of how black women are sentations of African American men, it objectified as sexual commodities fuels this provided a much narrower range of repre- debate that has become popular in acade- sentations of African American women. The mic circles. Within this context three pri- attention it gave to inequities in skin color mary research interests have emerged: the and class was rarely afforded to its female objectification of black women’s bodies for characters. Instead, feminine beauty was the voyeuristic pleasure of men (Hill related to light skin, straight hair, thinness, Collins, 2004; hooks, 1994; Jones, 1994); relative youthfulness, and middle-class sta- the impact of sexual representation and tus. Despite the show’s conscious attempt ideal Westernized body images on young to illustrate the social ramifications of the black females (Perry, 2003); and black 16-Dow-4973.qxd 6/11/2006 1:42 PM Page 301

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female sexuality as a symbol of agency sexualizing racial difference, and thus (Gaunt, 1995; Hill Collins, 2004; Rose, constructing its others as sites of savage 1994). sexuality” (p. 45). The objectification of black women’s In line with theories of the body that say bodies in hip-hop music videos, according the mass media promotes images of “an to Jones (1994), is particularly disturbing ideal body type,” Perry (2003) explains that because these videos are produced primar- the messages these videos send to young ily by black men. Edwards (1993) argues women about their bodies are harmful. that music videos play into male sexual She argues that “the beauty ideal for black fantasies and that the notion of the black women presented in these videos is as woman as a sex object or whore is always impossible to achieve as the waif-thin placed in opposition to the image of black models in Vogue magazine are for White woman as mammy. Hooks (1994) warns women” (p. 138). In addition to the black that while feminist critiques of the misog- body ideal of large breasts, thin waist and yny in rap music must continue and that round buttocks presented in videos, many black males should be held accountable for of the black women featured depict a their sexism, the critique must be contextu- Westernized beauty ideal of lighter skin, alized. She continues: long hair, and blue or green eyes. Edwards (1993) takes the concept of a beauty ideal Without a doubt black males, young one step further and contends that the black and old, must be held politically account- women featured in music videos exem- able for their sexism. Yet this critique plify physical characteristics of the tragic must always be contextualized or we risk mulatto. According to hooks (1994), racist making it appear that the problems of and sexist thinking informs the way color- misogyny, sexism, and all the behaviors caste hierarchies affect black females. She this thinking supports and condones, contends: including rape, male violence against women, is a black male thing. (p. 116) Light skin and long, straight hair continue to be traits that define a female as Most academic writing on this subject beautiful and desirable in the racist white focuses on black men’s portrayals of black imagination and in the colonized black women, but we argue that the music videos mindset. . . . Stereotypically portrayed as of hip-hop artists who are not black follow embodying a passionate, sensual eroti- a similar misogynist formula in which cism, as well as a subordinate feminine scantily clad women surround the artist in nature, the biracial woman has been and a poolside, hot tub, or nightclub setting. remains the standard other black females Latino artists Fat Joe and Geraldo (other- are measured against.” (p. 179) wise known as Rico Suave), and white artists Justin Timberlake and Vanilla Ice all The other side of this discussion about neg- fall into this category, substituting Latina ative sexual imagery concerns black female and white women’s bodies for black ones. sexual agency. Hill Collins (2004) notes This discussion becomes more salient as that many African American women rap- white-centered visual music outlets such as pers “identify female sexuality as part of MTV and VH-1 dedicate more program- women’s freedom and independence” ming time to hip-hop culture and create late (p. 127), maintaining that being sexually night programs designed to show so-called open does not make a woman a tramp or a uncut and uncensored videos that make “ho,” which is a common term placed upon clear references to the culture of strip clubs women in hip-hop. Rose (1994) demands and pornography. As Fiske (1996) con- a more multifaceted analysis of black tends, “Whiteness is particularly adept at women’s identity and sexuality within rap 16-Dow-4973.qxd 6/11/2006 1:42 PM Page 302

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music, while Perry (2003) asserts that any concerned with otherness. The global other, power granted to female rappers based in media terms, is always paired with the upon their being labeled attractive in con- West as its binary companion (Furguson, ventional ways limits the feminist potential 1998). Shome (1996) explains that when of their music. whiteness is comfortable in its hegemony, it constructs the other as strange or different and itself as the norm. Drawing from Said’s MULTICULTURAL FEMINIST study of Orientalism, Heung (1995) says, PERSPECTIVES AND MEDIA “The power of the colonizer is fundamen- REPRESENTATIONS OF tally constituted by the power to speak for ASIAN, LATINA, AND and to represent” (p. 83). Furthering the NATIVE AMERICAN WOMEN discussion of an East/West binary, the West is portrayed in the media as active and mas- Acknowledging Valdivia’s (1995) asser- culine while the East is passive and feminine tion that feminist work has focused on white (Wilkinson, 1990). women as ethnic and race studies have Though the number of female Asian focused primarily on African Americans, we characters represented in the media, espe- seek to include other “women of color” in cially television, is miniscule, the way they our analysis of stereotypic female represen- are portrayed in the media is crucial tation. As