Stereotypes And The Self-Perceptions Of Black Women: How Places And Identity Strategies Matter

Black women are one of the most oppressed groups in America because they possess two qualities of being a minority in terms of race and gender. Whether it is magazines, television shows, or music videos, controlling images are established in the preservation of hegemonic power and to condone the remaining marginalization of black women. Black women are seen mostly sexually exploited in hip-hop. Black women are continuously being oppressed through hip-hop’s constructions created to reinforce ideals about race and gender positioning and inferiority in a hegemonic masculine world, Hip-hop promotes negative images of black women as sexual objects and the exploitation of black women’s bodies. The purpose of this study is to explore if college setting is associated with hip-hop fandom, endorsement of Jezebel stereotypes, density and duration of identities, self-objectification and self-esteem. Places might matter for dealing with stereotypes because the overall cultural atmosphere, ideas and ideologies, and general structure of the place may contribute to overall construction of racial and gender identity. I collected data by giving questionnaires to black female students at Jackson State University and the University of Mississippi. The questionnaire consisted of three novel scales created by the researcher, the Density and Duration of Identities Scale, Self-Objectification by Appearance Scale, and Self-Objectification by Personality Scale, and also included the Hip-hop Fandom Scale, Modern Jezebel Scale, and Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale. Chi-square tests were used to determine statistical differences between campuses and there was a statistical difference where young black females endorsed Jezebel stereotypes more at JSU. A series of multiple regressions were performed using campus, hip-hop fandom, and identity strategies as independent variables, skin color type, hair type, and body type as control variables, and the Modern Jezebel Scale, a scale used to assess stereotypic images, as the dependent variable. Based on regression analysis, campus does matter when it comes to black young females endorsing black women’s sexual stereotypes. Major implications of my findings suggest that place influences black women’s identity, controlling for endorsing or resisting sexual stereotypes and identity strategies