An Examination of Queen Latifah's Representations and Depictions
Breaking All the Rules: An Examination of Queen Latifah’s Representations and Depictions Associated with the Black Female Body in Film
Submitted by Angelica Cooper As part of a tutorial in Cultural Studies and Psychology March 24, 2006
Chatham College Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 1
Acknowledgement
The past four years here at Chatham College has been a roller coaster ride. I would like to thank every individual who has helped me to get to where I am today; a Chatham College graduate.
First and foremost I would like to thank the only Heavenly Father above, Jesus Christ. Though sometimes He pushes you to the limit, He does not give you anymore than you can handle. I would like to thank my mother Diane Cooper and my father Ricardo Cooper Sr. for raising me to be the woman I am today. You guys did a pretty good job. Thank you for all of your continued support in all of the successes and disappointments I have undergone in my past 21 years on this earth.
Thank you to my Uncle Conrad Bricker and Jerry Potts. Without you two I would not have been able to make it this far here at Chatham College. I appreciate your faith and trust in my decision making and your continued support of my dreams.
To all of my close friends, I must say that I would not have made it this far without your friendships. They mean the world to me more than you could ever imagine. Sister Brandee S. Walker, Sister Rochelle Butler, April Clowney Reynolds (Fwiend), and Careema Bell.
To my pride, joy, and happiness my son Jaison S. Brown Jr. Everything that I do I do for you. You are my drive, my energy, and my world. No one loves you more than Mommy!
To all of the professors here at Chatham College whom I have had the pleasure of knowing and privilege of being educated under. Dr. Anissa Wardi, Dr. Stephanie Valutis, Dr. Karen Dajani, Prajna Parasher, and Janet James. Thank you for sticking by my side and never accepting anything less than my best. You have been educators, providers and most importantly listeners. You have pushed me to succeed and for that I am truly grateful.
Finally, to all of those dear to my heart that have climbed the Heavenly Staircase to be in the best place off Earth, I dedicate this to you:
Mom Paula Cooper Beatrice J. Walker Shelley Oravik Uncle Daryl Cooper Uncle Darrell Clowney Karen Sumpter
MAY YOU FOREVER REST IN PEACE. 2
Table of Contents
Chapter One: History of the Black Female Body in Media…………………….…………3 The Image of the Black Female in the 19th Century…………………………..…..3 The Mammy………………………………………………………………….……5 The Black Female Body in the 20th Century………………………………..……..9 The Black Female Body in the 21st Century……………………………….…….17
Chapter Two: Queen Latifah’s Illustration of Groundbreaking Stereotypical Performances Effecting Images of the Black Female Body in Film, Television, and Music………………………………………………………………………………..……21 Film………………………………………………………………………………21 Bringing Down the House………………………………………………….……21 Chicago……………………………………………………………………..……26 Beauty Shop…………………………………………….………………………..27 Television……………………………………………….………………………..31 Fresh Prince of Bel-Air…………………………………………………………..31 Living Single……………………………………………………………………..32 Music……………………………………………………………………………..34 Ladies First……………………………………………………………………….34 U.N.I.T.Y……………………………………………………………………...…35
Chapter Three: Queen Latifah’s Participation in and/or Rupturing of Various Representations of the Black Female Body….…………………………………………..38 Glamour Interview……………………………………………………………….38 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….39 Appendix………………………………………………………………………....46 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………..63 3
Chapter One: History of the Black Female Body in Media
“The female body in the West in not a unitary sign. Rather, like a coin, it has an obverse and a reverse. On the one side, it is white, on the other, non-white or prototypically black. The two bodies cannot be separated, nor can one body be understood in isolation from the other in West’s metaphoric construction of “woman.” White is what woman is; not-white (and the stereotypes not-white gathers in) is what she had better not be (Willis/Williams 1). –Lorraine O’Grady”
The image of the Black Female in the 19th Century
During the slave trade, the Black female body was used as a gauge to determine which women were worthy of purchasing and which were not. In "Doers of the Word":
African American Women Speakers and Writers in the North (1830-1880), Carla L.
Peterson notes the conceptualization of the nineteenth-century black woman in terms of the body, "in contrast to middle-class white women whose femininity, as defined by the cult of true womanhood, cohered around notions of the self-effacing body.” The black woman's body," Peterson maintains, "was always envisioned as public and exposed"
(Peterson, 20). Black women were put on display at social events and gatherings as pieces of “artwork” carefully placed to provide visual stimulation. These depictions of the Black female body stripped the Black female of her wholeness. Females were usually only partially exposed (i.e. breasts or thighs) in an attempt to further degrade the Black female image.
The black female was made to feel like her body only had value where it was accentuated. The women with wide hips and ample breasts were given favor over smaller framed women. Slavery was a business and blacks were the profit of that business.
Therefore, only the best could be chosen to produce offspring that would in turn become profit for that slave owner in the form of field hands.“Objectified in a manner similar to 4
that of black female slaves who stood on the auction blocks while owners and overseers
described their important, salable parts, the black women whose naked bodies were
displayed for whites at social functions had no presence” (Hooks 62).
During the 19th century, there were few photographic images of the black female
body. The images that were shown were those in which the black female was used as a
sort of prop. Black females were captured often in the backdrop of a photo featuring a
white female and when she appeared, she was a “Sarah”1, a servant, or a savage.
“Between 1850 and 1890, French photographers were the primary producers of images of black women. Women were usually photographed nude or clothed next to a sexually evocative or nude White female” (Willis/Williams 1). There was, however, an upsurge in ethnographic photography in 1888 with the invention of the Kodak Box Camera.
“Scientist Sir John Herschel (1792-1891) wrote about his experiments with the
then new invention of photography. “Figures have a strange effect- fair women are
transformed into Negresses” (Willis/Williams 1). Herschel is of course referring to what
is now referred to as a “negative” for a photograph. Negatives always show the particular
image as being much darker and features such as the eyes, and mouth remain
distinguishable. Herschel’s remarks help to better identify the roots of many of the
ideologies that have shaped the overall portrayal of the black female body image. In
photography, although “negatives” are extremely important in the development and
preservation of an image, the image itself or the “positive” is the only one that holds any
true value.
“Studies comparing facial structure, genitalia, and skin color of colonized
Africans versus those of the Western world began in 1843 at the Anthropological
1 Term used to describe young slave girls who were kept as companions for young white girls 5
Institute of Britain and were followed by studies at the Societe d’ Anthropologie de Paris
in 1859 and the National Geographic Society in 1888 (Willis/Williams 1). The shape and
size of African and European skulls were compared using Phrenology and Physiognomy.
These comparisons resulted in embellished findings about the differences between blacks
and whites. These findings also served to perpetuate the longstanding notion that blacks
are mentally inferior to whites. Popular depictions of blacks as ape or monkey-like in
nature (i.e. huge lips, bulging eyes) spawned from these studies.
The black female body was heavily scrutinized during slavery. Hair is an important
element of the female body that represents beauty. Styles, texture, and color all define what is beautiful and attractive in a woman. Long blonde hair has been seen as pretty in relation to the white blue eyed woman. Hair with no coarseness, free of tangle, not nappy, and silky flowing demonstrates how beauty is linked to perfection, and dark nappy hair is seen as undesirable.
The Mammy
The Antebellum period (1784-1860) spawned a number of well-known and long debated
portrayals of the black female body. The most popular and still most highly debated
image is that of the Mammy2. The Mammy was an asexual black female who was usually portrayed as being voluptuous or plus-sized and usually was willing to do and say pretty much anything to appease her master. Mammies usually wet-nursed and ultimately raised the children of the master and the mistress along with taking care of the household needs
of her own family. Mammies were usually considered “family” by many slave owners.
This image of a sub-servant black female was one that played into the already existing
2 Appendix 1 6
inferiority of the black female. During the first several centuries, white people imposed
their own definitions of blackness on African Americans with stereotypes alleging that all
Africans were savages and even cannibals. By the end of the nineteenth century, society recognized a few basic stock characters with whom to identify blacks and this included the mammy, the Uncle, the Pickaninny, and the Coon. The stereotype of the Mammy was that she was the faithful, obedient, domestic servant. By loving, nurturing, and caring for her White children and family better than her own, the mammy symbolizes the dominant group’s perceptions of the ideal black female relationship to elite white male power. The image of the Mammy allowed for humanizing slavery with the idea that this wide smiled, happy faced caricature proved black women to be content with slavery and their positions as hearty maternal figures. In popularizing the image of the black Mammy, the attempt was to desexualize this figure. The idea here is that there would be no way a white man would choose a Mammy figure over the idealized white woman3. Because of the undesirable body and image, there would be no competition between the white mother of the home and the fat, dark Mammy who cares for the home. The husband would have no probability of attraction to a Mammy.
Identity was not something blacks were able to express and explore. With
depictions like the Coon and the Mammy, blacks were categorized. Because one’s black
identity was so often limited, distorted and made shameful by whites, asserting a new
black identity became important to many African Americans. Out of images like the
jezebel, black women have always been identified by their sexuality because this was
what was appealing to the male gaze. Since the times of slavery the black female body
3 Appendix 2 7
was objectified and taken advantage of. Aside from rape and degrading acts, women
gained attention to their attractive bodies if they did not fit the mold of the domestic
Mammy. Inferiority complexes disallowed for black women to be idealized because of their minds, intellect, or other skills they may have had. Black women, in addition to women as a whole throughout history, were simply objectified because of their figures. In the Antebellum period, sexual exploitation of black women by white men was very common. Sexual relations between blacks and whites during this time was very taboo, however, white men idealized sexually attractive black women. The Mammy character put a break in this idea and provided the implication that black women were only to fit domestic servant roles. The Mammy image was even used commercially to sell many household domestic products like Aunt Jemima4 syrup, coffee, and cleaning products.
