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Policing of Black Women's Bodies in Online Commentary of Flavor of Love Ebony Artis XULAneXUS Volume 15 | Issue 1 Article 1 12-1-2017 Policing of Black Women's Bodies in Online Commentary of Flavor of Love Ebony Artis Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.xula.edu/xulanexus Recommended Citation Artis, Ebony (2017) "Policing of Black Women's Bodies in Online Commentary of Flavor of Love," XULAneXUS: Vol. 15 : Iss. 1 , Article 1. Available at: https://digitalcommons.xula.edu/xulanexus/vol15/iss1/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by XULA Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in XULAneXUS by an authorized editor of XULA Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Artis: Policing of Black Women's Bodies in Online Commentary of Flavor o Volume 15, Issue 1, December 2017. Research Manuscript. 16-27. <http://xulanexus.xula.edu/textpattern/index.php?id=116> Policing of Black Women’s Bodies in Online Commentary of Flavor of Love Ebony Artis Faculty Mentor: Dr. Ross Louis, Communication Studies Abstract Ebony Artis is a 2017 graduate The purpose of this research is to use thematic analysis on of Xavier from Mobile, Alabama comments posted about Black women on YouTube videos for who majored in Communication season two of Flavor of Love, which can be connected to Studies. Her research interests stereotypes that were created before reality television got started. include topics linked to Black women are stereotyped in the media in many ways. Reality intersectionality, sexuality, and television helps to broadcast these stereotypes (the Mammy (very misogynoir. Artis’ work in motherly), the Jezebel (very sexually positive), and the Sapphire XULAneXUS is the result of her (very rude and “ghetto”) to multitudes of people in their audience. senior capstone project in Flavor of Love is one of the most watched reality love TV shows Communication Studies. She also worked with Dr. Tia Smith marketed towards the African American community (Caruso, in Mass Communication on the 2015). In the comment sections, “real” people are being policed by project “Gender, Race, and online commenters. I applied thematic analysis to organize the Romance in Reality TV.” Artis Flavor of Love commentary into clusters: name calling [n=614], is currently an intern with the ugly [n=429], “real women” and comparison to other women Dollar General Bowl in Mobile, [n=246], pretty [n=185], and sexualizing bodies [n=179]). These and later plans to attend graduate clusters help us understand the commentary in relation to Black school. women, their bodies, ideas of beauty, how they are evaluated in relation to other women, and the correlation between stereotypes and reality television show characters. The findings line up with the three previously stated stereotypes that effect Black women. Key Terms: • Online Commentary • Black Women • Thematic Analysis • YouTube • Flavor of Love • Realty Television Published by XULA Digital Commons, 2017 • Stereotypes 1 XULAneXUS, Vol. 15 [2017], Iss. 1, Art. 1 Black Women’s Bodies 17 Introduction post previews, and then allows public commentary on the uploaded episode, it is the Women worry about many things when it best platform to collect the online commentary comes to the policing of their bodies because data. I apply thematic analysis, which is a “being a lady” often comes with a list of popular research tactic used in qualitative unwritten cultural rules which women are to analysis, to place the comments into themes. I follow. Black women’s sexuality has been connect race and gender throughout this study policed for centuries in particular because of the using intersectionality, which allow researchers intersectional connection between being a to identify the importance of minority identities. woman and being African American. A few examples come from stereotypes created for This research illustrates the influence of Black women during slavery, such as the misogynoir, which is misogyny directed Mammy figure, the Jezebel, and the Sapphire specifically at Black women, and online (Cox, 2005). This project explores how race commentary (Elizabeth, 2017). Similar research influences the way people comment on and has been done on race, reality shows, online police Black women’s bodies by considering comments, and the show Flavor of Love, but YouTube commentary posted in reaction to these have not been combined in a single study. season two of Flavor of Love, a reality show on Researchers such as Lisa Nakamura (2014), who VH1. Analyzing commentary in the comment investigates race and identity in online spaces, section of YouTube is a method of studying the and Jean Burgess (2009), who studies YouTube way we interact and communicate our identities. culture and online commentary, have inspired I will look at how this online platform offers the this study’s focus on online commentary and ability to mask one’s identity while giving race. My research also focuses