scholarly journals Who’s got the “Reel” power? The problem of female antagonisms in blaxploitation cinema

Author(s):  
Melissa DeAnn Seifert

Between 1973 and 1975, films starring Pam Grier and Tamara Dobson such as Cleopatra Jones (Jack Starrett, 1973), Coffy(Jack Hill, 1973) and Foxy Brown (Hill, 1974) introduced leading black women into the predominantly male blaxploitation scene as aggressive action heroines. Within the cinematic spaces of blaxploitation films which featured women as active agents, a racial and sexual divide exists. These films positioned women either inside or outside of gender tolerability by utilising binary constructions of identity based on race, sex and elementary constructions of good and evil, black and white, straight and gay, and feminine and butch. Popular representations of lesbianism and sisterhood within blaxploitation cinema reflect a dominant social view of American lesbianism as white while straight women are consistently represented as black. However, these spaces also constricted black and white female identities by limiting sexuality and morality to racial boundaries. This article seeks to question the unique solitude of these female heroines and interrogate a patriarchal cinematic world where sisterhood is often prohibited and lesbianism demonised.

2020 ◽  
pp. 194855062093793
Author(s):  
Christy Zhou Koval ◽  
Ashleigh Shelby Rosette

Across four studies, we demonstrate a bias against Black women with natural hairstyles in job recruitment. In Study 1, participants evaluated profiles of Black and White female job applicants across a variety of hairstyles. We found that Black women with natural hairstyles were perceived to be less professional, less competent, and less likely to be recommended for a job interview than Black women with straightened hairstyles and White women with either curly or straight hairstyles. We replicated these findings in a controlled experiment in Study 2. In Study 3A and 3B, we found Black women with natural hairstyles received more negative evaluations when they applied for a job in an industry with strong dress norms. Taken together, this article advances the research on biases in the labor market in the age of social media use and highlights the importance of taking an intersectional approach when studying inequity in the workplace.


1997 ◽  
Vol 81 (2) ◽  
pp. 603-610 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina W. Brown

45 black and white female engineering students were assessed on Gough's Adjective Checklist and Schultz's FIRO-B. Nine Adjective Checklist scales showed significant mean differences between black and white women with black women having higher mean scores on Succorance and Abasement. White women had significantly higher mean scores on Achievement, Dominance, Counseling Readiness, Self-confidence, Military Leadership, Masculinity, and A-4. Comparison of scores on the FIRO-B by race showed only one scale with a significant difference, Wanted Inclusion.


2021 ◽  
pp. 003464462110510
Author(s):  
Samuel L. Myers ◽  
William J. Sabol ◽  
Man Xu

In The Growth of Incarceration in the United States, the National Research Council documents the large and persistent racial disparities in imprisonment that accompanied the more than quadrupling of the U.S. incarceration rate since the 1980s. Largely unnoticed by policy makers and opinion leaders in recent years is an unprecedented decrease in the number of African American women incarcerated at the same time that the number of white women in prison has grown to new heights. The result of these recent changes is a near convergence in black-white female incarceration rates from 2000 to 2016. In some states, the changes occurred abruptly and almost instantaneously. In other states, the convergence has been gradual. We find that changes in the population composition—the fraction of the population that is black—was the major contributor to the decline in the disparity among women. We also find that race-specific differences in drug overdose deaths stemming from the recent increases in opioid use lowered the disparity by increasing the white female imprisonment rate and lowering it for black women.