Over the years, the Aunt Jemima figure has been revamped giving her a lighter skin tone
and removing the kerchief from her hair; placing her more in line with a prettier more
updated version of the black woman.
“The image of Mammy as a symbol of African American womanhood is
inextricably integrated into the folklore of American culture. The evolution of the
Mammy image can be attributed to female slaves performing domestic duties for the family of the slave owner. Historically, the media has portrayed her as having characteristics that suggest submissiveness towards her owner (during slavery) or employer (following Emancipation). Moreover, her behavior connotes satisfaction and
comfort with her station in life, wherein she is consigned to performing domestic duties
(Yarborough/Bennett).”
4 Appendix 3 8
The image of the over sexualized black woman was also extremely prevalent
during this time. The term Jezebel5 refers to a woman who is usually very sexual in
nature. In black culture “The Jezebel” is equated with the long-standing stereotype that
African American women are naturally sexual promiscuous. 19th century images of
blacks in their “native state” were popularized by French artists who explored Africa with
their cameras during what was known as the Grand Tour. Amateur photographer Ernest
Benecke photographed images in Egypt and Sudan between 1851 and 1859. One of his
most famous photographic studies was entitled Zofia, Femme du Caire / Habillement du
Harem. The photos were of an Egyptian woman who was fully clothed however,
Benecke’s own notations serve to sexualize the image.
“Benecke immediately identifies her in sexual terms for the European
audience by designating her dress as that of the harem woman. It has been
suggested that he set up a household during his stay in Egypt and that this
“harem” woman was his concubine. Whatever his intent and
understanding of her status, for him and his audience the harm conjured up
“the notion of a forbidden world of women, sexuality caged and
inaccessible, at least to western men. Although Zofia’s blouse is low cut
and reveals her midriff, she remains mostly covered and is identified by a
name. The pillow at her feet serves merely as a colorful prop, but it also
suggests a state of repose, of recline- of her supposed role as a willing,
sexually conquerable female of the mythologized harem (Willis/Williams
13)”
5 Appendix 4 9
The Jezebel also spawned from longstanding tawdry affairs between slave-owners and
their female slaves. One of the most problematic occurrences of this relationship was the
one between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. Their love affair lasted years and
resulted in the conception of a number of children. It was not until recent history that the
Jefferson family began to acknowledge Sally Hemings and her family as relation to their
own. Even then, historians and descendents of Thomas Jefferson were both amazed and
appalled by the affair. The idea of an American president, a founding father, being
involved in any extramarital affair especially one involving a black female slave is still
disconcerting. White America has played a deeper role in the creation and circulation of
such stereotypical images like the Jezebel by participating in the promiscuous actions that
rendered these women to be labeled as Jezebels.
The Black Female Body in the 20th Century
The early 20th century opened the opportunity for black women to become
commercial customers as well as artists’ subjects. The Harlem Renaissance opened the
door for many black artists to express their creativity freely using subject matter that was
relevant to them. However, Hollywood had not yet found a place for the real black actor or actress to shine. One of the first all talking, all singing black musicals in history,
Hallelujah premiered in 1929 (Bogle, 30). Hallelujah was a well-orchestrated compilation of characters that embodied all of the typical stereotypes equated with black culture at the particular time, and some still remain today. Hallelujah is noted as being one of Hollywood’s first attempts to present the black American family. Actress Nina
Mae Mc Kinney6 played Chick, Hollywood’s first black female sexual “deviant.” Mc
6 Appendix 5 10
Kinney’s character could be seen grinding and gyrating with sailors and soldiers at any given time and her sexual ability was what made her character stand out. This kind of character has been mimicked repeatedly in black cinema (i.e. Dorothy Dandridge as
Carmen in Carmen or Keyshia Knight Pulliam as Darnelle in Beauty Shop). Although there were many poignant events occurring during this time (Marcus Garvey’s “Back to
Africa” movement, the Harlem Renaissance), black women were still receiving very unequal representation in the existing media.
The famous radio show turned television comedy Amos and Andy (1928) introduced America to the sassy persona of the 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 (Yarborough/Bennett).” Ernestine
Ward popularized the Sapphire image in the Amos and Andy television series. Ward played a character known as Sapphire, and her husband, Kingfish, was played by Tim
Moore. Sapphire's spiteful personality was primarily used to create sympathy in viewers for Kingfish specifically and African American males in general. As a result, many
African American women suppress these feelings of bitterness and rage for fear of being regarded as a Sapphire (Yarborough/Bennett). This role would later be turned into the overly aggressive, always controlling, “bitch” character usually equated with darker toned Black females (Angela Bassett, Waiting to Exhale or the persona depicted by
Omarosa on NBC’s The Apprentice). Sapphire is tough, efficient, and tireless like
Mammy, but without compassion and understanding. "Mammy operated within the boundaries prescribed for women, [but] Sapphire is firmly anchored in a man's world
(Frazier 166)." E. Franklin Frazier and Daniel Moynihan, authors of a report on 11
American sex-role mores, interpreted the African-American woman inaccurately. They could not believe that African-American women could play significant roles in Black families without "dominating men and male-female sexual activities (Frazier 166)." Out of their reports grew the persona Sapphire.
“Nikki Giovanni’s “Woman Poem” explores the Sapphire / Mammy continuum. A black woman’s unhappiness swings between two poles: sex but no love or love and no sex. If she’s fat, she’s maternal; and if she maternal, then she’s not a woman- no subjectivity, no desire…And if a black woman proclaims herself a “gameswoman”, i.e. player, pimp, seductress, or Jedi mind trick master, she is still needy of a man’s love
(Hardison, 24).”
The 1930’s ushered in the era of the humanization of the black servant character amongst mass media. With the Depression already underway, the Tom, Coon, and
Mammy roles that were previously performed in a jester like demeanor were now
presented to white audiences in the form of gentile, lighthearted butlers, gardeners, and
maids. These roles were served up in a sort of jovial manner in an attempt to bring some
comic relief to what was a very difficult time in American history. The Mae West7 films of the 1930’s depicted the black female as maids and companions to West.
“The domestics were always overweight, middle-aged, and made up as jolly Aunt
Jemimas. They wore patchwork dresses and colorful kerchiefs tied about their heads, and they had the usual names: Pearl, Beulah, and Jasmine. Their naïve blackness generally was used as a contrast to Mae West’s sophisticated whiteness. Inevitably set against
7 Mae West was an Mae West (August 17, 1893 – November 22, 1980) was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter, and sex symbol (www.wikipedia.com)
12
white carpeting, white furniture, white décor- not to mention the white Miss West- the
stout black figures hustling and bustling about served to heighten the hot white sexuality
of their bawdy mistress” (Bogle, 45).
One of cinema’s first films to ever deal with the black female body as it relates to
color was Imitation of Life (1934). It was the story of two widows, one black (Aunt
Delilah) and one white (Miss Bea), who meet by happenstance and instantly form a
friendship. They both have daughters (Peola and Jessie respectively) who are delighted to
play with one another. The daughter of Aunt Delilah, Peola, is a fairer skin black child
who can “pass” 8 as white. In one scene Aunt Delilah comes up to Peola’s school because she has left her lunch at home. Aunt Delilah come into Peola’s classroom and asks for her child but the teacher is baffled because she and her students assumed that all of them were white. Aunt Delilah proceeds to point to Peola and the other white children begin to
point and laugh as Peola runs out crying, devastated that everyone now knows she is
black. Peola’s self-hatred runs so deep that as she gets older she pulls further and further
away from her heritage and her mother. Peola leaves her mother never to return until her mother’s elaborate funeral in which she throws herself across the white casket adorned with white flowers and begins to sob.
The Aunt Delilah character is once again a submissive mammy who is not even given the respect of being called by her first name by Miss Bea, yet the white female character is referred to with Miss preceding her name. Aunt Delilah stumbles upon an old pancake recipe and tries it out on Miss Bea. Miss Bea is so taken with the recipe she
8 The phrase “passing as white” refers to attempts by lighter skinned African Americans to act as if they were white in order to be treated as a white person would be. This custom was common since slavery when fairer skinned Black women straightened their hair and powdered their faces to attend events with their white masters posing as white women. 13
offers Aunt Delilah twenty percent interest. When presented with the opportunity to have
her own home and her own things Aunt Delilah becomes perturbed. This scene was left
out of the 1959 remake of the film.
Miss Bea: You'll have your own car. Your own house.
Aunt Delilah: My own house? You gonna send me away, Miss Bea? I can’t live with
you? Oh, honey chile, please don’t send me away.”
Miss Bea: You don’t want your own house Delilah?
Aunt Delilah: No’m. How I gonna take care of you and Jessie if I ain’t here. I’se your
cook. And I want to stay your cook.
Miss Bea: What about the recipe Delilah?
