Effects Of Cultural Imperialism On American Women

Cultural imperialism is meant to make the culture and stories of an oppressed group seem inferior, while asserting that the culture and stories of the dominant, oppressing group are the norm or ideal. For black queer women, cultural imperialism means being subjected to dehumanizing stereotypes, exposed to a white beauty standards, and having their stories erased. Since we are so exposed to media like television, film, magazines, and advertisements, these mediums can be used as tools of cultural imperialism. The image of the “american woman” that our media portrays is most often white, thin, and conventionally attractive. Very few american women meet that criteria, yet all are expected to strive to meet that ideal. In our society, pale skin, blue eyes, and straight smooth hair is portrayed as somehow more attractive than dark skin or natural black hair. This idea of white characteristics being more desirable can have an incredibly negative effect on the self-esteem of young black women. Even when black women are shown in advertisements or pictures, they are often “white-washed.” Their skin is lightened and their features may even be altered in photoshop so that they more
Queer women are fetishized, evidenced by the fact that “lesbian sex” is one of the most popular porn categories. When not posing for straight men’s pleasure, the queer woman is predatorily leering at and preying on innocent straight women. This combined with the Sexual Siren stereotype leaves black queer women sexualized and dehumanized. Even though queer women are not often shown with children in media, they also share traits with the Matriarch stereotype in that they are thought of as angry, controlling, and emasculating. These representations of black and queer women wouldn’t be so harmful if they weren’t seen so often. As it is, these stereotypes are too popular, and the representation for black queer women in film and television is already