The Representation of African American Women in Hollywood Films

The study „The Representation of African American Women in Hollywood Films‟ was conducted to examine the portrayal of African American women in Hollywood films from 2005 to 2015 from a feminist and black feminist stand point. The depiction of African American women in various stereotypical ways have become a serious issue, as it has been concluded in the mind of viewers that African American women are exactly the way they are been portrayed in the mainstream. Using the qualitative methodology of research, critical analysis was used to collect primary data to understand the content and better explain the messages contained in the three movies (The Help, I can do bad all by myself and Joyful noise) used for this research. The secondary data was collected from online journals, books, e-books, websites and motion pictures. The secondary data was used to support this study and also find related literature to this study. The findings of this study showed that aggression, over possession, stubbornness, annoyance, sex objectification, intervention patriarchy, sexism and self-discrimination with copious examples revealed in the selected films shows the true definition of how African American women are represented. Based on the analysis, African American women in the three movies were portrayed multiple times in the mammy, jezebel, and sapphire historical stereotype. Keywords: Hollywood, feminist, stereotypes, critical analysis, representation, patriarchy, sex symbols