Aunt Delilah: I gives it to you, honey. I makes you a present of it.
Aunt Delilah is depicted as being so dependent upon Miss Bea that she is frightened by
the thought of having to live without serving her. Aunt Delilah’s life is in a sense
presented to be complete only by having the ability to serve Miss Bea and Jessie. Aunt
Delilah is not seen considering the thought of having what many blacks in that time
would have killed for, a chance to have financial independence from an oppressive white
society. Aunt Delilah is willing to miss an opportunity to secure a future for herself and
her daughter to remain Miss Bea and Jessie’s maid. Her selflessness and loving
dedication to her white family serves to further perpetuate the Mammy stereotype.
Peola was played by a fair- skinned green eyed actress named Fredi Washington
who in later years would find it difficult to attain acting roles because she was not dark enough. Even as a lighter toned black female who could “pass” for white, producers were unable to find roles they felt fit her appearance. She did not possess the typical plump 14
physique of the mammy or dark complexion of the sassy Sapphire and she had more
sophistication than the hypersexual Jezebel. “The movies were not ready for idealized tragic black heroines. Audiences preferred mammies or jemimas that could be laughed at or enjoyed or pitied but who would not strike at their consciences” (Bogle, 62).
“During the 40’s and 50’s phrases such as “The blacker the berry, the sweeter
juice”, were presented as alternatives to otherwise derogatory terminology”
(Willis/Williams 5). There was still struggle in the actual portrayal of the black female in
media because of the still existing race issues and the non-existent role of women at this
particular time. All women were expected to be mothers, wives, and homemakers above
anything else. The image of the black mammy became the black maid or nanny. Images
of the “Jezebel”, white America’s view of the black females’ sexual ferocity, were
portrayed by sultry actresses like Lena Horne (Cabin in the Sky), Dorothy Dandridge
(Carmen). Singer Josephine Baker was greatly revered throughout Europe specifically in
France for her nude revues. Notorious for her nudity, Baker was famous for her exotic
outfits and uninhibited sexuality. Her body was the site of sexuality. Baker became the
living embodiment of everything European audiences found exotic and provocative about
black women's sexuality. She uncovered a new desired region to focus attention to.
“A similar white European fascination with the bodies of black people,
particularly black female bodies, was manifest during the career of Josephine
Baker. Baker called attention to the ‘butt’ in her dance routines” (Hooks 63).
Dark skinned actresses, however, found themselves boxed into roles as maids or nannies
thus perpetuating the ongoing disparities between the portrayal of light and dark skinned
blacks. “Certainly, collective black female experience has been about the struggle to 15
survive in diaspora” (Hooks 51). The black female was more of an entertainer than an
actress. Dancing and singing was usually almost always required of any black actress or
actor of that time.
The late sixties and seventies spawned an era of both black power and a genre of
movies known as Blaxploitation9 films. Movies like Coffy10, Foxy Brown, and Cleopatra
Jones portrayed black females in mostly negative yet somewhat positive roles. All of the characters were crime fighters attempting to rid their streets of crime and drugs.
However, many times the women used their bodies and not their minds to gain access to information or take on their enemies.
“Some critics consider director Jack Hill's Coffy (1973) and Foxy Brown
(1974) as ‘among the best Blaxploitation films’.” Pam Grier is a brown
skinned female with a voluptuous body. Her curvy body allows for her to
be a very sexual character idealized by women and objectified by men.
But, did Pam Grier's characters have to have sex so often in order to rate
among the best? In Coffy, Grier plays a nurse whose sister is addicted to
heroine. She decides to go undercover as a heroine addicted prostitute.
Grier's breasts are protruding throughout the film and her figure as a
whole is over sexualized. Coffy’s sex appeal is what matters. In fact, sex is
her talent. The only way she can get close to her enemy/victim is to have
sex with him, or almost have sex with him, before she does him in for
good (Eversley).”
5 “Blaxploitation is a film genre that emerged in the United States in the early 1970s when many exploitation films were made to target urban African American audiences. The word itself is a combination, of the words "black" and "exploitation". Blaxploitation films starred primarily black actors and were shunned by many Civil Rights activists because of there stereotypical nature (www.answers.com)” 10 Appendix 6 16
A mixture of the over sexual Jezebel and the violent savage were captured in the
Blaxploitation film portrayals of many women. These black women were usually dressed
provocatively and there were not many situations in which their bodies were not used as a
tool to “disarm” their enemies. Although the Blaxploitation genre was met with mixed
reviews by Civil Rights Activists, movies like Shaft (1971), which portrayed the black female as a hypersexual love slave, were box office successes. “Produced for $1.2 million, it grossed over $12 million in one year and it single-handedly rescued MGM
(Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Production and Distribution Inc.) from financial ruin
(Eversley).”
The black female of the eighties was represented in many of the traditional forms amongst mass media. Actresses were seen portraying the Sarah (Alfre Woodard, Cross
Creek (1983)), the savage (Grace Jones, Conan the Destroyer (1984)), the Jezebel (Tracy
Camila Johns, She’s Gotta Have It (1986), the Mammy (Whoopi Goldberg, The Color
Purple), and the Sapphire (Marla Gibbs, 227). There were also a number of movie roles in which the black female was portrayed as being colorless, conforming to the demands of white society. Take for example the classic film Flashdance (1983). Jennifer Beals, the actress who plays the main role is actually a fair-skinned African American woman.
However, the director of Flashdance portrays her mother as a Caucasian female and no other information is given on her cultural background. Therefore, the viewer is left only with the image of her white mother never really knowing her true cultural identity. Beals’ character becomes involved with a married man who is white and the topic of race was never discussed. 17
Actress Whoopi Goldberg made her debut on the silver screen during this time.
Although Goldberg (born Caryn Johnson) is a darker toned black female, her racial
identity was still masked in many of her films. There were never any visual depictions of
her cultural background. Goldberg was usually an eccentric character amongst the
predominately-white casts, the only black person amongst the cast of whites. “Goldberg’s
cultural rootlessness was immediately apparent in Penny Marshall’s Jumpin’ Jack Flash
(1987). Cast as Terry Doolittle, Goldberg played a computer programmer, who, through a
technological mix-up, receives messages from a British agent locked behind the Iron
Curtain…as she pops her eyes and screams like mad she is not too different from the
comically fearful Butterfly McQueen11 screaming that the Yankees is coming.
Throughout, Goldberg’s Terry remained a cultural mystery (Bogle, 297).” Her name alone, “Goldberg”, being a Jewish last name, and the name Whoopi being distinctive is an act of racial defiance itself. The atomization of the characters depicted by Whoopi
Goldberg served to alienate Black culture even further from mainstream media outlets.
The Black female body in the 21st century
The Jezebel still holds true as the most widely marketed image of the black
female form. In Monster’s Ball, Halle Berry won an Oscar for portraying a grieving
woman named Leticia who engages in a love affair with a racist white warden named
Hank Grotowski (Billy Bob Thornton) in the film Monster’s Ball. Berry’s character is a rural Southern female who works as a waitress in a late night diner. Hank frequents the diner and becomes infatuated with the black waitress despite his long-standing bigotry.
Leticia is portrayed as being weak, vulnerable, and sexually longing. Her body was used
11 Born Thelma McQueen (1911), Butterfly McQueen was one of the most influential Black female actresses of all times. She is best known for her portrayal of Prissy, a young maid in Gone with the Wind who says the famous line “I don’t know nothin’ bout birthin’ babies.” 18
as the “tool” to soften the heart of an otherwise racist man. Grotowski’s son Sonny
(Heath Ledger) commits suicide and this becomes the last straw in the struggle between
Hank and Sonny’s differing racial views. With a tragedy like this, Hank’s views on race begin to veer away from what he was raised to believe and his own ideas about black, white, and racism in America begin to develop.
In one scene, Leticia pays a surprise visit to Hank’s home not knowing that his
racist father lives with him. When she comes into the house she kindly introduces herself
to him and is surprised when he responds by saying he used to like “dark meat” in his
day, too. Halle’s character storms out of the house surprised by what has just happened.
Hank sends his father to a nursing home and the viewer is persuaded to believe this is
mostly in part to the blatant disrespect shown to Leticia and as an act of racial defiance in
his father’s eyes. Leticia is eventually evicted from her home and Hank is quick to open
his door to her. Tragedies like this one in the film become softened by sexual encounters
with attractive women like Halle Berry. With a sex scene lasting three to four minutes, the viewer is able to witness the objectification Halle Berry’s character is subjected to.
Monster’s Ball never actually empowers change in the view of racism. There was
more emphasis put on the sexual relationship between the two characters rather than
tackling the racial issues that the film conjured. Hank never attempts to empower Leticia to do better for herself individually. Instead, he offers himself, his money, his home to
her ultimately in exchange for her body.
Monster’s Ball never actually empowers change in the view of racism. There was
more emphasis put on the sexual relationship between the two characters rather than
tackling the racial issues that the film conjured. Hank never attempts to empower Leticia 19
to do better for herself individually. Instead, he offers himself, his money, his home to
her ultimately in exchange for her body. Leticia and Hank’s relationship is a modern day
version of the master-slave relationship. Hank provides food, shelter, and transportation
to Leticia and in exchange, Leticia offers him her womanhood. The relationship between
Leticia and Hank is showcased as passionate and sensuous when the relationship is, in
fact, sexually explicit and based on bigotry.
