Race and gender: Their implications for Blacks\u27 sexuality

Historical stereotypes of Blacks as hypersexual, libidinous, rapists, and sexually loose, have been shown to be evident in contemporary views of this group\u27s sexuality. However, this research has not always been methodologically rigorous. Moreover, less is known about the specific dimensions of these stereotypes. In this study, four dimensions of hypersexuality theorized to be views of Blacks\u27 sexuality by Whites were investigated (I. Interest in or Frequency of Sex, II. Sexual Aggressiveness, III. Sexual Prowess and IV. Casual Attitudes about Sex). A sample of 331White college students (238 women, 93 men) viewed four neutral yearbook pictures of 1 Black male, 1 Black female, 1 White male and 1 White female and described Sexual Attitudes, Sexual Behaviors and Sexual Experiences they believed were typical of the individual in the picture. The pictures were presented in four order sequences and participants were randomized into one of the four orders. A Repeated multivariate analysis of variance (RMANOVA) test was conducted to investigate the relationship between target\u27s race, target\u27s gender and order sequence on perception of hypersexuality. A 3-way interaction effect was noted between the three factors. Pairwise comparison tests were conducted to further investigate the interaction between race (Black male and White male; Black female and White female) and gender, respectively, (Black male and Black female; White male and White female) at each level of order sequence. The results showed the Black target male was higher overall on the four dimensions than the White male target, but not for all order sequences. The Black female target and White female target fluctuated between being higher across the four dimensions for three order sequences. The effect for gender revealed that the Black male target was perceived higher on those dimensions and across all four order sequences than the Black female. Similar results were noted between the White targets for Dimensions I, II and IV. The White female target was perceived higher on Dimension III than the White male target for three order sequences. These findings indicate that the race and gender of targets were interactive in participants\u27 perceptions of target\u27s sexuality, however. The interaction between race and gender regarding perceptions of hypersexuality was modified by some of the levels of the order sequence variable. This moderating effect was evident between the female targets for three order sequences. For the male targets, the Black male target was perceived overall higher in these dimensions for all four order sequences, suggesting that order sequence plays a less significant role in Whites\u27 perceptions of the Black male\u27s sexuality. Implications for these findings are discussed