we stated in the beginning of this because stereotypes of underrepresented chapter, our analysis relies primarily on people produce socialization in audiences black women, as that is where the majority that unconsciously take this misinforma- of scholarship on race, gender, and the tion as truth (Heung, 1995; Holtzman, media focuses. However, we agree with Hill 2000). Thus, the portrayal of Ling Woo, Collins (2004) that many of the arguments Lucy Liu’s character in the television series made previously about black women also Ally McBeal, garnered much scholarly apply to women from India, Latin America, attention. Although Woo breaks the sub- Puerto Rico, and Asia, “albeit through the missive china doll stereotype, she is the epit- historical specificity of their distinctive ome of the stereotypical dragon lady when group histories” (p. 12). she growls like an animal or enters a scene Asian women and Latinas are often por- to music associated with the Wicked Witch trayed in the media as the exotic, sexualized of the West in The Wizard of Oz (Sun, “other as well. According to Tajima (1989), 2003). She is knowledgeable in the art of “Asian women in film are either passive sexual pleasure, which is unknown to her figures who exist to serve men as love inter- Westernized law firm colleagues, with ests for White men (lotus blossom) or as a the exception of Richard Fish, her white partner in crime of men of their own kind boyfriend who experiences it first hand. (dragon ladies)” (p. 309). Pursuing this lotus Patton (2001) explains that the Woo char- blossom/dragon lady dichotomy, Hagedorn acter is particularly detrimental to Asian (1997) argues that most Hollywood movies and Asian American women not because either trivialize or exoticize Asian women: the oversexed seductress reifies existing “If we are ‘good,’ we are childlike, submis- stereotypes, but because “she is the only sive, silent and eager for sex. And if we are representative of Asian women on televi- not silent, suffering doormats, we are demo- sion (besides news anchors and reporters), nized . . . cunning, deceitful, sexual provo- leaving no one else to counteract this pro- cateurs” (pp. 33–34). minent mediated stereotype” (p. 252). Much academic writing surrounding While it is difficult to propose more Asian female representation in the media work on Asian female representation when is steeped in postcolonial theory and the number of females in the media are Orientalist discourse, both of which are sparse, an obvious place to begin would be 16-Dow-4973.qxd 6/11/2006 1:42 PM Page 303

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to look into production studies to find out Hill Collins (2004) calls this color-blind what producers are looking for in casting racism and explains that the significance an Asian female. Can she not play a detec- attached to skin color, especially for tive or attorney on one of the three Law women, is changing. She argues that “in and Order series? Can she be a strong and response to the growing visibility of bira- funny mom on an Asian American sitcom? cial, multiracial, Latino, Asian, and racially And is she just as discontented with her ambiguous Americans, skin color no longer suburban life as white women such that serves as a definitive mark of racial catego- she could be considered for Desperate rization” (p. 194). This notion of hybridity Housewives? That popular program has a or Latinidad, defined as the state and Latina and has added an African American process of being, becoming, or appearing character for the fall 2006 season, but it Latino/a (Martinez, 2004; Molina Guzmán features no Asian women as of this writing. & Valdivia, 2004; Rojas, 2004), is gaining Although most of the academic litera- scholarly attention. However, as a social ture regarding black and Asian media rep- construct it lends itself to an essentialist resentation focuses on historically situated group identity, instead of acknowledging stereotypes, this does not hold true for difference between Dominicans, Mexicans, Latinas. While there has been some refer- Cubans, and Puerto Ricans, all of whom ence to Latinas being portrayed as exotic epitomize Latinidad (Estill, 2000). seductresses (Holtzman, 2000), as tacky Latinas are also finding a place within and overly emotional (Valdivia, 1995), and the music world and, as with black women, as the hypersexualized spitfire (Molina their sex appeal is played up heavily in Guzmán & Valdivia, 2004), the majority their music videos. Shakira and Jennifer of literature on Latino/a representation has Lopez are some of the most visible who focused on men. Jennifer Lopez has made have enjoyed music/acting crossover fame. her mark in Hollywood, but her films have One of the most common tropes surround- both reified stereotypes of Latinas as ing these and other mediated Latina hyper- domestic workers (Maid in America, 2003) sexualized bodies within popular culture is and broken them when she has played tropicalism (Aparicio & Chavez-Silverman, roles that are not ethnically marked (The 1997; Martinez, 2004). According to Molina Wedding Planner, 2001; Gigli, 2003; Guzmán & Valdivia (2004), bright colors, Monster in Law, 2005). In these roles, how- rhythmic music, and olive skin fall under ever, Lopez is always paired with a white the trope of tropicalism, and sexuality plays male love interest and, because she rarely a central role. Dominant representations of plays characters true to her ethnicity Latinas in music videos place emphasis on (except of course when she played a maid, the breasts, hips, and buttocks (Gilman, a role that emphasized it), she becomes an 1985; Molina Guzmán & Valdivia, 2004; assimilated character who does nothing to Negrón-Muntaner, 1991). Desmond (1997) negate Latina stereotypes. Molina Guzmán calls the Latina body “an urbane corporeal and Valdivia assert that Lopez is most often site with sexualized overdetermination” (as allowed to perform whiteness, which ren- cited in Molina Guzmán & Valdivia, 2004, ders her seemingly raceless and cultureless. p. 211). García Canclini (1995) contends that While not enough academic research is “the contemporary experience of Latinas, conducted on Native American media rep- which also holds true of other populations resentation, we would be remiss if we did shaped by colonialism, globalization, and not mention two studies that examine how transnationalism, is informed by the com- Native American women are portrayed. plex dynamics of hybridity as a cultural Portman and Herring (2001) discuss the practice and expression” (as cited in “Pocahontas paradox,” a historical move- Molina Guzmán & Valdivia, 2004, p. 214). ment that persists in romanticizing and 16-Dow-4973.qxd 6/11/2006 1:42 PM Page 304

