Too many fat and sassy black chicks on TV?

[Cruzan]

At 200 pounds plus — most of that pure attitude — she is hard to miss.

Her onscreen presence takes on many variations, but she is easily recognizable by a few defining traits. Other than her size, she is almost always black. She typically finds herself in an exchange that is either confrontational or embarrassing. And her best line is often little more than a sassy “Mmmm hmmm.”

This caricature, playing on stereotypes of heavy black women as boisterous and sometimes aggressive, has been showing up for some time in stand-up comedy routines and in movies like “Big Momma’s House’’ and “Diary of a Mad Black Woman.’’ Often, the pieces are produced by directors and writers who are black themselves.

With black creators giving more acceptability to the image, it is now starting to appear more often in television commercials as well. Most recently some variation of this character has appeared in commercials for Dairy Queen, Universal Studios and Captain Morgan rum.

But despite the popularity of such characters among blacks, the use of the image of big black women as the target of so many jokes is troublesome to some marketers and media scholars.

“It is perpetuating a stereotype that black females are strong, aggressive, controlling people,’’ said Tommy E. Whittler, a marketing professor at DePaul University. “I don’t think you want to do that.’’

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/01/business/media/01adco.html

[TheDebbieDee]

1. I AM a black female...........

and I AM strong and independent.

I AM NOT agressive, but rather assertive on issues important to me.

I don't even know how to be controlling!

Just my 2 cents.

p.s. I also weigh more than 200 pounds......I'm working on that!

[hadrons]

2. "stereotype that black females are strong, aggressive, controlling people"

in the "Rants & Raves" section of craigslist this is the second most popular stereotype used (only the "why do Asian women like dating White guys so much" stereotype gets more play)

[DianaForRussFeingold]

3. I admire them!

I also love their sense of humor. The ones I know are great. I like Big Mama's house. I also liked The Nutty professor. They are all fat and very lovable and funny. :rofl: I hear even Janet Jackson has packed on a few pounds!

[Fleshdancer]

4. Not enough sassy Asian, Caucasian, Hispanic women of any size on TV

Not once have I read an article wondering whether men are portrayed as too aggressive or controlling on television. The double standard is ridiculous.

I'm not sure what a woman's size has to do with "perpetuating a stereotype that black females are strong, aggressive, controlling people" but I personally LOVE seeing women on television bigger than a size 0. Any night of the week I can turn on my TV and see big men, thin men, tall men, short men, bald men, ugly men, gorgeous men, average men. Can the same be said for women?

As for skin color, we still don't have enough minorities on TV. I know of one sitcom about a Hispanic family and the only Asian characters I can think of is the Korean couple on LOST. Thankfully we have more African-Americans represented but the numbers are still too low. As for gender and aggression, it makes me skin crawl whenever I see a push to confine women in to ridiculous patriarchal gender roles.

What's the alternative? Thin black Donna Reed characters? How realistic is that?

[Cocoa]

5. the Laotian character on "King of the Hill" cracks me up

probably my favorite Asian character of all time.

[Fleshdancer]

8. lol! I forgot about that family eom

[DianaForRussFeingold]

7. I totally agree. I would love to see a black president portrayed on TV.

OMG... Oh second thought maybe not!

[Connie_Corleone]

12. Already happened. "24" had a black president.

He was a candidate for president the first season and president the second season.

[LiberalFighter]

16. Morgan Freeman in that movie with the comet

[KurtNYC]

6. Television is littered with stereotypes - ads even more so

How many commercials are there where the guy is an idiot and his girlfriend or wife knows all about the product? In fact, now that I think about, virtually every character used in TV ads is a stereotype. The ad makers would probably say they have a very short time to tell a little story and sell the product so using familiar, easily identified characters helps them achieve that. Here are characters and their most common stereotype IMHO:
kids - highly energetic, craving Sunny D or some other food product
teen girls - on a cell phone, fashion conscious, too cool for their parents
parents - usually driving a large vehicle while taking their kids to sports or to get food
mature people - they fall and can't get up OR they dance and defy their age thanks to ______ (product)
stay at home mom - dances with swiffer duster or is otherwise blissfully happy to house work with (product)
guy at office - 30-something, not goodlooking, not bad looking, records bass fishing while conducting a meeting or buys cell phone service and is then hugged by practice family, Generally stumbles through whatever purchase is being advocated.

