ABSTRACT
Racist and sexist images of Black women historically highlight the Mammy, Sapphire, and Jezebel stereotypes; however, focusing solely on race and gender sacrifices nuance in relation to the politics of the body. In this chapter, the authors bring attention to how perceptions of Blackness and fatness create unique axes of problematic representation in film and social life. Grounded in Black women’s ways of knowing, we examine three prominent examples of fat Black women, including Khadijah James in the television show Living Single, Mary Jones in the film Precious, and Kelli Prenny in the show Insecure, highlighting the ways politics of the body inherently inform how writers engage with and understand race and gender. We contend that without an analysis of how fatness is brought to bear on the representation and situatedness of Black women, an incomplete picture exists. To illuminate potential pathways forward, authors emphasize the critical need for scholars and writers to focus their thinking, researching, and theorizing on fat Black women’s fullness and complexity.
