The Mammy stereotype was the main way white Americans looked at black women from the early 1800s to the 1950s. Think of Aunt Jemima, Hattie McDaniel in “Gone with the Wind” (1939) and even Nell Carter in “Gimme a Break” (1981-1987). Regina Taylor in “I’ll Fly Away” (1991-1993) was the anti-Mammy and probably ten times truer to life.
The Mammy pictured female household slaves as:
- fat,
- middle-aged,
- dark-skinned,
- undesirable, at least to white men,
- given enough power to run the household,
- happy to serve whites, always smiling and laughing,
- perfect straight, white teeth.
This is a complete and utter lie.
The ugly truth is that they were:
- thin, because they barely got enough to eat;
- young, because only one in ten ever saw age 50;
- light-skinned, a daughter of rape;
- desirable to white men and therefore raped;
- utterly powerless,
- extremely unhappy.
And most likely had bad teeth too since the rest of the stereotype is such a lie.
Even after the slaves were freed the Mammy stereotype continued to put a happy face on black women’s lowly position in society, helping to set at ease the hearts of good white people everywhere.
Mammies were so happy to serve whites that in the American films of the early 1900s they are shown giving up riches and even their freedom for the chance to continue serving “their white family” (their own husbands and children be damned, apparently).
Household slaves were not as common as you might think. While slaves working in the field picking cotton made their masters money, slaves working in the house did not.
Black women working in the houses of white people only became common after the slaves were freed. From the 1860s to the 1950s almost the only way for a black woman to make money was to become a maid, cook or washerwoman. A well-to-do white family could afford a black maid who cleaned, cooked and looked after the children.
Since well-to-do whites mainly knew black women as maids, the Mammy stereotype became the main one, especially in Hollywood.
Mammy was so much a part of American life that the very first song ever heard in a film was “My Mammy” by Al Jolson in 1927. You can see her two feet in the old “Tom & Jerry” cartoons.
The most famous Mammy by far was Aunt Jemima. Modelled on Nancy Green, she became the face and name of a just-add-water pancake mix. Green was at the 1893 World’s Exposition in Chicago, making pancakes, singing songs and telling stories of the old South when black people and white people were so happy. She became known across the country. “I’se in town, honey.”
You can still see her on the box. She now has a perm instead of a kerchief to cover her hair, but she still has the Mammy dark skin, perfect white teeth and smile. Happy to serve.
See also:
Abagond 
I love me some Aunt (Mammy) Jemima!
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“desirable to white men and therefore raped;”
I’ve noticed often times many people with argue that the rape of black women in slavery was “more about power than sexual attraction” which is false. There are plenty of encounters by black women (slave narratives, and from white men of the time themselves) that counter that argument.
Anything to make sure people believe that black women couldn’t possibly attract white males in any sort of way. Why, I don’t know.
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After looking at many articles about the mammy sterotype, I onced believed that it was true that black women did take to white people and wanted to take care of them, but I now realize that this is so not true. I see how still into today’s society how black women are often depicted and treated and it is so unfair.
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The Mammy stereotype hasn’t gone anywhere. It’s clear from the mainstream television shows that it still persists. Glee is a good example. Why are all the other females thin and cute except the stereotypical fat black girl who can sing?
In fact, all the stereotypes of black women are still in full force and effect. Did you see the Pepsi MAX superbowl commercial featuring the black couple? Pepsi managed to hit nearly every stereotype of black women imaginable.
Up first was Sapphire. The woman in question is dark, not thin but not fat, OK looking. Her husband is lighter than she and kind of wimpy. Like an emaasculating force of nature she shows up everywhere her apparently dieting husband is about to shove an offending food into his mouth angrily snatching it from him.
At one point she aggressively slams his face into a pie. Next up he is on a park bench aobut to drink a soda. The wife is there in an instant about to grab it, but it turns out its a Pepsi MAX. Everything is cool until a cute, little blonde white woman jobs up and sits and the bench opposite them.
As soon as the husband turns and says hi pissed off Sapphire screws up her face and prepares to hit him in the head with a pop can, he ducks and the white girl gets hit in the head instead. At that point, the couple runs off. So here you have the whole angry (dark skinned) aggressive, emasculating black woman (Sapphire) who is jealous of the obviously more beautiful white woman out to get her man.
I mean I was f*king disgusted by this commercial. AND I had the distinct honor of listening to the white folks I was with at the superbowl party think it was the funniest thing ever. Thankfully I don’t drink soda, but if I did no Pepsi would EVER cross my lips.
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So, basically almost every single Tyler Perry movie. Madea is that nanny from Tom & Jerry.
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@Usagi,
Your Tyler Perry point is interesting because I see that with Medea, but I also see that many Black women in those movies are very physically attractive, usually well educated with good heads on their shoulders.