Although there have been major strides in the plight of the African American female body image, there are still inconsistencies in today’s mainstream culture. Still popular culture does not see many darker toned black females receiving leading roles and
the ones who do receive them are either typecast (Gabrielle Union usually plays the sexy
sidekick or the dominating Sapphire) or they are in a financial position to fund the films themselves gaining them more control some control over their portrayal in those roles
(Oprah Winfrey). Even those who are in a position to create their own roles end up perpetuating stereotypical behavior equated with the black female. Oprah Winfrey’s character in The Color Purple is the stereotypical depiction of a plus-sized black woman.
Sophia is loud, boisterous and mean tempered. Her character is physically abusive to her smaller framed husband. She is given a shocking reality check when she tells a white man
“no” in town and is pistol-whipped. Winfrey’s character ends up in jail and after being released, she becomes a “Sarah” to the wife of the man whom she disrespected. Not only does Oprah’s character stay away from her family she becomes a silent victim of racial superiority.
Music videos have also served as an outlet to perpetuate already deeply held myths about the sexual nature of the black female. The hypersexual Jezebel is 20 auspiciously glorified repeatedly. Women are seen on television screens wearing little or nothing, dancing and being degraded by men in both their lyrics and their actions. The black female posterior is glorified among hip-hop culture. “The protruding butt is seen as an indication of a heightened sexuality (Hooks 63).” Entire rap songs are dedicated to this specific feature (i.e. “Ms. New Booty” by Bubba Sparxxx). Women are commanded to “Shake Your Tail feather” and “Get Low”. For every image or reference that attempts to go against the grain and show white America and in essence the world a different perspective of the black female form (India Arie “Video”), there are thousands more that continue to enable the facilitation of stereotypes that date back hundreds of years. The black female body serves as an icon for black sexuality in general. Bell Hooks argues the
“black presence in early North American society allowed whites to sexualize their world by projecting onto black bodies a narrative of sexualization disassociated from whiteness” (62). However this sexualization has become a hot commodity in popular culture. The female form is so frequently “praised” with misogynistic undertones.
Although the statement is contradictory, the stereotypes that many males and females perpetuate are contradictory to the command for respect women of all races have been attempting to acquire for decades.
21
Chapter Two: Queen Latifah’s Illustration of Groundbreaking and Stereotypical
Performances Effecting Images of the Black Female Body in Film, Television, and
Music
Film
Queen Latifah began her acting career in small television roles on black sitcoms such as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1991). Her acting career was sparked by her long time career as a rapper. Well respected and known for her lyrics of womanly pride and unity, Queen Latifah (born Dana Owens) is an influential person in the hip-hop and black communities. The roles and characters she has chosen and will continue to choose are viewed and in some ways idealized by adolescent and adult black females. Latifah is a plus-sized woman who has helped to break barriers in that aspect. “Statistics show that the average woman is a size 14 yet there are few images of women this size of any race”
(www.obesityhelp.com). Queen Latifah happens to be one of the few plus-sized African
American actresses receiving lead roles. On the surface, many of the roles Latifah portrays empower the image of the self-sufficient, intelligent, African American female.
However, some of the roles Latifah has played are merely 21st century versions of classic
Black stereotypes.
Bringing Down the House (2004)
One of the most stereotypical performances by Queen Latifah was her portrayal of
Charlene in the film Bringing Down the House. Her embodiment of several stereotypes
attributed to the Black female serve to further perpetuate these negative depictions.
“Peter Sanderson (Steve Martin) is a divorced, straight-laced,
uptight attorney who still loves his ex-wife and can't figure out what he 22
did wrong to make her leave him. However, Peter's trying to move on, and
he's infatuated with a brainy, bombshell barrister he's been chatting with
online. However, when she comes to his house for their first face-to-face
encounter, she isn't refined, isn't Ivy League, and isn't even a lawyer.
Instead, it's Charlene (Queen Latifah), a prison escapee who's proclaiming
her innocence and wants Peter to help her clear her name”
(www.amazon.com).
The loud and boisterous character Charlene turns Peter's perfectly ordered life
upside down. We are first introduced to Charlene when she is at the doorstep of Peter’s
home. Her hair is wild and unkempt and she is speaking in so many slang terms Peter is
unable to understand her. Clearly displaying overt racism, this image of Latifah as an ill-
mannered, unwelcome, deceitful character plays to one end of the stereotypic spectrum.
The depiction of a wild and untamed woman who has just escaped jail is similar to early
images of black females as savages who can only be disciplined by the refinement and
resources of the white male12. Latifah’s character is captured pleading for the assistance of Peter in return for her assistance in helping him with his two children. While there is clearly overt racism projected in the film there is an implicit form of racism; one that creates an awareness or consciousness to the overt racism the film is implying and its connection with reality. Charlene is only socially accepted in the suburban White neighborhood when she and Peter paint the façade that she is the new nanny. Peter’s nosy bigot neighbor (Betty White) has suspicions that there are may be an interracial relationship going on and she makes it her duty to find out. The neighbor enters the home
one evening to find Charlene there and comments “I thought I heard a Negro.” Charlene
12 Appendix 7 23
is a character that is presented in the same fashion as sentimental idealist mammy, maid,
and aunt roles of the thirties and forties giving advice and wisdom while she maintains
the family and home. In one scene, Charlene is dressed in a pink and white maid’s
uniform. She is shown serving the family their meals and is confined to the kitchen
during a dinner with one of Peter’s most important clients. Terms such as “yes’m” are
used in a joking manner. The white guest even begins to sing an old Negro spiritual in an
attempt to “connect” with Charlene on a more personal level. This serves as an even more
derogatory display of racial ignorance. Peter’s very white, very southern lady client uses
her preconceived understanding of big black women and projects these stereotypical
attitudes onto Charlene. Of course a large, black woman would have no place in the
home of an elite white family unless her place was in the kitchen or doing chores.
Charlene’s importance is similar to that of the Mammy. Ultimately, Peter comes to her
rescue to clear her of the charges that have been brought against her and she is therefore
forever indebted to him. Once again, the perpetuation of the master-slave relationship
rears its head.
Bringing Down the House does not introduce any positive black female or male
characters. The only time blacks are seen in large numbers on screen is during the pool
party where Charlene is shown teaching Peters son how to shoot craps,13 while getting
extensions put in her hair in the living room, or at a club late at night with drinking, dancing and partying. Other than that, the black characters that grace the screen are criminals plotting against Charlene. Also, being that Queen Latifah is the executive producer of the film any of the stereotypic behavior displayed obviously passed her
13 Craps is a U.S. gambling game played with two dice. Craps has been presented as a popular form of gambling in many Blaxploitation and Urban films 24 approval in an attempt to provide comedic reprieve. Fresh out of prison Charlene is natural nappy haired, and has the “black attitude” to go along with it. She talks in slang, with aggressiveness, and is always bringing comic to the screen as traditional Mammy’s,
Pickininnies, and Coons have done in the past. Charlene’s clothing and hair are
Europeanized the moment she is back in society. Although Latifah’s character remains urban in her word usage and some of her actions, she is forced to conform to white
America’s view of what is visibly pleasant in order to maintain the façade she and Peter have developed. Meanwhile, Peter’s daughter is hit on by a black male, who like all of the other guests at the party is dressed from head to toe in stereotypical Hip-Hop style attire.
The black female body is glorified in it own sense. Peter’s friend Howie Rottman
(Eugene Levy) is very much taken by Charlene. Howie is first introduced to Charlene when she enters the restaurant where he and Peter are having lunch. Seductive music is playing and Charlene is shown flipping her straight hair from left to right and walks to the table in slow motion. This scene is commonplace in many films where the female form is to be analyzed. The camera pans every angle of the female body from top to bottom in an evocative manner stimulating the viewers perception of what is being seen.
The use of slow motion cinematography further aids in the examination of the female body and encourages the viewer to take in details of the figure appearing before them.
Usually what the camera examines here in analyzing the female body is an attractive, thin, curvy shape with hair flowing and blowing with the sexual strides of a woman’s pace. Lighting is implanted to accentuate the seductiveness of the body and the slow motion view allows for a deeper gaze. Howie refers to Charlene as his “Cocoa Goddess” 25
and makes every attempt to let her know how much he wants to be a part of her life. You never see an actual kiss between Charlene and her White beau. At first, Charlene is adamant about her objection to dating Howie, but she is eventually breaks down and begins to fall for him. The idea of the black woman wooing the male with her sexual nature is similar to the Jezebel. Their relationship is insinuated by furtive comments and sexual innuendo. Charlene is often seen expressing her own sense of style, wearing provocative outfits that accentuate her voluptuous figure instead of concealing it. The issue of weight is never used as a convenient outlet for comic relief. Instead, racial candor and stereotypical behaviors are used unconstructively to provide comedic diversions.
By the end of the film, Queen Latifah is completely Europeanized from head to toe. Her hair is relaxed and straight. With a natural tone to it the audience could relate such perfection to whiteness. Queen Latifah even wears red, a provocative sexual color, further stimulating the character of her white counterpart. Her sexuality was used to help
Peter once again find attraction in his wife making it obvious that despite her larger size the black female body remains a commodity. Black women as sexually free, is appealing to the white male gaze. By the end of the film her speech has even changed from slang to proper talk patterns and the aggressive tone in her voice begins to soften symbolizing submissiveness in a white supremist patriarchal society. Peter’s help stretched from simply clearing her name to helping Charlene become a more refined Mammy figure.
