by Jim Osborn

Created on: March 15, 2009   Last Updated: April 06, 2009

In American society, we are more then adept at creating, maintaining, and rationalizing stereotypes. The image were are constantly shown of black women in the media and on television is the aggressive, pushy black women who always lays down the law.

While portraying black women as successful and intelligent is positive, characterizing them as antagonistic and angry has a harmful effect upon the image of all black women. People are individuals and each person has a unique personality and temperament and it's unjustified to depict all black women as the same.

The black women we see fictionalized in media and T.V. are almost always loud and livid. I believe that certain elements have portrayed black women in this light ignorantly thinking they were making a social statement that said black women are not helpless and they have power in the household.

Unfortunately the negative side of this fictionalized portrayal is to insinuate that black women are less feminine, nurturing, gentle, and passionate, and nothing could be further from the real truth. Media and television seem reluctant to create black female characters who are soft spoken, reflective, and mild.

Where are the black equivalents of old T.V. mothers like Florence Henderson of the Brady Bunch or Barbara Billingsley of Leave it to Beaver? Why are black females almost always mad, gruff, strict and overbearing ?

When reporting on real life black women, the stories seem to focus on power, wealth, or the misdeeds of the lady in question. Black lady entertainers are commonly referred to as diva's instead of mothers and wives and hip hop artists are almost always reported negatively and scandalously.

Another powerful stereotype that is fruitful is the insinuation that black women are loose and disreputable and that many lack the knowledge of who their "Baby Daddy" is! Being a single mother in America is no new phenomenon and shows like "Maury" and "Jerry Springer" have made our nation look foolish in the eyes of the world and helped perpetuate this silly stereotype.

Bringing young black mothers onto their shows is a popular theme and giving them multiple tests to multiple men to try and discover the paternity of the father and making it a circus like atmosphere have made people believe the lies and not understand that shows like this exploit people for ratings and entertainment.

Sex is used as a median to sell cloths, cosmetics, music, and many other items and black women are shown wearing scanty, revealing clothing

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