Bette, AKA Mammy, Big Momma, Madea, and Others Alike: Constructions of an American Stereotype

"Floods" is the word they use, but in fact it is not flooding; it is remembering. Remembering where it used to be. All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was. ” -Toni Morrison, “The... [ view full abstract ]

"Floods" is the word they use, but in fact it is not flooding; it is remembering. Remembering where it used to be. All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was. ” -Toni Morrison, “The Site of Memory”

Representations of flesh have played a significant role in defining African American womanhood throughout American history. This is especially true of the enduring Mammy stereotype. In this presentation, I will draw from my thesis essay and art, which examine how perceptions of the Mammy figure are inextricable from the meanings layered onto Black female flesh, as well as how those meanings have changed over time. Specifically, I will discuss connections between the spectacularly exhibited “exotic” flesh of Saartjie Baartman, along with the dark, jolly and asexual image of Mammy found in depictions of domestic spaces in the antebellum South, and the fleshy fat-suited male actors who portray Mammy figures in contemporary films. Additionally, I will discuss a series of artwork I created as visual interpretations of each section, an attempt at a “flooding” of the Mammy stereotype via scenes that deconstruct and reimagine assumptions about the Mammy’s body, and her place in American history.