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vilifying Native American women. They “masculinities” to reinforce the notion that argue that Native American women are ideals of manhood vary by race and class viewed in the media as either strong and across time and cultural contexts (Dines powerful or beautiful, exotic, and lustful & Humez, 2003, p. 733). Cultural studies’ and that both images have merged together focus on white masculinity as the invisible into one representation through the stereo- norm, and (to a lesser extent) on black men type of Pocahontas. While Ono and and black masculinity as deviant, works Buescher’s (2001) study on Pocahontas to reinforce the conception that black is examines the commodification of products the trope for race (Nakayama, 1994). Yet and cultural discourses surrounding the another intellectual movement inadver- popular Disney film, they also assert that tently may have contributed to this notion. new meanings have been ascribed to the ani- mated figure, thus recasting the Native American woman in a Western, capitalist CRITICAL RACE THEORY AND frame (p. 25). Ultimately, Pocahantas is no MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS OF more than a sexualized Native American BLACK MEN AND BLACK Barbie. Both Portman and Herring (2001) MASCULINITIES and Ono and Buescher (2001) agree that the Pocahontas mythos is particularly harmful Critical Race Theory (CRT) emerged to Native women because of the way this from critical legal studies in the 1970s as an historical figure has been exoticized by intellectual response to the slow pace of media discourses that emphasize her rela- racial reform in the United States. CRT tionship with her white lover, John Smith. places race at the center of critical analysis and traces its origins to the legal scholarship of Derrick Bell, Richard Delgado, and MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS OF Kimberlé Crenshaw, who challenged the RACIALIZED MASCULINITIES philosophical tradition of the liberal civil rights color-blind approach to social justice. Research on gender and media tradition- A central premise of CRT is that racism is ally has focused on questions about women an ordinary fact of American life. Although (and has been conducted primarily by CRT occasionally probes beyond the black- women). In fact, as noted above, the focus white binary of race, it privileges African on gender in media studies has come mainly American experiences. Much of the critical from feminists. However, in recent decades edge in critical race studies is provided by the study of gender has expanded to include a combination of legal, feminist, multicul- studies on men and masculinities (Connell, tural, social, political, economic, and philo- Hearn, & Kimmel, 2005). Feminist schol- sophical perspectives (Delgado & Stefancic, arship also has produced a proliferation 1999). Despite CRT’s focus on legal studies of whiteness studies that include increased and policy, we would expect that the field’s research on white masculinity and, to a search for new ways of thinking about race, lesser extent, white womanhood. This work the nation’s most enduring social problem, interrogates gender identities and perfor- eventually would include media. Unfortu- mances while exploring how masculine nately, media studies scholars have not forms relate to patriarchal systems. Mas- consciously employed CRT and few criti- culinity is defined broadly as “the set of cal race theorists have devoted detailed images, values, interests, and activities held attention to media institutions and their important to a successful achievement of representations.5 male adulthood” (Jeffords, 1989, quoted Herman Gray’s (1995, 1989) work in Ashcraft & Flores, 2000, p. 3). We agree shares many of the assumptions of CRT. with calls to refer to these gender roles as His ideological analysis (1986) of black 16-Dow-4973.qxd 6/11/2006 1:42 PM Page 305

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male representations in prime time situation construction of black masculinity that is comedies argues that television’s idealiza- neither “tokenistic nor predictable” (p. 223). tion of racial harmony, affluence, and indi- Conversely, Clockers demonstrates the fail- vidual mobility is not within the grasp of ure of the white male homicide detective millions of African Americans. In the (Rocco Klein) to develop an in-depth under- 1983–84 television season, four programs— standing of African American life mainly Benson, Webster, Different Strokes and The because of his insistence on performing as a Jeffersons, provided an assimilationist view tough cop who resorts to “a desperate use of racial interaction that emphasized indi- of physical violence, racism, and tough talk vidualism, racial invisibility, and perhaps in order to reassure himself of his unshak- most important, middle-class success. The able masculinity” (p. 225). Nevertheless, ideological function of these representations MacDonald claims that collectively these worked to support the contention that in texts teach viewers that masculinity is a com- the context of current political, economic plex idea that coexists with various other and cultural arrangements, all individuals— complex ideas such as class and race and regardless of color (and gender)—can that these complexities are increasing being achieve the American dream. On the other portrayed in media culture. hand, such representations subsist in the Byers and Dell (1992), in their study of absence of significant change in the overall representations of masculinity and feminin- status of African Americans