[sendero]

9. In real life..

... as in the movies and on TV, you are what you look like to most people.

[Bill McBlueState]

10. exactly

Those stereotypes can be annoying as hell. I understand why they do it, but perhaps the stereotypes could be updated for the 2000s?

I don't know of any mixed-gender couples my age where the woman does all of the grocery shopping or is singularly responsible for food preparation. So I'm not sure why they always feature women in ads for cleaning and cooking products.

There's the KFC ad where Mom is busy and doesn't have time to cook dinner, so she buys a bucket full o' crap and brings it home for Dad and the kids, who are all sitting around waiting to eat. Who is this Dad who's at home already and can't make the slightest contribution to the evening meal? Most of the dads I know would cook a full dinner themselves.

[DianaForRussFeingold]

11. I haven't had KFC for ages, I remember when a bucket was a bucket

Mmmm... I loved that chicken.I even bought a KFC type fryer once.It was more like a pressure cooker. It made lousy chicken.I couldn't get the original recipe.

[deaniac21]

13. KFC is done in pressure cookers. I have a friend that installs

them in KFC franchises.

[Red Right and BLUE]

14. Here's one stereotype I would LOVE to see banished:

The "devious man" character who misleads his gf or spouse or is really sneaky. He doesn't tell the WHOLE story or he takes credit for something he didn't do. Or he's always looking to get out of the situation rather than dealing with it. That irritates me to death. In the context of the commercials, it appeals to men that this is the "cool" and "manly" way to be.

As for the large, strong black woman, I have honestly met many. While the lady in the Universal commercial is very "token" (the first time I saw this my eyebrows sort of went up), she also seems accurate to me. A fun-loving mother. Loud and boisterous she might be, but fun and warm, too. This character seems very positive to me. Women like this do exist. Nothing wrong with this portrayal, IMO.

I think the red flags here might be rising because so many people associate a large, assertive black woman with people who have an entitlement complex, AKA "an attitude"(think Jerry Springer). I don't think this is a character that springs to mind only for people who aren't African American, but I can only guess, I can't speak for an African American person. It also doesn't help that she sort of sticks out like a sore thumb in a sea of white people. THAT is the innaccurate, uncomfortable thing about this, I think. I think maybe she wouldn't have seemed so "token" if the audience was shown as mixed as it is in real life. But I think she herself seems very real and positive.

I am a white woman with a Native American background and I don't know what it's like to be someone else, so I hope that I haven't offended anyone. I can only say what I see. I also can't make any strong statements one way or another on this issue because I feel it's a really complex one. Preconceived notions aren't good and if I'm going to try to understand someone who is different, it does me no good not to admit that I have some. I think we all do.

[LeftyMom]

15. OTOH, black women get to have more diversity of body type than other women

on television and in film. They can be short or tall, slim or fat, busty or not, blue-black or cafe au lait and they still get depicted as powerful, sexual, funny and desirable more often than not. Depictions of caucasian and latina women generally assume that they can be conventionally attractive- tall and slim with ample breasts that defy gravity- and sexy or they are relegated to sexless and generally subordinate roles, the mother, the neighbor, the cleaning lady. Asian women, hardly seen outside of action flicks and porn, must be youthful, slightly built, delicately featured and sexy. There are no older asian women except in adaptations of Amy Tan novels and in the background in movies about the Vietnam war.

So while there's much to criticize in hollywood depictions of black women, particularly the assumption that they are universally loud and contemptous of black men, they are in some ways less skewed than depictions of other women, and that seems to be borne out by data that show that overweight aftican american females have much better self-esteem and body image than thier lighter hued sistren of similar size.