Research shows stereotypes are damaging to sexual and reproductive health
Women of colour are often viewed as hypersexual; stereotypes associated to this can negatively impact their sexual health and reproduction. Researchers Lisa Rosenthal and Marci Lobel note that racial stereotypes “have a long history connected to the sexualized exploitation of black women during slavery.” In their 2016 article “Stereotypes of black American Women Related to Sexuality and Motherhood,” they discuss three common stereotypes about black women that date back to slavery.
Mammy: the unattractive mother who is content in her caregiving role, which is in service to the white slave owner or employer
Sapphire: the matriarch who is aggressive, dominating, and emasculating
Jezebel: the sexual siren who is sexually promiscuous and sexually available
Amanda Whitten and Christabelle Sethna from the University of Ottawa state that “race and racialization historically and currently shape important aspects of sexuality and sexual health.”
These historic stereotypes that continue to permeate society today have a negative impact on black women’s sexual and reproductive health, which white women have benefited from.
Women of colour have been used as test subjects for birth control technologies, which were primarily given to middle and upper class white women. Additionally, women of colour were targets of the eugenics movement, which forced sterilisation and abortions on women who were considered to have less desirable genetics as a way to control the population.
These inequalities in reproductive health continue today as even in North America black mothers experience the effects of more than two times higher infant mortality rate among black babies than are white mothers with white babies.
There are also impacts on sexual health due to the continued portrayal of black women in the media as hypersexual. America’s National Alliance to End Sexual Violence states that the “Jezebel stereotypes permeate our everyday lives and perpetuate the idea that women of colour cannot be raped because they are willing participants in all sexual activity.” This is backed up by statistics, in which approximately 40 per cent of black women report coercive sexual contact by the age of 18, with many others not reporting. Race and ethnicity never alter the necessity of obtaining consent.
Institutional and attitudinal changes need to occur to dispel these harmful stereotypes and improve the sexual and reproductive health of women of colour. This article focused mainly on black women because it is Black History Month. It is important to note that all women of colour can experience negative impacts on their sexual and reproductive health due to stereotypes surrounding hypersexuality.