in the United ity across numerous characters in Frank’s States (Gray, 1986). Place, argue that its most important contri- In an article on another genre of prime bution to television programming in partic- time television, the so-called real life crime ular and American culture in general was series (formerly labeled as “reality” crime the construction of new ways of represent- shows), Hogrobrooks (1993) argues that this ing African Americans. Byers and Dell con- type of programming contributed to the “den- textualize these constructions of masculinity igration and dehumanization” of African of race in Frank’s Place in the historical rep- American males (p. 165). Hogrobrooks resentations of African American males, quotes a news director who acknowledged where racial and gender hierarchies function that “young black men—the unwitting to reinforce each other. Such imagery can be ‘media darlings’ of the explosion of traced to slavery when black manhood America’s ‘real-life, prime time crime’ could not be realized or maintained because programs—are, in reality, victims of char- of the slave’s inability to protect black acter assassination by a greedy television women in the same fashion that “conven- industry, hungry for higher and higher tion dictated that inviolability of the body of ratings” (p. 167). the White woman” (Carby, 1987, quoted in MacDonald’s (2004) analysis of depic- Byers & Dell, p. 196). Further, the historical tions of homicide detectives in television and images of the shuffling Uncle Tom, the ani- film represents the more recent focus in malistic savage (positioned as a threat to media studies on masculinity and race. white women), and the childlike Sambo Specifically, she illustrates the ways in which function to exclude black men from the cat- both the police drama Homicide: Life on the egory of “true men.” Street and Spike Lee’s film Clockers high- Unlike the “new black male” constructed light the struggle of various men to come in Gray’s analysis of 1980s sitcoms, Frank’s to terms with their own masculinities. Place made the struggle over race and gen- MacDonald argues that these texts offer der highly visible. The lead character, Frank “new potential” for men of different races Parish, propelled the series to simultane- to reject traditional stereotypes of masculin- ously confront African American male ity (p. 221). She commends Homicide’s two stereotypes and to participate in the con- black male detectives for offering a cultural struction of the “new man” (Byers & Dell, 16-Dow-4973.qxd 6/11/2006 1:42 PM Page 306

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1992, p. 196). Despite the absence of the The lower-class, sexually impotent Uncle Tom stereotype, Frank reinforces the White man in Hustler cartoons is, thus, caricature of the ignorant, ineffectual not an object of identification, but rather Sambo, while his education and drive chal- of ridicule, and serves as a pitiful lenge this stereotype. Frank’s character also reminder of what could happen if White invoked the image of the sexually aggressive men fail to assert their masculinity and black male without representing a threat allow the black man to roam the streets to white women. Perhaps most important, and bedrooms of White society. (Dines, by displaying “feminine” attributes such 2003, p. 459) as nonaggressive behavior and sensitivity, Frank—like many white male characters— Dines points out that although racial cod- challenged essentialist, macho notions of ings of masculinity may shift depending on masculinity. Ultimately, Frank functioned as socioeconomic conditions, black masculin- a site for the interplay of characteristics tra- ity continues to be constructed as deviant. ditionally defined as masculine and feminine Orbe’s (1998) semiotic analysis of black and offered a way to envision a new black masculinity on MTV’s The Real World masculinity. In this sense, Frank’s Place— focuses on the imagery and signification and to a lesser extent, Homicide: Life on the processes surrounding three black males Street—appears to be exceptions to most featured throughout the six seasons in media portrayals of black masculinity. the so-called reality (unscripted) series. The Dines (2003) focuses on the image of the images of the three black men work to sig- black man as a sexual spoiler of white wom- nify all black men as inherently angry, anhood in cartoons in Hustler—a hard-core potentially violent, and sexually aggressive. porn magazine. She locates such depictions Orbe argues that when such images are pre- within “a much larger regime of racial represented as real life they function to reinforce sentation, beginning with The Birth of a the justification of a general societal fear Nation and continuing with Willie Horton, of black men (p. 35). He also argues that which makes the black man’s supposed sex- what is notably absent from the six seasons ual misconduct a metaphor for the inferior are any considerable representations that nature of the black ‘race’ as a whole” (Dines, “signify Black masculinity in a positive, p. 456). This racist ideology claims that fail- healthy, or productive manner” (p. 45). ure to contain black masculinity will result in Equally important, the mediated images a collapse of the economic and social fabric of black masculinity on The Real World of white society. Specifically, Dines draws on represent a powerful source of influence the work of Kobena Mercer in analyzing because they are not presented as mediated how the depiction of black men as being but as real life images captured on camera. obsessed with the size of their penises is Martin and Yep (2004) demonstrate that one example of how the dominant regime black masculine performances in the media of racial representation constructs blacks are not restricted to black males. Drawing as “having bodies but not minds” (Mercer, on the work of Orbe and others that locate 1994; quoted in Dines, p. 456). Hustler car- black masculine identities in angry, physi- toons construct a world populated by white cally threatening, and sexually aggressive working-class hustlers and losers, where behaviors and discourses, Martin and Yep black men possess two status symbols that utilize a whiteness framework to examine white men lack, big penises and money. how the white rap artist Eminem has been However, Dines maintains that it is not presented in the media. Whiteness refers to white men as a group who are being the “everyday invisible, subtle cultural, and ridiculed, just lower-working-class white social practices, ideas, and codes that dis- men—a class few whites see themselves as cursively secure the power and privilege of belonging to, regardless of their income: White people, but that strategically remain 16-Dow-4973.qxd 6/11/2006 1:42 PM Page 307