2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e12599-e12599
Author(s):  
Hyein Jeon ◽  
Myeong Lee ◽  
Mohammed Jaloudi

e12599 Background: Higher prevalence of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) in black women with associated poor outcomes due to various disparities is well documented within a single state. We examine multiple states to better understand the state effect on such differences in incidence and prevalence of TNBC in black women. Methods: Female patients of ages 19 years old and above with breast cancer from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program across 13 states (608 counties) from 2015 (n = 66,444) and 2016 (n = 66,122) were examined. The relationships between the proportion of black and white women and the rate of patients with different tumor subtypes (luminal A, luminal B, HR-HER2+, and triple negative) were examined at the county level using ordinary least-square regression models. In parallel, due to consideration of various state-specific healthcare policies, socio-cultural norms, and socio-economic disparities, multi-level regression models were applied to examine the nested, random effect of each state on TNBC prevalence in each county. Bonferroni correction was applied to reduce the Type I error caused by repeated use of the same variables in multiple tests. Results: The baseline breast cancer rates between black and white women were similar in the population (0.171% for black and 0.168% for white). Consistent to previous studies, we demonstrate a significant positive correlation (p < 0.001) in TNBC in black females in both years. Surprisingly, when accounted for the random effects on states, 38.2% (2015) and 34.3% (2016) increase in incidence of TNBC in black females were seen, suggestive of state-specific disparity affecting race-specific health. In 2015, other subtypes of breast cancer in both black and white females did not result in significant relationship. Interestingly, in 2016, there was a significant relationship seen between the TNBC rate in white females and the white female population rate only after adjusting for the state effect (p = 0.026). This indicates the impact of non-biological factors such as state-wide health policies. Additionally, HR-HER2+ black females had a significant relationship against respective population rate only after adjusting for the state effect as well (p = 0.0394). For luminal A white females, a 15% decrease in incidence was seen after adjusting for state effect (p = 0.0424). Conclusions: This is the first known across-state examination of breast cancer subtypes by race with random effects on state. This study shows the role of state-specific factors affecting incidence in black and white females and potentially indicates the importance of state-level management for breast cancer on health disparities in addition to race-driven effects. Further studies are needed to elucidate comparable differences between states affecting the rates of various subtypes of breast cancer and thus health outcomes.


Circulation ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 135 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xi Zhang ◽  
Wanzhu Tu ◽  
Lesley Tinker ◽  
JoAnn E Manson ◽  
Simin Liu ◽  
...  

Background: Recent evidence suggests that racial differences in circulating levels of free or bioavailable 25(OH)D rather than total 25(OH)D may explain the apparent racial disparities in cardiovascular disease(CVD).However, few prospective studies have directly tested this hypothesis. Objective: Our study prospectively examined black white differences in the associations of total, free, and bioavailable 25(OH)D, vitamin D binding protein (VDBP), and parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels at baseline with incident CVD in a large, multi-ethnic, geographically diverse cohort of postmenopausal women. Method: We conducted a case-cohort study among 79,705 black and non-Hispanic white postmenopausal women aged 50 to 79 years and free of CVD at baseline in the Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study (WHI-OS). We included a randomly chosen subcohort of 1,300 black and 1,500 white noncases at baseline and a total of 550 black and 1,500 white women who developed incident CVD during the follow up. We directly measured circulating levels of total 25(OH)D, VDBP (monoclonal antibody assay), albumin, and PTH and calculated free and bioavailable vitamin D levels. Weighted Cox proportional hazards models were used while adjusting for known CVD risk factors. Results: At baseline, white women had higher mean levels of total 25(OH)D and VDBP and lower mean levels of free and bioavailable 25(OH)D and PTH than black women (all P values < 0.0001). White cases had lower levels of total 25(OH)D and VDBP and higher levels of PTH than white noncases, while black cases had higher levels of PTH than black noncases (all P values < 0.05). There was a trend toward an increased CVD risk associated with low total 25(OH)D and VDBP levels or elevated PTH levels in both US black and white women. In the multivariable analyses, the total, free, and bioavailable 25(OH)D, and VDBP were not significantly associated with CVD risk in black or white women. A statistically significant association between higher PTH levels and increased CVD risk persisted in white women, however. The multivariate-adjusted hazard ratios [HRs] comparing the extreme quartiles of PTH were 1.37 (95% CI: 1.06-1.77; P-trend=0.02) for white women and 1.12 (95% CI: 0.79-1.58; P-trend=0.37) for black women. This positive association among white women was also independent of total, free, and bioavailable 25(OH)D or VDBP. There were no significant interactions with other pre-specified factors, including BMI, season of blood draw, sunlight exposure, recreational physical activity, sitting time, or renal function. Interpretation: Findings from a large multiethnic case-cohort study of US black and white postmenopausal women do not support the notion that circulating levels of vitamin D biomarkers may explain black-white disparities in CVD but indicate that PTH excess may be an independent risk factor for CVD in white women.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liana Christin Landivar ◽  
Julia Beckhusen

