1 Scripting Black Woman’s Body Name Institution Course Instructor Date 2 Scripting Black Woman’s Body Each culture tends to construct the expectations and norms for feminine behavior and femininity. In most cases, black women are projected as untamed, impure, and sexually promiscuous, and such images are broadly accepted, utilized, and shared to create perceptions about black women. Cox & Ward (2019) agrees that literature and media are virtual channels of gender socialization. According to Jordan-Zachery (2017), Black female body' scripting is relational since authors compare it with other Black women, Whites, and Black men. The relational scripting depicts power structures deployed to showcase what people see to represent the Black woman. Consequently, the reflection strengthens the notion that the body of a Black woman is a site for varying interpretations and projections. Scripting entails inscribing different meanings onto the human body. It goes beyond negative images and stereotypes to how people treat Black bodies. In this context, scripting describes the act of using the human body to generate discussion topics, through which people use stereotypes and signs to assign a meaning. For instance, the western culture literature depicts the back women bodies as objects for sexual pleasure (Stevens, 2015). As a result, the body acts as a discursive text, with scripts evoking specific narrative modes that the public uses. Forms of Scripting Black Women The Ass Scripting As a metaphor, the signifies who is rejected or accepted by society. Ass’s value varies across ethnic groups and cultures. For instance, Michelle Obama’s butt suggests a kind of racial authenticity and pride (Jordan-Zachery, 2017). It implies that a Black woman with such behind is valued and perceived as a challenge to White’s beauty standards and should be celebrated. Partly, the depiction reflects Black women’s absence from mainstream media. 3 As a result, media outlets reduce the Black woman to buttocks, a single body part used to view, sell, and determine her belongingness. Jordan-Zachery (2017) highlights the multidimensional nature of ass script. One of the scripting components is the physical depiction represented in different cultural productions that reduce Black women's bodies to lips, butt, hips, and breasts. Most publications reduce Black females to her ass for display and selling purposes. Publishing such images represents Black women's bodies as a public display from which other people should derive pleasure. For example, the Tennis spectatorship process includes Venus William's behind, and during events, photographers try their best to capture the best images of her ass (Jordan-Zachery, 2017). It shows that media personalities and the public view Black woman's physical appearance as something giggle over or stare at, creating explicit and implicit notions. Therefore, Black women's butts are seen as a way to entertain people and sell goods. Publications also use a snake to cover Black woman's ass. The illustration relates to Bible's creation story that portrayed Eve as sinful and temptress. Such pictorial representations depict Black women as debased and sexualized, bringing together sexuality, gender, race, and morality ideologies (Jordan-Zachery, 2017). Black performers tend to exaggerate this notion in their music videos. These cultural productions attract critics who point out that different discourses in hip-hop usually reproduce distorted and dominant images showing the sexuality of Black women. The ass scripting also focuses on sexuality, private matters, and power. The ass scripting presents Black women as sexual objects. A woman becomes an object to entertain, create desire, and provide pleasure or a means to exert/manage racialized patriarchy (Jordan-Zachery, 2017). In other words, cultural publications reduce the Black woman to sexual spoils, a commodity 4 readily available for men to use as they please, especially in managing the difficulties they face. Authors use the phrase “A booty call” to denote the sexual relation men have with Black women. Representing a Black woman as "a piece of ass" embeds sexual power. The phrase is constructed in heterosexual means and couched in family and private discourses. The predominant sexual ideology reduces Black women's bodies to construction and family use, permitting Black men to participate in patriarchal norms that American society normalizes (Jordan-Zachery, 2017). Black women preserve Black men’s dignity at microstructural levels, protecting them from larger society’s ills. The butt script also raises the derrière question of authenticity, belongingness, and gender. Black women with flat ass are not perceived as authentic. Such an interpretation underscores the notion that a Black woman's butt signifies racial authenticity. While people admire and revere big butts, they pose a challenge for those seeking political posts (JordanZachery, 2017). Society marginalizes the emotional and physical aspects to which the “ass” belongs. The ass question subscript captures the public representation and voice regarding Black women and captures both political and physical authenticity related to the Black community and Black politics. An example of the power, the depiction is in Invisible Man that outlines the ass question of cultural production (Jordan-Zachery, 2017). Invisible Man's involvement and relationship with the Brotherhood movement offers insight into the influences or forces that create the Black women's shadowing and invisibility and the exclusion of issues related to women from a severe appraisal of Black communities. The Strong Woman Script Scripting Black female's bodies as strong mentally and physically is a norm. Although it might sound like a positive personality portrayal, the strong script shows that Black women are 5 not women. Several reasons explain the strong Black woman requirement. Among EuroAmericans, strength justified the exploitation of Black women to provide labor (Jordan-Zachery, 2017). The idea excluded Black women from the true womanhood cult. The script is still present in modern society. The Blacks and Europeans use the depiction to justify Black woman’s subjugation and punishment. The narration is problematic for this population since society can internalize it, shaping the way Black women see themselves. The script also facilitates Black women's commodification in ways that allow them to be used to perform strenuous physical duties and the community's cultural bearers (Jordan-Zachery, 2017). Alongside long oppression experiences, Black women view themselves as "mules" expected to bear labor burdens. As such, society does not see them as people in need of uplift and support. Consequently, they become shadows as other people seek advancement. The strength claim integrates invulnerability, compassion, and fortitude to define Black women. It also underlines the potential to destroy. Among some Black folks, strength is necessary for microstructural and macrostructural family survival (Cox & Ward, 2019). The strength metanarrative includes scripts like physical strength, supernatural/spiritual, and nurturing/sacrificial. The physical strength subscript portrays Black women as full of energy and people who can offer hard labor. In this setting, Black women can only achieve their dreams through distasteful work. The physical strength means that Black women can serve different roles at macrostructural and microstructural levels (Cox & Ward, 2019). This approach fails to answer why Black should perform multiple duties. It ignores the consequences physical labor can have on Black women. 6 The nurturing script underpins the motherly responsibilities of Black women from biological, cultural, and communal perspectives. It requires females to control or tame their anger or emotions to survive (Jordan-Zachery, 2017). Hence, Black women should make sacrifices for others to advance. The last aspect, spiritual strength, is a coping mechanism. Black women developed for enduring oppression over the years. It acts as a transformation source. Scholars charge that the spirituality of Black women gives meaning to the challenges they and their families face as a means to growth. Such a form of transcending strength depicts historical contexts of Black people origin. The spiritually strong Black female script also applies in transcending world, past and present. The strong African American woman is a wellspring of resistance and social action. While the scrip has varying forms, it ascribes to the notion that the body of a Black woman can foster her survival and that of her community. Nonetheless, it can also cause adverse effects on Black women since it fuels denial that these individuals have issues that deserve attention. As a result, group and individual responsibilities are distorted, political and personal boundaries blurred, and community and personal priorities left unbalanced. 7 References Cox, V., & Ward, L. M. (2019). A Wholistic View of Black Women on Scripted TV: A Content Analysis. Journal of Black Psychology, 009579841988707. doi:10.1177/0095798419887072 Jordan-Zachery, J. S. (2017). Shadow bodies: Black women, ideology, representation, and politics. Rutgers University Press. Stevens, C. M. (2015). The body of the mother in contemporary black women narratives:(re) writing immanence towards transcendence. Ilha do Desterro, 68(2), 93-101.