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unmarked, unnamed, and untapped in constructed category of power, and the contemporary society” (Shome, 1996, desexualized or effeminate Asian male quoted in Martin & Yep, p. 230). One stereotype works in conjunction with depic- prominent feature of whiteness is that it is tions of Asian women as ultrafeminine sex- universal, which makes it seemingly devoid ual objects used by white men to emasculate of race and culture. Therefore, whiteness Asian men. Consequently, Asian American studies also pursue strategies for both men are redefined as an angry threat to marking and naming whiteness and expos- American culture (Feng, 1996). However, ing white privilege (Martin & Yep, 2004, the ideological and power relations embed- p. 230). Eminem exploits one privilege of ded in the intersections of race, gender, and whiteness—the ability to appropriate aspects sexuality warrant greater attention in cul- of other cultures—in this case, black mas- tural studies. culinity. And as Martin and Yep note, Nakayama (1994) addresses this void by although black masculinity is not an essen- examining Asian and white masculinity in tial, unified, or monolithic category, in hip- the Hollywood film Showdown in Little hop culture (which includes rap music) it Tokyo. He identifies ways that white het- represents anger, violence, and sexual aggres- erosexual masculinity is recentered and siveness. Eminem manifests these features argues for the importance of spatial rela- in both his lyrics and mainstream media tions in constructing identities. The vulner- representations. ability of white heterosexual masculinity is apparent in the wake of the emasculating of the United States in Vietnam and its MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS inevitable multicultural future. Nakayama OF ASIAN AND NATIVE demonstrates how racial and homoerotic AMERICAN MEN tensions are used to “fuel the fire that breathes life into the cultural fiction of Research on media constructions of race, white heterosexual masculinity” (p. 165). men, and masculinity exemplify the black- One additional study, Locke’s (1998) white binary of racial discourse prevalent in analysis of comedic representations of contemporary discourse in the United States. Judge Lance Ito from episodes of The Unfortunately, few studies examine Latino Tonight Show, disrupts the black-white or Native American males in the media. duality of race so common to critical media/ Thus, we know considerably less about con- cultural studies. Locke uses John Fiske’s structions of masculine identities within notion of racial recoding to read Ito’s groups of men who are not white or African inscrutability as a racial signifier consistent American. One exception to this trend comes with the legacy of coding Asians in popular from research on Asian American masculin- culture as people who pose a threat and ity. Historically, portrayals of Asian and who keep their motives and means hidden. Asian American men (seldom is any distinc- Locke reads another skit on The Tonight tion made) in mainstream American media Show that ridiculed Ito’s child as exposing have been restricted to motion pictures. “the threat of a racially compromised These films represented men of Asian descent future: the daughter as the freakish misce- as threatening foreigners (Fu Manchu), genated offspring of Ito and his white Americanized detectives (Charlie Chan), American wife” (p. 252). Even as Locke’s laborers and laundry men, and most recently, analysis points to the show’s stereotypical as (corrupt) businessmen and martial artists. visual coding of blackness as an explana- Most often these men are not seen as possess- tion of how the show “desires race” (p. ing traditionally dominant masculine charac- 246), he compels scholars to consider such teristics—most notably sexual prowess. important issues as how binary racial dis- Sexuality, like race and gender, is a socially courses contribute to what constitutes the 16-Dow-4973.qxd 6/11/2006 1:42 PM Page 308

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racial, how media texts code a variety of Brief, all focus on an “ultimate site” of racial groups, and ultimately, how these white masculinity where whiteness, mas- codes work together within a larger sphere culinity, and nationhood converge (Shome, of racial discourse. p. 369). In these films, the subtheme is that Scholarship on representations of Native of “one bad white guy” who is outed by a American males is scarce, but the novel The “good white guy” who “saves, salvages, and Indian in the Cupboard and the film of the restores the Presidency and the ‘people’” same name have received some scholarly (p. 369). Another inflection of this theme attention about Native American masculin- occurs when whiteness is conflated with ity and paternalism. Taylor (2000) argues nationhood and is marked as being threat- that “the image of the Indian as the savage, ened and tortured by aliens (e.g., Air Force a paternalistic role for the White protago- One and Independence Day). The common nist, and an auxiliary role for the Indian Hollywood strategy of depicting others (as as the faithful sidekick” all reify existing “aliens”) is significant in this context stereotypes about Native American males. because “White nationalized masculinity, as While Sanchez and Stuckey (2000) agree symbolized by the Presidency is first repre- that the movie was an improvement over sented as being ‘oppressed’ and weakened the book, they disagree with Taylor and (by aliens) and through great [violent] strug- assert