The Mammy role is further perpetuated by Latifah in her 2002 portrayal of
Matron Mama Morton in the movie depiction of the long running Broadway musical
Chicago. 26
Chicago (2002)
Roxie Hart shot her boyfriend dead and after her husband refuses to help her
cover it up, she is arrested and sent to murderess row along with the famous jazz singer,
Velma Kelly. They are overseen by Matron Mama Morton (Queen Latifah), who takes
care of her girls in exchange for various favors. The two girls are desperate for fame,
fortune and freedom. Their only hope is Billy Flyn, he has never lost a case and without
him they'll be hung. Billy turns Roxie into a media star as he proclaims her innocence.
Both girls will stop at nothing to achieve their fame, fortune, and freedom and get out of
jail.
The character of Matron Mama Morton14 is played by Queen Latifah. Mama
Morton has been played by other voluptuous women both on and off Broadway. Black actresses such as Roz Ryan who is best known as Amelia Hetebrink, a deaconess15 (photo reference) on the eighties sitcom Amen and Carol Woods who is currently playing the role on the Chicago the Musical national tour have put their own personal spin on the character. Certain characteristics about Mama Morton are commonplace and embodied by almost all of the actresses chosen to portray her. Her voluptuous body is an extension of her already larger than life personality. Mama Morton also holds the task of living up to the name “Mama” being that she is responsible for the welfare of the women in the prison. Her body size helps to create the sense of comfort and dependence equated with a motherly or mammy figure16. Mama Morton’s singing voice is extremely powerful
sounding almost like the roar of an angry lion during performances of “Be Good to
14 Appendix 8 15 A woman who ranks below a priest or who is appointed to assist a minister 16 Appendix 9 27
Mama”. It is somehow hard for society to equate the heterosexual female with being controlling and coercive without the use of her body. The Sapphire or “Black boss lady” image spawned from societal preconceptions like this one. Many roles depict women using their physical appearance or sexual prowess to acquire their goal. Even in Chicago
Roxie, and another female character Velma’s seductive nature helps them to manipulate the people around them. Mama Morton is the one who encourages Roxie to convince her husband to hire “the best lawyer in Chicago”. The movie version of the musical attempts to capture a more sexually charged and effeminate version of the Mama Morton character. Mama Morton is shown wearing cleavage bearing dresses in addition to her frumpy prison uniform. Some critics have said that the Matron Morton character may be a lesbian woman involved in a relationship with Velma. However, there are no indications to prove this theory besides Mama Morton’s dominating personality.
Beauty Shop (2005)
Gina Norris (Queen Latifah) is a long way from the Barbershop- she’s
moved from Chicago to Atlanta so her daughter can attend a prestigious
music school, and she’s made a name for herself at a posh salon with her
innovative hairstyles. But when her egotistical boss, Jorge (Kevin Bacon),
takes credit for her work, she leaves the salon with shampoo girl Lynn
(Alicia Silverstone) to open a shop of her own (www.imbd.com).
Gina buys a rundown salon and opens up with a group of headstrong stylists and an array of clientele. Gina is a single mother who ventures out on her own and starts her own business in the fashion of the Barbershop films on which the movie was spun. The 28
stylists that are hired in the salon are a colorful cast of characters that encompass both
racial and gender stereotypes. Beauty shops in and of themselves are in large part
crutches that enable society to form idealistic views on the topic of beauty. Women of all races go to shops like these in order to “enhance” their appearance. Relaxers and straightening tools are used to Europeanize the black female, making the image in the mirror much more similar to the monochrome mass media depiction of beauty. Latifah’s character Gina is a lot like the Sapphire characters of the late eighties and early nineties.
Gina is pitted against an effeminate white male character (Kevin Bacon) who is so infuriated with the idea of Gina being more successful than he is he attempts to sabotage
her entire shop by paying a corrupt health inspector to fine her for imaginary violations.
An act similar to attempts by white Americans to sabotage many successful endeavors by
blacks such as the institution of the Poll Tax to prevent blacks from voting or Jim Crow
laws that segregated black and white society for years.
Over the years, there have been “assumptions made that the black body, its skin
color and shape, is a mark of shame” (Hooks 63). With challenges to these assumptions,
white women began to objectify black women’s bodies. Alicia Silverstone plays a white
hairdresser who uses urban slang and is able to do urban hairstyles like the black women in the shop. She is socially shunned in the beginning of the movie because her efforts to be friendly were taken as an attempt to “act black”. By taking on the “ghetto girl” persona that is so regularly dispayed in films (Janet Jackson and Regina King, Poetic
Justice) and television ( Countess Vaughn, “The Parkers”), Silverstone’s depiction of what she feels is ‘acting black” is an introspective view on how mass media portrayals of
the black female are received and ultimately exploited by white mass media. Silverstone 29
becomes romantically involved with a black male hairstylist who all of the black females
have deemed as being “On the Down Low”17 and is only socially accepted once she engages in an argument with a White patron (Mira Sorvino) who is in love with him as well. Golden Brooks plays the “angry black woman” or Sapphire who is disgusted by
Alicia Silverstone’s attempts to “be black”. She is her main critic for most of the movie and she comes to her aid whenever she is confronting Sorvino. The Jezebel role is reprised in this film by Keyshia Knight Pulliam (Darnelle). She begins the film dressed provocatively at all times even when working at the shop. She is constantly missing work so she can be spend time with her “boyfriends”. Her low self worth is prevalent throughout the film and she only begins to see her own self worth once she starts taking heed to the advice that is divulged from day to day in the shop.
The theme of female unity rings true throughout the film with Alfre Woodard reciting sections of Maya Angelou’s “Phenomenal Woman” as empowerment to her fellow coworkers. A role reversal does occur in that the White women depicted are more on a quest to embody more of the characteristics of the black female instead of the traditional scenario where black women take on characteristics of white females. Andie
McDowell plays a character that pays close attention to her weight. She is introduced to soul food when meals are being sold in the shop. She finds that she likes the food very much and is delighted by the end of the film when everyone is commenting on how she has developed a larger butt, a prominent characteristic equated with the black female body. There are breakthroughs in the film such as plus-sized Latifah being a black female leading lady, who is a business owner and also ends up getting the attractive male suitor.
17 A term used to describe Black men who consider themselves straight but have secret sexual encounters with men. 30
There is however, still an unequal exchange value between the stereotypical behaviors
and the empowering ones.
Hair Shop introduces the many stereotypes associated with black women in
modern society and their relationship to white women and black men as a whole. As a
community center, the barbershop and hair shop is a venue that allows for an expression
of freedom. Therefore taking on this film and role, Queen Latifah introduces the current
notions of beauty, particularly black female beauty and its new relation to the white
image. Here we have a group of black women coming together to celebrate and express
their beauty by being taken over by the white image of straight hair, long hair that does not tangle, wigs and weaves. The women’s appearances are being overshadowed by the real beauty of African features. Additionally, there is a white woman (Alicia Silverstone) playing a role in creating what is considered a beautiful black woman. Once idealized for
their attractive features, big butts, lips, curvy figures, and sexualized nature, black women are once again being recreated and reconstructed by white figures who once idealized them to become a more mainstream white beauty. Black women like in this film are conforming to whatever it is white mainstream society renders as pretty.
For many black women, especially the underclass, the dream of racial
equality was intimately linked with the fantasy that once the struggle was
over, black women would be able to assume conventional sexist gender
roles. There is a crisis in black womanhood because most black women
have not responded to these changes by radically reinventing themselves,
most black women have not responded to this crisis by developing critical 31
consciousness, by becoming engaged in radical movements for social
change. (Hooks 53)
Television
Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Queen Latifah began her acting career on an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in
1991. The show entitled ‘She Ain’t Heavy18’ deals specifically with the issue of conforming to media depictions of the female body. Queen Latifah plays Dee Dee a full- figured classmate of Will’s (Will Smith). Will and Dee Dee enjoy each other’s company and they seem to be getting along well. Both Will and Dee Dee feel an attraction toward one another. There is an upcoming dance approaching and Dee Dee expects that Will is going to ask her eventually. When he does not, Dee Dee takes the initiative to ask him and is surprised when he declines. Will attempts to give excuses for his reasoning but
Dee Dee is well aware that her weight is the reason why he does not want to attend the dance with her. Will feels guilty about his behavior and is made to feel even worse when he shows up to the dance and finds Dee Dee there with a date of her own who is not ashamed to be seen with her. All is forgiven once Will realizes the error of his ways and apologizes. Men are forced to conform to the societal norms just as much as women do.
Take for example, Will’s standpoint on taking Dee Dee out. Despite the fact that he likes her and enjoys her company, Will is more concerned with what everyone will say if he comes to the dance with a full-figured girl. He feels foolish once he sees Dee Dee at the dance with someone else. Yet, it had to take another male stepping up to show an act of defiance for Will to realize that his own actions were wrong. It would be hard to believe
18 www.imdb.com 32
that Will would have changed his mind about his decision had Dee Dee showed up to the
dance alone.
