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The Politics of Protection: Body Image, Social Pressures, and the Misrepresentation of Young Black Women

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Abstract

As part of a larger multi-method study, 15 Black women college students participated in focus group discussions on the body. Contrary to popular theories that propose that Black women are protected by a “Black Culture” that buffers them from negative effects of body representations—thereby leaving them with higher body esteem—the themes that emerged in the focus group discussions indicate that young Black women are indeed feeling (1) pressures to be thin, (2) pressures from the preferences of men of diverse ethnicities, (3) competition with other Black women in the realms of beauty, and (4) a strong sense of being misrepresented by media images of thin Black women. These results not only indicate that body image issues are of real pressing concern to young Black women, but that psychological research methodologies may be adding to the misrepresentation of young Black women and their struggles. Qualitative methods must be utilized in order to hear more clearly the voices of Women of Color.

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Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Michelle Fine, Rhoda Unger, Ruth Hall, Collette Daiute, and Vita Rabinowitz for their advice. Thanks to research assistants Beverly Aravjo, Jasmine Martinez, Ana Morales, and to co-facilitator Diane Wilson. Thanks for the support from Kerry Dennehy, Donna Foster-Paley, Tracy McFarlane, Michael, Ela, and David Poran. Great appreciation and thanks to the young women who shared with me and spoke with such great energy, enthusiasm, and insight.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Ramapo College of New Jersey—SSHS, 505 Ramapo Valley Road, Mahwah, NJ, 07430, USA

    Maya A. Poran

Authors
  1. Maya A. Poran
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Correspondence to Maya A. Poran.

Appendices

Appendix A

Description of images

Participants were provided with images of women on poster-boards. A total of 12 11” × 14” poster-boards, each with 5–12 images, were laid on out on a table. There were 100 images in total, comprised of 30 Black women, 28 Latinas, 39 White women, and 3 Asian women. There were two main categories of images: (1) stereotypical, and (2) alternative.

The stereotypical category consisted of nine boards (n = 73 images). Five were comprised of 44 images of Black, Latina, and White women that were stereotypical—representative of the types of overly thin images typically seen in fashion magazines—and included models on runways and in advertisements. The remaining four boards of this category visually isolated the ethnic groups: One board consisted of Black women only, predominantly from magazines that are targeted toward African American women; one of only Latinas, predominantly from magazines that are targeted toward Latinas; and one of White women only, from magazines that are targeted toward White women. The fourth board in this category consisted of images that varied in skin tone and shade, as well as ethnicity (e.g., a very tan White woman, a very light-skinned Black woman, a dark-skinned Black woman, a light-skinned Latina).

The alternative category consisted of three poster boards upon which were mounted images (n = 27) of women who do not represent the stereotypical fashion-model look. Two of the poster-boards were of large women modeling clothes for “women’s” fashions. The third board had a variety of images of women that are not related to fashion (e.g., a bald woman, older women, women engaged in sports, large women not modeling).

Boards were labeled (A–L), and all images numbered, in order for quick identification by the participants.

Appendix B

Guidelines for discussion excerpts

  1. 1.

    Indentations indicate a new speaker who is speaking “in turn.”

  2. 2.

    When a portion of the audiotape was inaudible, it is indicated in the text by two back-slashes.

  3. 3.

    When a portion of a discussion in progress is not included, the removal of a portion is indicated in the text by five dots centered on the page:

    • The discussion is in progress

    • .....

    • The discussion resumes

    Portions were removed when they did not directly, or clearly, inform the topic being presented in the text.

  4. 4.

    Portions of the discussion considered highly explicative of the topic being presented are highlighted with italics.

  5. 5.

    Punctuation is included only when it is explicitly audible in the voice of the speaker.

    Therefore, even when a sentence grammatically indicated a question, a question mark is not used unless the speaker made the “sound” associated with a question. The most visible absence of punctuation in the text is the presence of many run-on sentences because a period is not used unless there was an explicit and full stop. Pauses that were not full-stops are indicated with commas. Elongated pauses are indicated by three dots.

  6. 6.

    Words are presented as close to their utterance as possible. Slang or personal pronunciations of words are indicated through their spelling. The researcher attempted to allow accents, pronunciation, and so on, by spelling in a manner true to the sounds of the words.

Appendix C

Maps and flows of discussions

Group A

Weight/Media/Comments from Others/Stereotypes/“Jamaican” hair/Weight/Why does thin = good?/Need love/Attention/Clothes/Why does fat = bad?/Guys looking/Women criticizing/Conceit

Sex sells/Using women/Tyra/Dark model/Nobody is perfect/Tyra/Computerized images/Pornography/Sex sells

Average women/Real

Group B

Media/Magazines/Environment/Assimilation/Need acceptance/Love/Body = Tool/Lying/Conceit/Women comparing/Environment/Men and Ethnicity Preferences/Women are intimidating/Ethnic preferences/Discrimination

Modeling/Attention/Dieting

Real/Variation/Society/Others comments/Real women

Group C

Images/Magazines/Models/Media/Woman as picture/Women comparing/Image = Skinny and long straight hair/Dark model/Essentialism/Environment/Personality/Confidence/Others comments/Guys/Popular girl/Confidence/Comparing with friends/Magazines

Skin Tones/Tyra’s breasts/Skin tone/Fade Creams/Dark model/Skin color

Average/Real/Identify with/Real/Beauty = work/Hair = work/Maintenance

Note: First indent indicates note card discussion/second indent for images/third alternative imagery.

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Poran, M.A. The Politics of Protection: Body Image, Social Pressures, and the Misrepresentation of Young Black Women. Sex Roles 55, 739–755 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-006-9129-5

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