Blackbirds and Bumblebees: The Epidemic Internalization of the Sexualized Black Female Image in America and Africa

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About Blackbirds And Bumblebees: The Epidemic

As explained by Aaron Shelby, “women have always been seen as objects, but black women, in particular, have always been subjected to unjust treatment.” For centuries racist and/or sexist people controlled what Black females in Africa and America thought about themselves via the sexualization of the Black female image, and consequently also controlled what they did about and allowed to be done to themselves. Sexualization is defined by the American Psychological Association as occurring when a person’s value comes only from her/his sexual appeal or behavior, to the exclusion of other characteristics, and when a person is sexually objectified or made into a thing for another’s sexual use. Simultaneously, sexualization also psychologically inferiorizes, which means to establish an inferiority complex, among the sexualized. The worse aspect of the sexualization of the Black female image is when it is unconsciously internalized by African-American and African females in order to defend their ego from this inferiority complex. Internalization is when an individual or group of people accept and incorporate the beliefs or standards of others as their own, even if such beliefs or standards are negative and self-destructive. This is typically done out of respect for or fear of these others or a lack of acknowledged alternatives. As a result, African-American and African women are far more likely to be raped, assaulted, and even murdered than non-Black women. Moreover, Black women are victims of sexual promiscuity more often than their non-Black counterparts, and subsequently have the highest rate of HIV infection and unintended pregnancy than any other group in the world.