Mammy, Why Won't You Lose Some Weight?

     An easily bypassed part of racism culture in pre-emancipation America is the widespread desexualization and demoralization of African American women. Slave owners would often sexually abuse their female slaves, which almost always went ignored and unpunished. Any children that were born with mixed race were treated as slaves as well; many were sold and unable to reunite with their parents. When the African American presence gradually increased in the media, a culture that strongly desired to conceal this “taboo” aspect of slave-owning seeked to find a way to discourage any notion of a sexual, attractive female slave--a slave that could pose a threat to the mistress of the house. Thus, the “mammy” caricature was born, where a obese, dominating, and unfeminine African American women served as a hard-working, devoted, and good-humored house slave. This sharply contrasted the ideal woman who was slender, gentle, and subservient to the man of the house, also suggesting the notion that African American women were unfit for functioning in a “normal” white-dominated society.

     The mammy caricature was heavily incorporated into the cartoons of this era, many of which are still enjoyed by children by today, such as Tom and Jerry and Looney Tunes. Gross exaggerations of mammy caricatures were permitted through the surreal drawing styles of the cartoonists. The popularity and success of these cartoons contributed to a long-lasting stereotype of the loud-mouthed and controlling African American housemaid, especially in the minds of the young and impressionable children who watched these cartoons. The mammy stereotype is further perpetuated in movies such as The Help and Forrest Gump, where an overweight black woman is given the role of being the caretaker for a white person. Such movies, although filmed long after the liberation of African slaves in America, still suggest the existence of a degrading caricature of a black woman. Nowadays, black women are still constantly desexualized and discouraged from expressing their sexuality, although progress is being made through African American women who use elements of pop culture for female empowerment. Modern efforts to eradicate the remnants of a racist culture are vital steps to ensure a more bias-free future for American society.