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It seems as if you have a problem with dark skin and heavy set women being represented in the media. Why do they have to represent the mammy to you too? Are you saying that black women ought to be represented by light skinned or thin women in order to show a more a more dignified or beautiful by both the black and white communities? Its not the skin color or weight but its the whole degrading servitude image that they attach to us that make black women look ignorant and unattractive. Please be careful not to associate dark skinned black women with ugliness or masculinity or you may be just as guilty as the whites who put out the mammy image to begin with.
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Abagond wrote: “She now has a perm instead of a kerchief to cover her hair, but she still has the Mammy dark skin, perfect white teeth and smile. Happy to serve.” Just because white society associated dark skinned black women with the ‘mammy’ stereotype does not that black people should do it too. If the Aunt Jemima was light skinned would that make her depiction better? Would she be more respectable, attractive, intelligent? I’m tired of white washed, colorized black people using the mammy stereotype to try to explain why dark skinned black women (especially those who are heavy set) cannot be positive representatives for black beauty or feminity. Are you so brain washed by white America’s depiction of white women as the epitome of beauty that you believe that the only black women who are beautiful or worthy of respect or praise are those who look more like white people? There is nothing negative about being dark skinned or middle aged or not being thin. Those were not the things that made Mammy a bad styereotype. It was the fact that she was always depicted as ignorant, masculine, and asexual with no other desires or aspiration outside of serving white people. This is what makes the Mammy depiction hard to digest and also hisytorically inaccurate. It has nothing to do with skin color, weight, or age (there were many black maids or mammys in the 1920’s through 1960’s of various skin complxions ages and weights because black women, in general, were denied opportunities to do anything better). Dark skin may have been used to characterize the Mammy in films but Mammy SHOULD NEVER be used to characterize dark skin. Dark skin and Mammy ARE NOT synonymous just like beauty, femininity, and intelligence are NOT Synonymous with light or white skin (I’ve seen white and light skinned women that remind me of Mammy and many dark skin women who in NO WAY resemble her).
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Poetess wrote: “So here you have the whole angry (dark skinned) aggressive, emasculating black woman (Sapphire) who is jealous of the obviously more beautiful white woman out to get her man.” There you go, throwing in the fact that she was DARK SKINNED again. So if it was a light skinned black woman who was showing the agression would it be LESS masculine. Would you compare her to Sapphire even if she acted the same way? Probably not, because you are focusing more on her skin tone ratherthan her actual aggression. Its ok when a light or white woman does it, but God forbid a dark chick does it and now she’s a masculine ugly stupid negative sterotype and not just a black actress simply PLAYING A ROLE IN A COMMERCIAL.I have seen movies and commercials where white and light skinned women have acted agressively or emasculating towards their husbands. I’ve also seen movies where they steretype the big burly hairy white maid from eastern Europe. Why is it that its only masculine and unattractive when its a dark skinned woman? Why are blacks going along with this and feeding into the dark is masculine stereotype? Blacks directors do this all the time casting the father and son as dark and the mother and daughter as light even though there are just as many, if not more, dark skin women than light ones.They also love to cast the lightest and brightesyt black women as the lovely leadin ladies and continue to cast the dark ones in the background. This is BLACK MEN doing this not just white ones. Look at BET, why do I see more Latinas hosting these shows than dark chicks? Are they trying to act as though black women any darker than caramel don’t exist or aren’t worthy to be displayed? Dark skin is a trait that is completely INDEPENDENT of your sex just as light skin is INDEPENDENT of sex. Light skin is no more natural for women than it is for men and Dark skin is no more natural for men than it is for women. SO WHY ARE DARK SKIN WOMEN STILL GETTING THIS MASCULINE CRAP EVERYTIME THEY SHOW EVEN AN OUNCE OF AGRESSION WHILE LIGHT WOMEN WHO DO THE SAME DO NOT! STOP THE STEREOTYPE BLACK PEOPLE! ITS UP TO US TO PRESENT MORE POSITIVE IMAGES OF OURSELVES YET WE KEEP PERPETUATING STEREOTYPES EVEN WORSE THAN WHITES NOWADAYS AND ITS DISGUSTING!
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P Dotson wrote: “I onced believed that it was true that black women did take to white people and wanted to take care of them[….]”
LOL! My apologies, but I did have fit of giggles after reading this….
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Abagond wrote:” Light-skinned, a daughter of rape;
desirable to white men and therefore raped;”. Are you implying that the only black women back then who were desireable to white men were light? You said earlier that the depictions of house servants as dark was inaccurate because they were unnattractive to whites and white males would only go for the light skinned product of rape. However, your point makes little sense b/c in order for these light skinned women to be a product of rape, then these white men would have had to be attracted to the dark skinned slaves in order to rape them and produce these lighter offspring. If they found these dark women so unattractive I highly doubt they would have messed with the in the first place, especially since they had wives of their own race to satisfy their needs. The presence of mixed blacks in those days only confirms that there were indeed dark skinned black women that were seen as attractive to white males.
