Stand up and stand out!!

Growing up, I watched a lot of videos that had girls who looked like they were built to fit a six 6. So I figured, in order for me to make it as a singer or be in a movie, I had to stay skinny. I always wore a size, on bigger than a 5, and was afraid to gain wait. I always knew that I wanted to be famous, somehow whether it be singing, or acting. Watching videos by female artists such as, TLC, Monica, and Destiny’s Child, they inspired me to stay slim because they all had perfect shapes. As I got older, I came to realize that women came in all different shapes and sizes. In 2004, my family was all sitting around the TV watching the 3^rd season of American Idol and there was a contestant named Jennifer Hudson. She wasn’t what society would consider being a models size. She was, in fact, considered to be a full figured woman. At that moment, I started thinking that being different is good. Jennifer won that season of Idol. Nobody looked at her and said, “She’s not a size 6, so her career won’t go very far.” A lot of the media even praised her for standing out. Even though it was only after I had my daughter that I gained my weight, I’m not afraid to embrace it and still want to sing and act. 

Day 8 Pics: Matt Singleton

Day 8 New Response #6 Kevin Scott

Malcolm

jabo

Day #8 Response: Lola Ogbara

There are many stereotypes of African American women such as being Mammy, the Jezebel, or the Sapphire. The "Mammy" is the Aunt Jemima black woman. She is fat, almost a mother earth figure, but she has no sex appeal. She is happy with her life of faithful service to white people. She smiles and laughs. Maybe too much. She has a good heart but she is not particularly bright or even all that trustworthy. In the 1960s the matriarch stereotype took her place, which in turn gave rise to the welfare queen in the 1970s. The "Jezebel" is named after an evil queen in the Bible. She is the loose woman who wants sex all the time. She’s gotta have it but at the same time she uses sex to draw men in to get what she wants. Sometimes it is money. Sometimes it is to destroy them. The "Sapphire" named after a character in “Amos ‘n’ Andy”, always seems to have her hands on her hips while she is running her mouth – putting down her man, making everything into a fight, never taking anything lying down. She is an overbearing, hard and undesirable woman who drives men away – and so winds up alone. Think of Tichina Arnold’s character Pam in “Martin”.

The stereotype that my picture represents is the mad Black woman. I chose this picture because to me, it represents the stereotype of angry Black women. In this movie, "The Diary of a Mad Black Woman", a woman had gotten divorced after years of marriage. She was hurt and because of that, she was angry and skeptical about starting a new relationship with anyone after being committed to one person for so long. In my opinion, not ALL Black women are mad or angry. I myself can prove that stereotype wrong. I am not an angry person, a jezebel, a mammy, or a sapphire and there are plenty other women I know who are not that also.