that The Indian in the Cupboard gles—that tend to constitute the major plot challenges hegemonic codes and demeaning action of these films—it recuperates and stereotypes. In line with Hall’s encoding/ salvages itself” (p. 370). decoding model, Sanchez and Stuckey pro- Ashcraft and Flores (2000) also examine vide a negotiated reading of the film and Hollywood film for ways in which masculine argue that the casting of Native American performances offer identity to middle-class actors and consultants both lends authentic- heterosexual white men. Specifically, they ity and provides a resolution to “the tension analyze discursive performances in two between paternalism and interdependence” films—Fight Club and In the Company of (p. 87). Men—that provide identity politics to “white/collar men” (p. 1). Each film’s discourse laments the imminent breakdown of MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS the corporate man, “over-civilized and emas- OF WHITE MASCULINITY culated by allied obligations to work and women” (p. 2). To restore the beleaguered As the previous discussion illustrates, the corporate man, the films (re)turn to “civi- fundamental delineation in media research lized/primitive” masculinity wherein the is between the dominant, normative, white, hardened white man finds healing in wounds heterosexual, and middle-class masculinity (p. 2). Ultimately, this tough guy obscures the and subordinated masculinities. The crisis race and class hierarchy in which it resides by in white masculinity is perhaps the most overtly appealing to gender division. overriding feature of constructions of dom- As much of the research discussed above inant masculinity, and the most common indicates, both whiteness and hegemonic response to this crisis is violent behavior by (white) masculinity do not appear to be cul- white men (Katz, 2003). tural/historical categories, thus rendering Shome (2000) uncovers the way in which invisible the privileged position from which the crisis of white masculinity is marked and (white) men in general are able to articulate negotiated in contemporary film. One dom- their interests to the exclusion of interests inant theme—that of the presidency or the of women, men and women of color, and U.S. government in crisis—evident in such children (Hanke, 1992, p. 186). Masculinity— films as Air Force One, Murder at 1600, whether black or white—must be uprooted Independence Day, Dave, and The Pelican from essentialist thinking that understands 16-Dow-4973.qxd 6/11/2006 1:42 PM Page 309

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gender—as well as race, class and many from racial power structures that privilege other constructs of personal and collective white people (Rockler, 2002, p. 416). identity—not as biologically determined or Many cultural critics (Bobo, 1995; subject to universal laws of science or nature, Clifford, 1983; hooks, 1990) have called but as products of discourse, performance, attention to the “unequal power relations and power. inherent in the ethnographic enterprise and The research discussed above utilizes a to the ‘objectification’ of the subject in variety of methodological and theoretical ethnographic discourse” (Bobo & Seiter, frameworks to examine intersections of 1991, p. 290). Thus they argue “the notions race, gender, and media. This chapter has of gender difference deriving from ethno- focused on one of the more prominent per- graphic work with all-white samples in spectives, social constructivism, in which current circulation are reified and ethno- media texts, images, and narratives are seen centric,” leaving voices of women of color as intimately connected with broader social “unheard, unstudied, untheorized” (p. 291). relations of domination and subordination. While some authors did devote some time Although studies of representation fuel to studies of ethnic media audiences (Katz the majority of this chapter, we would be & Liebes, 1985) leading this call to include remiss if we did not include a brief discus- women of color in audience research was sion on audience reception studies. Jackie Bobo (1988, 1995) and her central work, The Color Purple: Black Women as Cultural Readers, which first appeared as a ♦ Audience Studies single study and later became a book. In this book, Bobo (1995) studied how black women negotiate meaning in two film texts, The 1980s saw an emerging interest in The Color Purple by white male filmmaker reader/audience studies especially relating Steven Spielberg, and Daughters of the to women’s genres such as romance, melo- Dust by female filmmaker Julie Dash. Bobo drama, and soap opera. Some of the works discovered that despite The Color Purple’s were Ang’s (1985) Watching Dallas, patriarchal nature, black women found Radway’s (1984) Reading the Romance, ways to empower themselves through nego- and Hobson’s (1982) Crossroads: The tiated readings of its text. Drama of a Soap Opera. In fact, McRobbie Lee and Cho (2003) looked at Korean (1991) was one of the first scholars to look soap opera fans in the United States and at how young girls negotiate meaning examined why they preferred the Korean through magazines. While they did not to the American variety. The authors con- specifically look at gender, cultural critics cluded that, despite arguments of cultural John Fiske (1987) and David Morley imperialism, third world audiences like (1980) have conducted several studies on to watch their own cultural products audiences and television. On a similar note, (Lee & Cho). Two recent audience studies Rockler’s (2002) study of both African on women of color may indicate a American and European American inter- resurging interest in this line of scholarship. pretations of the comic strips Jump Start Oppenheimer, Adams-Price, Goodman, and The Boondocks revealed blacks’ oppo- Codling, and Coker (2003) studied how men sitional readings of the comics through the and women perceived strong female char- terministic screen of race cognizance. In acters on television, noting that women contrast to African American readings that were more accepting than men of the pow- underscored the relevance of racial politics erful female characters and that African and oppression, white’s interpretations Americans related better to the strong were produced through the terministic characters than did whites. Rojas (2004) screen of whiteness that deflected attention argues there is a lack of information on 16-Dow-4973.qxd 6/11/2006 1:42 PM Page 310