Living Single
Living Single was a long running sitcom starring Queen Latifah as Khadijah James and
editor and publisher of an independent urban magazine. The show aired for five years
from 1993 until 1998. Latifah also produced some of the episodes. Living Single dealt
with the relationships between four black females and two black males living in Harlem.
Issues such as race, gender, and the inequalities plaguing them were commonplace in the
series. In episode twenty-three, entitled U.N.I.T.Y. (a.k.a. Five Card Stud)19 the use of the term “bitch” is discussed and leads to the introduction of Latifah’s rap song aptly entitled
U.N.I.T.Y. which called for unity and respect amongst Black men and women. Body
image is further discussed in episode thirty-eight, ‘My Cups Runneth Over12’. Regine’s
(Kim Coles) doctor suggests that she get a breast reduction to ease some of the back pain
she has been experiencing. Regine is so distraught over this idea and loses her sense of
self and her self –esteem because she feels as though she is nothing without her precious
breasts. Regine gets the surgery and begins to throw herself at men in order to get them to
want her. Her plan backfires and she is unable to see the beauty within herself until Kyle
(T.C. Carson) assures her that her confident personality, not her breast is what wins men
over. Regine’s need for validation by males is a reoccurring issue for females of all races.
America is a culture obsessed with appearances. Societal views of beauty have made it
difficult for many women who do not fit into the tiny sect to find positive images with
which to relate. One can feel as though they are inferior because there are no
19 www.imdb.com 33 representations of them in the mass media market. The pressure can lead otherwise self- confident individuals to become uneasy and unsure of themselves.
Although female attractiveness was once epitomized by a plump body
shape, the contemporary ideal prominently emphasizes a slender
body…Coincident with this increasing norm of thinness, rates of body
dissatisfaction and eating disorder among women have risen. Research on
body image indicates that women consistently perceive themselves as over
weight (and as heavier than they actually are) and report a desire to be
thinner…Finally, women overestimate both men’s and other women's
preferences for female thinness. (Lavine 1050)
Furthermore, studies of the comparison between black female and white female body image is exceedingly different. “Statistic show a woman who identifies with black culture and images will not be as negatively affected by media images. Media images still play an important role in the development of ones idea and therefore cannot be defined as having no effect on ones self-identification. Black women generally have a better body image and self -esteem than white women. Black women are also happier at a heavier body weight. White women began to develop body dissatisfaction if their BMI was 25
(officially overweight) or above. Black women did not express dissatisfaction with their bodies until their BMI approached 30(the starting point for obesity) or more (Essence
2001).
Though the television series Living Single aired some 10 years ago, it is ironic that Queen Latifah herself received a breast reduction in 2003. Her surgery was due to health concerns and had nothing to do with image. Queen Latifah has always been proud 34
of her full figured body and encourages all women to feel the same. One of the reasons
she is able to play such diverse roles in film and television is because she is comfortable
in her skin.
Music
Queen Latifah’s acting career was spawned from her ongoing musical background. In the late eighties and early nineties Latifah broke into the hip-hop genre with her own style of rap that helped to empower African American unity and female equality. Beginning with her first album All Hail the Queen, Latifah brought the socially conscious, feminist rapper to the forefront of mainstream hip-hop. The song ‘Ladies First’ was featured on the album. The song demanded equal treatment for women as well as supporting the need for women to support each other. Other songs like “U.N.I.T.Y.” further serve to dissuade negative conceptions of the female body. Conversely, some of Latifah’s lyrics help to perpetuate the ideals of misogynist hip-hop.
Ladies First20
The song “Ladies First” was released on Queen Latifah’s critically acclaimed
debut album All Hail the Queen. The lyrics of the song discuss Apartheid and women’s
rights; however, the video serves as the most instrumental tool of expression for Queen
Latifah. Images of South Africa flash with images of the Mona Lisa and influential black
women in history. Also, Queen Latifah is dressed in an African headdress and a military
uniform blurring the lines of sexuality as well as challenging the existing sexually
charged images of the female body.
By employing the strategies of postmodernism inherent in the music video
form, Queen Latifah forces viewers to question the assignation of
20 Appendix 10 35
complexity and linguistic play to high-art productions by white men… By
using Afro-centric images and style in a postmodern art form, “Ladies
First” requires viewers to accept the overlap between two apparently
distinct cultural phenomena...Both Afro-centrism and postmodernism are
implicated in sexism, her text implies, but both can be unified, but far
from seamless. (Roberts 3)
Feminist rap videos of the early nineties and in general are used show inter-reliant nature
in which oppressive behavior occurs. Music videos are outlets for this co-dependency in
that the women depicted are usually 1) a specific size significantly smaller than the
average woman and, 2) they are being presented as scantily clad pieces of meat. Queen
Latifah’s plays on this oppressive co-dependence by rapping about sexism and depicting
images of Apartheid racism. Furthermore, Latifah visually displays unification amongst
women as well as expressing this unification in the unison performance of the chorus.
U.N.I.T.Y.21
Domestic violence and sexual harassment are the main themes of U.N.I.T.Y. Like
“Ladies First, U.N.I.T.Y. interrelates a number of themes through lyrics and visual
support. Each stanza of the rhyme is accurately played out in the video along with
incorporating images of black male and female unity in an urban surrounding. The
proposal of racial unity is complicated by the black male’s gender supremacy. The word
“bitch” is used as a derogatory term by a male who is depicted on screen as sexually
assaulting Latifah in the presence of his friends. The word is used jokingly by the man as an act of “masculinity” to impress his friends. Latifah responds by physically assaulting
21 Appendix 11 36
the man as an act of emasculation. Latifah refers to the Apache song “Gangsta Bitch” in
the third stanza addressing the effect that media images have on the mass society. The
song Latifah is referring to praises the idea of women being “bitches”, screaming the
phrase “I need a Gangsta Bitch.” Apache describes the clothing, style, and demeanor of
the “Gangsta Bitch”. Latifah expresses her disdain with the fact that women are choosing
to identify themselves with such a derogatory and ultimately life threatening character.
The “Gangsta Bitch” is similar to the savage and Latifah attempts to express the futility
in purposely choosing to live a violent and trouble filled life.
The “Gangsta Bitch” persona is an embodiment of the Savage, Mammy, Sapphire,
and Jezebel characters. She is available to her mate sexually, emotionally, and mentally at
any given time. She is to be selfless, willing to risk her own freedom and life to do the
will of her mate (Mammy). Her heightened sexual prowess is one of the reasons Apache
gives for remaining loyal to his “Gangsta Bitch”. This sexual dexterity is similar to that
shown by the Jezebel on film and in television. The “Gangsta Bitch’s” violent nature
renders her worthy of the time and attention of the Black male who in turn uses that as a
test of the “Gangsta Bitch’s” loyalty to him. The “Gangsta Bitch” does not let people
disrespect her or the ones closest to her in any form. Her sass and attitude are similar to
the characteristics embodied by the Sapphire. It is disconcerting that all of those
stereotypes embodied in a persona that has been fed to mainstream media through radio
and most notably music videos. These stereotypes are given positive reinforcement and
are used as a standard for what is attractive and accepted by the urban Black male.
In her book Ladies First, Queen Latifah discusses how it took her years to accept her own body image. 37
People look at me now and think, Wow, there’s a full-sized woman who
has it together. Puh-leases! It took me years to get to the point where I
love my body. And I do truly love my body. But I had to go through
stages. I hated my breasts. I hated my butt. I even hated the way I
walked… I am not the prototypical 36-24-36. Never have been, never will
be. And although society tells me I’m too big, what I try to keep in my
head are the words from Maya Angelou [in her poem Phenomenal
Woman].
Latifah uses U.N.I.T.Y as an empowerment tool for all women particularly black women whom are often subjected to belittling by men of their own race. She spells the word unity to perpetuate the power in the word itself and the lack of such in the urban, black community. Latifah’s song analyzes the new trials and tribulations that lie within the black community. Post slavery, post segregation, and inequalities, there are now still injustices and inequalities that continue to divide the black community. This includes the continued objectification of black women and their bodies, and the physical and emotional abuse that many black relationships face today. Latifah takes on these concepts and attacks them in a single song to promote consciousness.
38
Chapter Three: Conclusion – Queen Latifah’s Participation in and/or Rupturing of
Various Representations of the Black Female body
In a 2004 Glamour magazine article Queen Latifah was asked how she felt her
fans perceived her and whether she thought they believed she had made any difference.
GLAMOUR: You must get a lot of people, fans that come up and say that you’ve
made a big difference for them, because you really sort of did it your way, your own thing.
