ABSTRACT
Stereotypical images of the black female exist in writings of white and black writers who published from slavery through the Harlem Renaissance and beyond. Black female images emerge as Aunt Jemima, Sapphire, Jezebel or wench, and mammy. Aunt Jemima is the cook who is dark in complexion, obese in size, and jovial in nature. Sapphire is headstrong and always emerges with the presence of the black male. She emasculates the black male with verbal put-downs. Her color is generally brown to dark brown. Jezebel is the bad, black girl who is generally the mulatta. She possesses white features and is portrayed with hypersexual behavioral characteristics. White men use her as the excuse for their sexual interactions (Jewell 1993, 46). The Jezebel/wench/mulatta is victimized when the white male blames her for promiscuous behavior consistent with the role which he himself has conceived, and when the white mistress perceives the casting of hypersexuality as a mockery of her own socially imposed purity (Gwin 1985b, 45). These images, which are believed to have evolved during slavery, portray African American women as the antithesis of the American conception of beauty, femininity, and womanhood (Jewell 1993, 36). Of these stereotypical images, the mammy, which emanated from the plantation, is considered to be the most persistent and enduring historically.