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how Latinas consume popular culture and races and ethnicities into one homogenized how they interact and respond to Spanish- group ignores the cultural diversity that language media (p. 125). She addresses the characterizes human difference. point echoed by Latino/a scholars (Desipio, The multitude of studies on African 1998; Rodriguez, 1999) that little or no American representations far outnumbers attention has been paid to Latino audien- those on Asians, Latinos, and Native ces as subjects of academic research. She Americans. The dearth of representations examined how immigrant and nonimmi- of these races/ethnicities represented in grant Latinas from Austin, Texas “evaluate “mainstream” media makes it even more and negotiate the content and representa- difficult to examine constructions of these tions presented in Univision and Telemundo, cultures. Studies of media institutions and the two largest Hispanic networks in the their production and encoding processes United States” (Rojas, 2004, p. 125). As the could provide invaluable insights into our U.S. population includes more native understanding of the ways the intersections Spanish speakers, this type of bilingual/ of race, gender, and sexuality structure bicultural research becomes more signifi- media content. We must continue to dis- cant to communication studies. Although mantle the black-white binary that persists these studies vary considerably by topic, in shaping our understanding of race. collectively they point to some of the One avenue toward this end is Critical important ways race and gender identities Race Theory, which we briefly discuss influence struggles over meaning. Further, above, but which deserves additional atten- while the audience studies cited above have tion from media scholars. Beyond changing provided a strong foundation for future the way we look at and study race, Critical research, women—and especially men— Race Theory’s more complete understand- from nonwhite races still remain sorely ing of human difference offers enormous underrepresented in ethnographic audience potential for understanding our multicul- studies. tural world. Media scholars must join scholars from education and political science and sociology who have broadened this fast- ♦ Directions for Research growing field from its roots in legal studies. Critical race scholars have made an important step in this direction by embracing crit- With the world becoming more multicul- ical race feminism and critical white studies. tural/racial, there must be further study And critical race theory’s critiques of essen- regarding the malleability of ethnicity tialism and challenges to social science depending upon the role being played. As orthodoxies are compatible with the Hill Collins (2004) points out in her discus- premises of critical/cultural studies. sion of Halle Berry, blackness can be Another stream of scholarship that we worked in many ways. As noted in the case discuss above also deserves more critical of Jennifer Lopez, skin color or ethnicity work. Hip-hop culture is a central contem- is not a marker of racial categorization. porary arena through which to examine Actresses like Jennifer Beals, who is black, mediated intersections of race and gender. usually play characters that lack racial While cultural studies have a tradition of marking, although she currently portrays a examining the cultural engagement with black woman in the Showtime series, The L various forms of music, hip-hop culture as Word. This trend has continued into movies constructed in the media and popular cul- like the remake of Guess Who’s Coming ture epitomizes many of the contemporary to Dinner (1967), titled Guess Who (2005), tensions within U.S. media culture along which starred Zoe Saldana, a Latina who the lines of race, gender, class, sexuality, plays a black woman. Lumping together regionalism, and age. Beyond the misogyny 16-Dow-4973.qxd 6/11/2006 1:42 PM Page 311

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and heterosexism prevalent in hip-hop ideologies about Native Americans started culture, scholars must remain vigilant in by whites (p. 159). She argues that compa- resisting hip-hop’s repeated allusions to nies that use these images are trying “to certain racial and gender authenticities. As build an association with an idealized and an international movement, hip-hop culture romanticized notion of the past through the can shed light on postcolonial struggles and process of branding” (p. 160). a so-called global economy that relegates Finally, mediated representations of more than a third of its citizens to poverty sports constitute a particularly fruitful arena and economic despair. for scholarly study of the intersections of Critical/cultural scholarship on the inter- race and gender. Some work has incorpo- sections of race and gender in advertising rated the study of sport within broader cul- also deserves further development. The tural studies themes such as media and images, narratives, types of products pro- consumption (McKay & Rowe, 1997) and moted, and stereotypical portrayals (i.e. cultural critiques of race relations (Boyd, black families advertising Popeye’s chicken, 1997). Other scholars have drawn from or Asian men shown as the office computer critical/cultural studies to analyze the mean- whiz) in both print and electronic advertise- ings of race, gender, and sports in specific ments are in need of critical study. In addi- media texts. For example, Cole and King tion, audience interpretations of ads remain (1998) analyze the ways the film Hoop understudied. One notable exception is Dreams reveals cultural tensions about race Watts and Orbe’s (2002) analysis of and gender in a postindustrial, post-Fordist, Budweiser’s successful “Whassup?!” ad and postfeminist America. Pronger’s (2000) campaign. They