Queen: I actually had a guy tell me yesterday, “You know what? You really, really
inspire a lot of young women.” And for a guy to come up to you and say that, it just
shows that it doesn’t just affect women. It affects the fathers and the brothers that are
around these women, and care about them and want them to have self-esteem and
confidence in the right things. Just me being, you know, my size and being on TV or
being in a movie and succeeding is like, hey, if she can do it, I can do it. I can feel good
about myself, because she feels good about herself. Sometimes you need that. I needed it
growing up. I didn’t get it too often, because there weren’t a lot of people who looked
like me, but luckily my mom and other friends, people along the way gave me that
encouragement. But you know, girls really need that because the images that they have to
fight with are even worse than what I had to fight with growing up. Everybody is necking
on TV and their stomachs are flat, and if you don’t come with that natural genetic
tendency, then you’ve got to work for it, and you might not get educated on how to eat
properly, or maybe your family can’t afford it or don’t even really know how to feed you 39 in a healthy way. People don’t really consider that when they are putting all of these images out there (Glamour 2004)
Conclusion
Queen Latifah is attempting to provide representation to the full-figured as well as the African American female in some aspects of her career. The true sign of Latifah's success is that studios are feverishly reworking parts written for middle-aged white men or size 2 starlets to serve as vehicles for Latifah. In the 2005 remake of the 1950 film, The
Last Holiday, Queen Latifah plays Georgia Byrd, a shy woman who decides to live life to the fullest after being diagnosed with a terminal illness. The original film was written with the role of Georgia Byrd being a white male named George Byrd. Latifah’s
CoverGirl campaign is breaking barriers offering women of color the chance to be able to walk into the grocery store and actually find a foundation that matches and not have to go to a department store and spend lots of money. She underwent a breast reduction surgery and has been a spokes model for the Vanity Fair Intimates Curvation collection since
2002. Curvation is a collection of intimates, sports bras, and shape wear for the curvaceous woman. Ranging in bra sizes up to 44DDD and shape wear up to XXL, the
Curvation line offers intimate apparel for full-figured women that is actually sexy. Full- figured and sexy do not coincide in the mainstream market but with the help of Queen
Latifah, Curvation is attempting to change that. Also, Queen Latifah launched her own clothing line. CoverGirl is currently the only mainstream makeup company selling a line of products for women of color.
Queen Latifah represents a “safe” black female representative. Queen Latifah’s participation in the CoverGirl ad campaigns began in 2002. In 2004, Latifah helped the 40
CoverGirl Vibes Campaign award almost $50,000 to women who “make the world more
beautiful for others22”. In 2005, CoverGirl launched the Queen Collection with make up
products ranging in over sixty shades to better fit the woman of color. This
groundbreaking campaign has brought affordable makeup to the woman of color. In
previous years, black women either guessed their hue at the grocery store or purchased pricier cosmetics like Fashion Fair and Iman.
Queen Latifah has not recently expressed any particular political or racial views.
Her advocacy campaigns have dealt specifically with “safe” subject such as AIDS and women’s health. Mainstream America better identifies with those who they feel are most similar to them. Like the make-up and clothing, Latifah is promoting lines for women of color, being that issues attacking women of color have not been given much light in the
past. The CoverGirl website offers a program in which you can find makeup colors to
match your skin tone. The Queen Collection is not given as an option when
characteristics of a black female are entered into the program. Instead, CoverGirl
suggests the same make up that offered to their mainstream customers. This is troubling
seeing that there is an entire line dedicated to women of color. When you click the link
for the Queen Collection, you are only able to view the color palettes themselves and not
customize a palette to your specific skin needs further alienating the Black female from
the mainstream image.
Queen Latifah is a representation of a redeveloped image of a black full figured
woman. She broke the boundaries of being portrayed as a traditional mammy figure
considered to be unattractive and unappealing. She has become a representation of
22 www.covergirl.com
41
beauty; a new image if beauty for African-American women. However, in many ways,
Queen Latifah’s image has become racially conformist. In the early nineties, Latifah was
considered a feminist rapper alongside Salt-n-Pepa and MC Lyte. She was socially
conscious until her acting career forced her to take on a more mainstream persona. Her
African headdresses and commanding pantsuits were replaced with chemically processed
hair and fun, flirty attire. Actresses like Tina Turner, Vanessa Williams, and Halle Berry
are examples of those “who gain greater crossover recognition when they demonstrate
that, like Madonna, they too, have a healthy dose of "blonde ambition" (Hooks 162).
Black women strive to reach this perfection by imitation. On another note, this whiteness
that black women have tried to embody through changing their hair color, getting perms,
weaves, and relaxers adds a certain wild side to the black women who are adopting the
style. Being represented publicly as an active sexual being like Tina Turner for example
is attractive. She has the beautiful soft hair with blonde highlights to accent her wild
side.
In 1996 Queen Latifah took on the role as a lesbian in the film Set It Off. This
stirred up controversy and talk that Queen Latifah herself was a lesbian because she had portrayed one on film. Her un-straightened hair and large boyish size were two elements that created the manly lesbian image she played on screen. She naturally wore cornrow braids in her hair. Aside from her wardrobe and outside of the film Queen Latifah’s big tomboyish image stirred up thoughts that she may actually be a lesbian.
Heterosexual black women talk about the extent to which black men
respond more favorably to women with straight or straightened hair.
Lesbian women point to the fact that many of them do not straighten their 42
hair, raising the question of whether or not this gesture is fundamentally
linked to heterosexism and a longing for male approval (Harris,Johnson
114).
Outside of the “big screen” Latifah keeps her hair straightened and well kept. One way to suppress black consciousness is to have power over the black mind and in society hair must be controlled. “Responses to natural hairstyles worn by black women usually reveal the extent to which our natural hair is perceived in white supremacist culture as not only ugly but frightening” (Harris,Johnson 114). Black women have used cast iron hot combs which are heated on the stove and used to press out nappy, kinky hair and make it smoother and straightened. Natural styles get equated to negative consequences. One would question how much of these perceptions of America’s white supremacist culture is internalized, how it becomes internalized racism and a form of oppression23. Queen
Latifah lost some of society’s approval with the lesbian image she portrayed on screen but she made sure that off the screen her image transforms back into what is culturally acceptable.
As a lighter skinned female, Queen Latifah fits the mold of what is considered
black beauty a bit better than darker skinned women, while simultaneously breaking the
mold by not being characterized as a dark skinned full figured black mammy figure.
Lighter skinned black females have always gained acceptance over the darker skinned
females and this may have been both an advantage and revolutionary detail in Queen
Latifah’s career. With lighter skin, black women like Queen Latifah becomes identified
as a white identified black girl. Lighter skin is more acceptable than darker skin in
American society because it has always been more desirable. “Since slavery, whites have
23 Appendix 12 43
rewarded blacks for looking almost white” (Harris, Johnson 105). Light-skinned blacks
were spared from doing fieldwork and hard labor thus creating the notion that there is a
light skin advantage in society. The desire to be “whiter” has been so prominent between white and black that the focus began to shift to light black skin versus dark black skin.
Once Queen Latifah hit the scene in the nineties with her powerful rap lyrics like ‘who
you callin a bitch?’ she placed recognition of the black female body in new ways that
were not recognized before. In order to create such a recognition, “we must be willing to
transgress traditional boundaries. We must no longer shy away from the critical project of
openly interrogating and exploring representations of black female sexuality as they
appear everywhere, especially in popular culture” (Hooks 76). Latifah refocused the lens
of the big black female body making it a symbol for respect (who you callin a bitch?),
non-white superiority (in the name Queen Latifah), and a new desirable beauty
(spokeswoman for models and cosmetics). The numerous films she has made, oscar
nominations received, commercials, rap videos, and hundreds of appearances in the mass
media suggests that this is the new acceptable version of a large beautiful black female
body in American popular culture.
Bell Hooks speaks on the notion that the denied entry of black women into the
domain of beautiful has allowed them access into this world now because magazines
want to show the oppositions of beauty. Therefore magazines introduce a darker female
with kinky hair and voluptuous features like the supermodel Alec Wek24 from Africa.
“They seem to represent an anti aesthetic, one that mocks the very notion of beauty
(Hooks 71).”
24 Appendix 13 44
“Currently black models whose hair is not straightened are often
photographed wearing straight wigs; this seems to be especially the case if
the models’ features are unconventional, i.e., if she has large lips or
particular dark skin, which is not often featured in the magazine (Hooks
71).”
Queen Latifah, an unconventional model for CoverGirl disrupts the media’s definition of
beauty with her larger size, protruding breasts, and thick lips and cheeks. However, she
remains in the bounds of acceptable unconventional black beauty. The hair in her
advertisements is pin straight and even given a lighter tone. Her hair is not thick and
“naturally” black but rather naturally white. In addition to the makeup, her face is
accented with bright camera lights to even out the perfection that the camera tried to
produce out of her profound black features. “The longing that is most visible is that of
the black woman to embody and be encircled by whiteness, personified by the possession
of long straight hair (Hooks 71).” So even though the audience sees a full figured woman
representing beauty as a CoverGirl and not a mammy figure, the audience can still see
how Queen Latifah’s image is encircled by whiteness. This is an aesthetic that suggests
that black women, while beautiful in their own ways, must still resemble white women in
some form in order to be considered truly beautiful.
Even Queen Latifah’s song choices have rendered her colorless, switching from her empowering rap lyrics of the early nineties to singing classic jazz ballads. The jazz album is entitled The Dana Owens Album. The use of Latifah’s birth name and not her hip-hop title serves as a method to further distance her mainstream persona from her hip- hop roots, therefore making “Queen Latifah” more of a persona than an actual entity as 45
well. The name Latifah which means “delicate and sensitive” in Arabic, was given to her
as a nickname by a Muslim cousin when she was eight so the name was ingrained in her
from the beginning of her career. Adding the word Queen helped to reinforce Latifah’s
regal persona. Angela Davis once said “according to African tradition, one’s name is
supposed to capture the essence of one’s being (Davis, 100)”. In his comic strip,
Boondocks25 creator Aaron McGruder claimed that Latifah should be stripped of her crown because of the way she chose to depict the Black female in Bringing Down the
House. Her racially conscious, feminist views would hold no place and no value in mainstream mass media and Latifah has chosen to make her image more mainstream in order to conform as a result. Though breaking stereotypical barriers that full figured black women were once subjected to, Queen Latifah’s evolution as an artist is one full of conformity for commodity.
