Welcome back to the black women tropes in media series. Today, as the title suggests, we are going to talk about the Mammy trope. Last post we talked about the infamous angry black women. But who is the mammy? You might not be familiar with the term but most of you are familiar with the character. The maid, the asexual being, the subservient figure to white families. This trope is a popular tactic by southern white families to romanticize the astrocities of slavery. An effort to cast black people especially black women as happy to be under control. Researchers and abolitionist claim that the naming was constructed to suggest ugliness. Usually making the characters overweight, dark-skinned and devoid of sexual desires.
The thing is the Mammy caricature never actually existed in real life. Ever heard of the paper bag test? Back then the only slaves allowed near white families homes where the ones that were of lighter skin. Also another source of evidence that disproves this trope is that slaves were fed terribly. Most slaves were never fat because of the lack of food anyways.
Examples in movies
Sadly the movie industry still make this a highly available role for black women and most black women would spend a good portion of their time playing this role. Octavia Spencer won an Oscar for her role as Mammy and has played a nurse, maid and cleaner about 21 times in which 2 of those times she was nominated and won an Oscar for.
It makes me wonder why these roles are so readily available. Some would say its to educate people of how people used to view black people. I would personally say it does nothing but cast bad representation of how people still view us. But hey what do I know.
Movies like Birth of the Nation (1915) didn’t help with the proliferation of the mammy trope. This view transcended into the minds of millions of people and the mammy caricature became a popular symbolic staple to sell household items such as detergent, ashtrays, sewing accessories and the most successful one to date is Aunt Jemima. Aunt Jemima originated from a popular song in the early 20th century; performed by black face actors in a skit with a southern mammy. From there the idea blossomed. Now I will admit that I used to handpick the pancake mix and syrup because somehow I thought it was a good thing to see a black face on something. Just to find out that wasn’t the case. Always do your research kids.