examine how spectacular examination of the suppression of the erotic consumption by the (African American) and the narrowing of the concept of mas- Budweiser guys is constitutive of white culinity in mainstream gay sports asks who American ambivalence toward “authentic” wins when gay men embrace the very cul- blackness (p. 1). Spectacular consumption tural forms that have been central to their describes an important “process whereby historical oppression. The most relevant the material and symbolic relations among stream in this research is the work that ana- the culture industry, the life worlds of lyzes the variations in media coverage of persons, and the ontological status of cul- women’s and men’s sports as well as con- tural forms are transformed in terms gener- structions of race and gender in sports. ated by public consumption” (p. 5). Their Before concluding, we turn briefly to this textual analysis of the Budweiser “True” literature. commercial focuses on a site where gender Not only do female athletes receive a frac- and cultural performances are conditioned tion of the coverage afforded to male ath- by sports and spectatorship, with masculin- letes, but the traditional trappings of ity and blackness emerging as key themes in femininity—fashion, motherhood, beauty, this setting. Watts and Orbe argue that the morality, and heterosexuality—characterize campaign constitutes and administers cul- their constructions (Messner, Dunbar, & tural authenticity as a market value (p. 3). Hunt, 2000; Messner, Duncan, & Wachs, In terms of spectacular consumption, the 1996). Banet-Weiser’s (1999) study of the force of the pleasure of consuming the other development of the Women’s National is both directly and paradoxically tied to Basketball Association (WNBA) examined the replication and amplification of so- the gendered and racialized meanings that called authentic difference (p. 3). surround both male and female professional In a related vein, Merskin’s (2001) semi- basketball players. She finds that the WNBA otic study of Native American brand names and trademarks explains how advertising has strategically represented itself in such uses “pictorial metaphors” to reinforce a way as to counteract the American 16-Dow-4973.qxd 6/11/2006 1:42 PM Page 312

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public’s fears about the players—and their true nature or identity, essentialist thus, by association, the sport—being arguments have little credibility in academic homosexual. Fans and sponsors are circles. However, essentialist thinking is encouraged to see basketball as a sport common in the public sphere as popular to be played not only by those women notions of what is natural in men and labeled as deviant by dominant ideology women, or in stereotypes of racial and ethnic but also by those who follow the norma- groups (Brooker, 2003). The research tive conventions of heterosexual femi- described in this chapter has exposed the ninity. (p. 404) various ways the media construct monolithic notions of race and gender. Several studies Conversely, male basketball players, and have demonstrated how layered representa- especially black men, have been constructed tions challenge static constructions, leaving, as fetish objects, so much so that personality, in turn, ambivalent space for alternative def- glamour, and so-called bad boy behavior initions of gender, race, and even sexuality. have become the central features of the sport. Our scholarship must continue along these Media portrayals of the NBA represent black antiessentialist paths, especially in the face of players as potentially dangerous and menac- backlash and conservative ideals that seek ing, which in turn allows the WNBA to mar- to promote and implement a regressive poli- ket itself in positive opposition to these racial tics of difference. Media will continue to play politics (Banet-Weiser, 1999). a prominent role in these struggles, making Finally, two studies can be cited for their the work of media scholars all the more illumination of the intersections of gender important. with race and sexual orientation. McKay (1993) documented the ways the media responded to basketball player Earvin ♦ Notes “Magic” Johnson’s revelation that he was HIV-positive by inserting Johnson’s sexual promiscuity onto “wanton women.” 1. For an alternative perspective that argues Dworkin and Wachs’s (1998, 2000) com- that biology itself must be viewed as a cultural parison of media treatment of three stories construction, see Sloop, this volume. of HIV-positive male athletes illustrated the 2. Issues of gender, race, and media from a manner in which social class, race, and sex- global perspective are discussed in Section 5 of ual orientation came into play in the very the Handbook on intercultural communication. distinct media framings of the three stories. 3. Borrowing from Dyer (1997), we contend the well-intentioned term people of color func- tions to reinforce the erroneous notion that ♦ Conclusion white people do not constitute a race of people. 4. We use African American and black inter- changeably in referring to the multiple identities, Although the research this chapter experiences, and cultures of Americans of describes is quite diverse, it is clear that it African descent. We use white to refer to those has enhanced our knowledge of the social of European/Anglo descent. constructions of race and gender in impor- 5. Another feature of CRT is the use of sto- tant ways. Collectively, this literature has rytelling or narrative style. In this vein, although made another contribution that is less not deliberately employing CRT, Brooks and transparent: it has dismantled essentialist Jacobs (1996) analyzed HBO’s televisual adap- ways of thinking about and representing tation of Derrick Bell’s narrative on race (The race and gender. As a term used to describe Space Traders). The analysis focused on the the notion that humans, objects, or texts main character, a black man who employed possess underlying essences that define multiracial identities in combating racism. 16-Dow-4973.qxd 6/11/2006 1:42 PM Page 313

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