Student submission – Final Project VCU SPR25

 Final Reflection Paper

            Misogynoir, the extreme dislike and prejudice of Black Women, stems from the practice of misogyny and anti-Black racism they face, especially in social media. In class, we talked about the stereotypes Black women often face, as well as the bullying and violence that impact their mental health and physical well-being. For my final project, I decided to make a collage comparing the effects of misogynoir and colorism that Black Women used to face and still face today. Colorism is the main way harmful stereotypes shape misogynoiristic views and categorize women based on their backgrounds to essentially antagonize and compare each other. The stereotypes I showed in my mood board were that Black women were frequently compared to men, primarily based on their body shapes. This comparison led to their perception as either ‘bad’ or ‘beautiful.’ Black women were also subjected to the pressure to alter their skin color and hair texture, as well as the pervasive ‘ghetto, angry Black Woman stereotype’ that is often conveyed across various platforms.

            A Black Woman’s body is always subjected to constant criticism. Whether it’s about their natural bodies or enhanced bodies, they all face some negative backlash. Celebrities such as Serena and Wendy Williams often receive this backlash because their body shapes don’t align with society’s ideal standards for a woman, leading to constant comparisons to a man’s body. Surprisingly, Meg the Stallion, a curvier black woman who many try to achieve her figure, also experienced this backlash because of her height.

            Colorism has been upheld in society for a while, grasping PoC tightly. Darker-skinned women are always seen as ugly, while lighter-skinned women are beautiful. This concept is proven time and time again in various TV shows and music videos. Black men in the Hip/Hop industry strongly use their misogynoiristic mindsets to show prejudice to dark skin women. From Kanye’s interview with Essence Magazine stating “If it wasn’t for race mixing there’d be no video girls. Me and most of our friends like mutts a lot…” to Kodak Black’s “Aye where them yellow bones? I don’t want no black bitch, I’m already black I don’t need a black bitch” just shows that lighter skinned women hold the beauty standard that has been uprooted by colorism ideals and that there is internalized self hate within the community of dark skinned individuals. One caveat I’d like to point out is that many Black men in the entertainment industry don’t like Black Women but seek their features. An example is the whole Kardashian/Jenner family; Most of the women undergo surgery to get features Black women are naturally blessed with like fuller lips, and an hourglass figure and some even get shades of makeup a couple shades darker than their actual skin color but through all this, Black women still get discredited and negatively stereotyped while white women somehow get called beautiful for enhancing their features.

            The angry, black women stereotype is one of the reasons for this internalized hate because the only marginalized group of people being attacked by this is dark-skinned women. From TV shows like Martin using comparison to Pam and Gina, all hides under the guise of colorism and misogynoir by painting Pam as ugly, especially by Martin (they are the same complexion), and through this constant name-calling, we always see Pam as mean and angry.

This is also seen in the kids’ show The Proud Family with Dijonay, who’s seen as loud and ghetto.

            Knowing all of this, addressing this issue includes fully understanding the harmful content shown in society and holding companies accountable for letting this type of content be shown on their platform. In doing this, we would be able to amplify the Black Women’s voice and work on creating safer online spaces that are inclusive and free from other forms of discrimination.