on online personal commentary. Online commentary, and commentary of a television show with a high specifically a form of trolling, often has been Black demographic. Previous researchers have discredited as lacking credibility because anyone looked at racist online comments in relation to can add to the discourse under platforms such as news sites (Hughey, 2013), race and the way YouTube. Verification is not required to Black people are shown on the urban website comment, and the comments are governed only WorldStarHipHop (Cramer, 2016), and the ways by other YouTubers. Although this is true, the we are taught race through the usage of social validity or realness of a comment is not as media (Nakagawa, 2014). The internet is an important as the fact that the comment is now on important part of our culture, and what we say the web to impact others. online should be viewed as a form of communication that matters. Commentary on The following research questions guide Black female characters in reality television the project: How does race impact the way Black shows is a way to see the transformation and women’s bodies are policed (also known as body consistency of stereotypes from previous politics), which is the practice of society technologies. regulating and trying to correct the human body, within online commentary? How do historical Literature Review stereotypes of Black women relate to the policing of Black women’s bodies? To address Policing of Black Women’s Bodies these questions, the project focuses on YouTube The policing and constraint of Black commentary from Flavor of Love. Since women’s bodies is not a new topic, but the YouTube is a platform that allows individuals to internet has added a new context in which to XULAneXUS: Xavier University of Louisiana’s Undergraduate Research Journal https://digitalcommons.xula.edu/xulanexus/vol15/iss1/1 2 Artis: Policing of Black Women's Bodies in Online Commentary of Flavor o 18 E. Artis consider it. Policing of Black women is shown in Lauren Cramer (2016) looked at race and the the stereotypes that have been created and way Black people are shown on the urban depicted in television and film. The three website WorldStarHipHop (WSHH), which is common stereotypes for Black women known for fights, “Black” humor, and Black perpetuated in media images are the Mammy, the women doing sexual dances like twerking and Sapphire, and the Jezebel (Cox, 2005). The pole dancing. Crammer’s argument is that Mammy stereotype comes from the idea that WSHH can include nonblack bodies in a way to Black women are servants and are seen as not deflect the idea that this reflects urban Black sexual to the point that they are written off as culture. asexual (Cox, 2005). The Sapphire stereotype is said to be the “typical angry black woman.” You Reality Television can identify this character by her snapping her Described as a television show that is fingers and rolling her neck “with attitude” (Cox, generally unscripted and unrehearsed, reality 2005). This stereotype breeds the idea that Black television has been a hit since Survivor, which women are “aggressive, ill tempered, illogical, was one of the most popular reality television overbearing, hostile, and ignorant without shows aired originally on CBS in 1999 provocation” (Ashley, 2014). The Jezebel figure (Dubrofsky, 2008). Survivor, which is based on a is known to be sexually appealing and enjoys Swedish show Expedition Robinson that advances on her because she uses her sex appeal premiered in May of 2000, is a reality show that to get what she wants. The Jezebel stereotype placed a group of people on an island to compete hyper-sexualizes Black women, which frequently for money (Cooper, 2016). Reality television is occurs in Flavor of Love. one of the most popular forms of television programming (Cooper, 2016). Reality television As researcher Jane Splawn (1997) shows were popular around the 2000s with observes, Black women’s bodies historically shows such as COPS and The Real World, but have been viewed and written in the same shows did not start to see larger numbers of context. Black women are property and owned. viewers until competition formats of reality Slavery set up a system in which Black women’s shows formed (Cooper, 2016). Though it claims bodies were literally owned, beaten, and raped to be a real representation of the lives presented, (Williams, 2016). The Jezebel stereotype plays it is not necessarily real. In fact, people who off the idea that Black women’s bodies are on participate in reality shows are not even called display and available for commentary. If actors to increase the idea of it being real individuals think that Black women are born to (Wayne, 2015). be promiscuous and known to be sexual objects, it is easier to add additional shame to their Flavor of Love follows Flavor Flav, an bodies and the way they choose to present their artist from the hip hop group Public Enemy, on sexuality.
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