Nearly 40 million workers are employed in retail and service occupations. While the average age and educational attainment of workers in these occupations has increased significantly since the 1970s, many of these occupations offer low wages, along with limited fringe benefits and opportunities for advancement. These occupations also employ a disproportionate share of Black and Hispanic women. Using longitudinal data from the 2004 and 2008 Survey of Income and Program Participation which provide occupational data over a four year timespan, we evaluate the prevalence of occupational mobility by sex, race, and ethnicity. This research shows there are racial disparities in occupational mobility, with Black and Hispanic women less likely to exit retail and service occupations than White, non-Hispanic women. Educational attainment increased the likelihood of occupational mobility. Hispanic women’s lower levels of educational attainment depressed their occupational mobility, while longer job tenure increased the likelihood they would be occupationally mobile. Differences in human capital and job tenure did not explain mobility disparities between Black and White, non-Hispanic women. However, unionization reduced occupational mobility and partly accounts for Black women’s lower rates of mobility. Black women were more likely to be unionized and unionization was associated with decreased occupational mobility among women. Workers in unionized retail and service occupations earned higher wages, reducing the incentive to leave and lowering their occupational mobility rate.


Author(s):  
Scott L. Matthews

This chapter explores how Hale County, Alabama became an iconic site of documentary representation during the twentieth century and why some its poor black and white residents resisted the attempts of documentarians to turn their private lives into public symbols. The chapter begins by examining the collaboration between two local white documentarians, amateur folklorist and poet, Martha Young and photographer J.W. Otts, who recorded the lives and customs of Hale County’s rural black people in the early 1900s. It focuses on Young’s dialect poems that speak from the perspective of black women who refused to be photographed by whites and who saw photography as an exploitative medium. Next, the chapter demonstrates how this narrative and tradition of resistance to documentary continued during the 1930s. It explores the resistance writer James Agee and photographer Walker Evans faced in the 1930s from some of the white tenant families they documented for their book, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, and it shows how their descendants often found new ways to resist documentarians and journalists in succeeding decades. These acts of resistance transformed poor black and white residents into actors rather than just icons in the documentary process.


2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. 886-893 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha M. Meints ◽  
Heidi Y. Yang ◽  
Jamie E. Collins ◽  
Jeffrey N. Katz ◽  
Elena Losina

Purpose: To examine differences in physical activity (PA) uptake between black and white employees during a financial incentive-based workplace intervention. Design: Prospective cohort study from July 2014 to June 2015 (NCT02850094). Setting: Tertiary academic medical center. Participants: Forty-three black and 182 white nonclinical employees. Intervention: Participants self-selected or were assigned to teams. Participants completed a 24-week intervention receiving rewards for meeting weekly PA goals (increasing moderate-to-vigorous PA [MVPA] by 10% from previous week or meeting Guidelines threshold of 150 minutes of MVPA). Measures: Outcomes included weekly MVPA in minutes, average daily step counts, number of weeks meeting personal goals and the Guidelines, and Fitbit adherence in days and weeks. Analysis: We performed an analysis of covariance for each outcome, with race as the primary independent variable of interest, adjusting for demographic and health-related covariates. Results: During the intervention, blacks walked 9128 steps per day while whites walked 7826 steps per day, a difference of approximately 1300 steps ( P < .05). Blacks also demonstrated a greater uptake in both steps and MVPA from baseline than did whites, resulting in similar MVPA throughout the intervention. Conclusions: Findings suggest that workplace PA interventions using financial incentives may result in similar engagement in MVPA among white and black employees, while black employees walk more steps during the intervention. Limitations include a primarily white female sample which may not generalize.


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