25 Comic strip by Aaron McGruder that feature debates and issues affecting the minority communities. 46
Appendix
1. Mammy Caricature
2. Mammy Caricature
3. Advertisement for Aunt Jemima product
4. Jezebel Caricature
5. Nina Mae McKinney
6. Jezebel Stereotype from the film Coffy
7. Queen Latifah and Steve Martin in the film Bringing Down the House
8. Queen Latifah in the film Chicago
9. Queen Latifah as Matron Mama Morton in the film Chicago
10. Queen Latifah, Ladies First, song lyrics
11. Queen Latifah, U.N.I.T.Y, song lyrics
12. Hot Comb by Natasha Trethewey
13. African Supermodel Alec Wek 47
Appendix 1
Mammy Caricature 48
Appendix 2
Mammy Caricature 49
Appendix 3
Advertisement for Aunt Jemima product 50
Appendix 4
Jezebel Caricature 51
Appendix 5
52
Appendix 6
Jezebel Stereotype from the film Coffy 53
Appendix 7
Queen Latifah and Steve Martin in the film Bringing Down the House 54
Appendix 8
Queen Latifah in Miramax's Chicago – 2002 55
Appendix 9
Queen Latifah as Matron Mama Morton 56
Appendix 10
Queen Latifah Ladies First Lyrics
[Queen Latifah] The ladies will kick it, the rhyme that is wicked Those that don't know how to be pros get evicted A woman can bear you, break you, take you Now it's time to rhyme, can you relate to A sister dope enough to make you holler and scream
[Monie Love] Ayo, let me take it from here, Queen... Excuse me but I think I'm about do To get into precisely what I am about to do I'm conversating to the folks that have no whatsoever clue So listen very carefully as I break it down for you Merrily merrily merrily merrily hyper happy overjoyed Pleased with all the beats and rhymes my sisters have employed Slick and smooth throwing down the sound totally a yes Let me state the position: Ladies first, yes? (Yes)
(Yeah, there's going to be some changes in here)
[Monie Love] Believe me when I say being a woman is great, you see I know all the fellas out there will agree with me Not for being one but for being with one Because when it's time for loving it's the woman that gets some Strong, stepping, strutting, moving on Rhyming, cutting, and not forgetting We are the ones that give birth To the new generation of prophets because it's Ladies First
[Queen Latifah] I break into a lyrical freestyle Grab the mic, look into the crowd and see smiles Cause they see a woman standing up on her own two Sloppy slouching is something I won't do Some think that we can't flow (can't flow) Stereotypes, they got to go (got to go) I'm a mess around and flip the scene into reverse (With what?) With a little touch of "Ladies First"
Who said the ladies couldn't make it, you must be blind If you don't believe, well here, listen to this rhyme 57
Ladies first, there's no time to rehearse I'm divine and my mind expands throughout the universe A female rapper with the message to send the Queen Latifah is a perfect specimen
[Monie Love] My sister, can I get some?
[Queen Latifah] Sure, Monie Love, grab the mic and get dumb
[Monie Lovie] Yo, praise me not for simply being what I am Born in L-O-N-D-O-N and sound American You dig exactly where I'm coming from You want righteous rhyming, Imma give you some To enable you to aid yourself and get paid And the material that has no meaning I wish to slay Pay me every bit of your attention Like mother, like daughter, I would also like to mention I wish for you to bring me to, bring me to the rhythm Of which is now systematically given Desperately stressing I'm the daughter of a sister Who's the mother of a brother who's the brother of another Plus one more; all four Have a job to do, we doing it Respect due, to the mother who's the root of it And next up is me, the M-O-N-I-E L-O-V-E And I'm first cause I'm a L-A-D-I-E
[Queen Latifah] Contact and in fact, the style, it gets harder Cooling on the scene with my European partner Laying down track after track, waiting for the climax When I get there, that's when I tax The next man, or the next woman It doesn't make a difference, keep the competition coming And I'll recite the chapter in verse The title of this recital is "Ladies First"
58
Appendix 11
Queen Latifah U.N.I.T.Y lyrics
Uh, U.N.I.T.Y., U.N.I.T.Y. that's a unity U.N.I.T.Y., love a black man from infinity to infinity (Who you calling a bitch?) U.N.I.T.Y., U.N.I.T.Y. that's a unity (You gotta let him know) (You go, come on here we go) U.N.I.T.Y., Love a black woman from (You got to let him know) infinity to infinity (You ain't a bitch or a ho) U.N.I.T.Y., U.N.I.T.Y. that's a unity (You gotta let him know) (You go, come on here we go) U.N.I.T.Y., Love a black man from (You got to let him know) infinity to infinity (You ain't a bitch or a ho)
Instinct leads me to another flow Everytime I hear a brother call a girl a bitch or a ho Trying to make a sister feel low You know all of that gots to go Now everybody knows there's exceptions to this rule Now don't be getting mad, when we playing, it's cool But don't you be calling out my name I bring wrath to those who disrespect me like a dame That's why I'm talking, one day I was walking down the block I had my cutoff shorts on right cause it was crazy hot I walked past these dudes when they passed me One of 'em felt my booty, he was nasty I turned around red, somebody was catching the wrath Then the little one said (Yeah me bitch) and laughed Since he was with his boys he tried to break fly Huh, I punched him dead in his eye and said "Who you calling a bitch?"
(Here we go) U.N.I.T.Y., U.N.I.T.Y. that's a unity (You gotta let him know) (You go, come on here we go) U.N.I.T.Y., Love a black woman from (You got to let him know) infinity to infinity (You ain't a bitch or a ho) (Here we go) U.N.I.T.Y., U.N.I.T.Y. that's a unity (You gotta let him know) (You go, come on here we go) U.N.I.T.Y., Love a black man from (You got to let him know) infinity to infinity (You ain't a bitch or a ho)
I hit the bottom, there ain't nowhere else to go but up Bad days at work, give you an attitude then you were rough 59
And take it out on me but that's about enough You put your hands on me again I'll put your ass in handcuffs I guess I fell so deep in love I grew dependency I was too blind to see just how it was affecting me All I knew was you, you was all the man I had And I was scared to let you go, even though you treated me bad But I don't want my kids to see me getting beat down By daddy smacking mommy all around You say I'm nothing without ya, but I'm nothing with ya A man don't really love you if he hits ya This is my notice to the door, I'm not taking it no more I'm not your personal whore, that's not what I'm here for And nothing good gonna come to ya til you do right by me Brother you wait and see (Who you calling a bitch?)
(Here we go) U.N.I.T.Y., U.N.I.T.Y. that's a unity (You gotta let him know) (You go, come on here we go) U.N.I.T.Y., Love a black woman from (You got to let him know) infinity to infinity (You ain't a bitch or a ho) (Here we go) U.N.I.T.Y., U.N.I.T.Y. that's a unity (You gotta let him know) (You go, come on here we go) U.N.I.T.Y., Love a black man from (You got to let him know) infinity to infinity (You ain't a bitch or a ho)
What's going on in your mind is what I ask ya But like Yo-Yo, you don't hear me though You wear a rag around your head and you call yourself a "Gangsta Bitch" now that you saw Apache's video I saw you wilding, acting like a fool I peeped you out the window jumping girls after school But where did all of this come from? A minute ago, you was a nerd and nobody ever heard of ya Now you a wannabe... hard You barely know your ABC's, please There's plenty of people out there with triggers ready to pull it Why you trying to jump in front of the bullet (Young lady) Uh, and real bad girls are the silent type Ain't none of this work getting your face sliced Cause that's what happened to your homegirl, right? Bucking with nobody She got to wear that for life (Who you calling a bitch?)
(Here we go) U.N.I.T.Y., U.N.I.T.Y. that's a unity (You gotta let him know) (You go, come on here we go) 60
U.N.I.T.Y., Love a black woman from (You got to let him know) infinity to infinity (You ain't a bitch or a ho) (Here we go) U.N.I.T.Y., U.N.I.T.Y. that's a unity (You gotta let him know) (You go, come on here we go) U.N.I.T.Y., Love a black man from (You must let him know) infinity to infinity (You ain't a bitch or a ho)
61
Appendix 12
HOT COMB Natasha Trethewey
Halfway through an afternoon of coca cola bottles sweating rings on veneered tabletops and the steel drone of window fans above the silence in each darkened room, I open a stiff drawer and find the old hot combs, black with grease, the teeth still pungent as burning hair. One is small, fine-toothed as if for a child. Holding it,
I think of my mother’s slender wrist, the curve of her neck as she leaned over the stove, her eyes shut as she pulled the wooden handle and laid flat the wisps at her temples. The hear in our kitchen made her glow that morning I watched her wincing, the hot comb singeing her brow, sweat glistening above her lips, her face made strangely beautiful as only suffering can do.
(Harris, Johnson 108,109) 62
Appendix 13
African Supermodel Alec Wek 63
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