Authors:

Anastasia Berry

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About Paper:

Stereotypes about Black women, while deeply rooted in history, continue to shape portrayals of Black womanhood through media. This study investigates how Black women are visually represented through Google image search results of "Drawings of Black women" and whether online content reinforces cultural stereotypes about Black womanhood. A coding system was developed to assess how often specific racialized features or combinations of features (e.g. hair texture, nose, lips) appeared within a sample (N=100) of the first images provided by the Google search engine. Analyses provided qualitative thematic information and quantitative frequency counts. Trained coders independently rated each image, and interrater reliability was assessed using Cohen's Kappa. Consensus was reached through discussion. Hypotheses include: (1) Images of Black women with natural hair will be more prevalent than those with straight hair, and (2) when natural hairstyles are depicted, they will more frequently co-occur with other stereotypical features (e.g., fuller lips, larger noses) when compared with straight hairstyles. This research is grounded in existing literature on media representation, stereotype formation, and implicit bias. Preliminary findings indicate natural hair occurs with greater frequency than straight hair, supporting the first hypothesis. There was no noticeable difference in frequency of broad versus narrow noses with the natural hair category. However, within the straight hair category narrow noses occurred with higher frequency than broad noses. Further analysis will examine the frequency of additional features (e.g. lips) across natural and straight hair categories. This research could inform interventions at the educational and policy level, especially within the context of promoting and affirming balanced representations of black girls and women. In examining a popular and widely used search platform, this study aims to highlight the subtle ways that stereotypes not only travel through digital spaces but are maintained and circulated.

Source:

Loyola University Chicago

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No topics listed

Co-authors:

Anastasia Berry