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Hello, he is referring to how whites have created this stereotype, not his own beliefs. If you have a beef with such views, take it up in the ‘why white men don’t love me’ threads. There are plenty of white male posters reiterating these views, and plenty of stereotypes being thrown around that are similiar to the ones you mention..
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@ Anonymous:
Herneith has it right. The name of this post is “The Mammy stereotype”. Stereotype means that it is not true, a false picture. The stereotypes that whites have of blacks are all self-serving and have little truth to them. The Mammy stereotype is a classic case of this.
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True, except in those threads Black women are usually characterized as being fat, undesirable, unkempt, snarling she-beasts — rather than the “happy” and “always smiling” Mammy of lore.
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The Mammy continues in the Violent, angry black man hating Dyke (Queen Latifa) type of construct. The image of a woman who is stronger than the man and matriarch of the black community. This stereotype/half truth helps to further perpetuate the image of black men as being inferior and worthless. Not only as men but as living beings. Thus the understatement is that, “not even their own women want them”. This is further reinforced thru the unified practice of black male exclusion from hiring practices. The black woman is rewarded with many more options for education and employment. Wheras black males are often dismissed no matter what level their ability or knowhow. Despite the ‘queen latifa dyke’ image. Black women in general are less threatning to white america than black males. However many black women often relish i nthe fact that they are in a privledged position when compared to black males. Though many do argue that black men’s economic and social placement is as a result of ‘laziness’ and or a lack of education or motivation. As opposed to a deliberate effort to exclude black males. What looks like a victory for black women is an utter defeat for the black community as a whole. But many black women are too stupid or too full of hate to see it.
Too bad.
Black women help to meet 2 quotas. Black and a woman.
Case closed.
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I used to know a woman who, in taking notice of all the South Asian physicians employed in a local hospital, became angry as if they were stealing something that belonged to her. I asked her if she had an MD degree, she answered “NO”, and that effectively closed that case.
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I agree with you proudchocolategirl.
I don’t think a lot of men truly understand rape. Also, the focus on the mulatto women’s sexual plight is a value thing. Sadly, dark-skinned women tend to have less value in people’s eyes, so people care more about what happened to them. It’s not just a black thing. A good example is Juarez, Mexico
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_homicides_in_Ciudad_Ju%C3%A1rez
It is mostly dark-skinned Mexican girls getting killed. If they were Salma Hayek types color-wise, I think more people would know about it. People also hate dark men too, but it plays out differently (just look at prison populations worldwide).
Also, I don’t think Agabond himself thinks that large dark-skinned black women are mammy-like, but the people who put them in the media do. There are talented, overweight, homely women with big personalities in ALL RACES. It is not a good thing that black women’s appearance is overlooked when being chosen to represent us.
I’m a fan of many actresses who aren’t conventionally attractive, but when everyone else has conventionally pretty actresses representing them, it just looks as if black women are so unattractive that even our starlets are homely and overweight. It’s not the truth, it’s just how it APPEARS. Ideally unconventionally attractive women of all races would be able to get better parts though, so in a way it is a step in the right direction.
Black people RARELY perpetuate the mammy image. It’s a TOTAL white thing. She is supposed to be deeply unattractive to cover up the slave rapes. Many white people don’t find very dark skin attractive, and that is why she has dark skin instead of light skin. I think it also has to do with the contrast because outside of rape, white southerners were all about keeping the races separate.
I think the weight is the main factor though in making her “Mammy”. If Vanessa Williams gained 100 pounds and spoke bad English, she would be perceived exactly the same way.
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proudchocolategirl says,
I take offense to your implying that black women are “too ugly to be raped,” not only is it untrue, but it’s sexist and I’m offended. I take that as a slap in the face to the black women who did get raped by white men, not only during slavery but through Jim Crow and I take it as an insult to every woman who has been sexually assaulted. never imply that someone is “too ugly to be raped.” That’s the most sexist thing possible. I just had to get that off my chest…
Am I the only one who has been bothered by these things abagond has to say about rape, I know I’m not the only one…??
and i’m not saying “attraction,” has ZERO to do with it, but i’m saying that is not the main reason for rape in most cases…especially in cases where one group has power over another group, most of the time institutionalized rape like that is just due to power and control over the subordinate group and its a way to destroy the spirit and morale of the women and therefore demoralize the group.
and i’m so sick and tired of people implying that black women don’t get raped because “We’re undesirable,” i’m damn sick to death of it and it’s ignorant and degrading to all those women who do get raped.
laromana says,
proudchocolategirl,
I agree 100% with all of your comments regarding the lies, myths, and stereotypes behind the mindset that “Black women don’t get raped”.
I strongly believe that this SICK/WARPED mindset is yet another manifestation of the HISTORICAL ANTI-BW HATE that has always been at the core of the mistreatment of BW in America by both WM and BM.
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@ proudchocolategirl:
In both this post and the “Roll, Jordan, Roll” one I am reporting the thinking of white people and say so. It is not my thinking. I hardly think black women are ugly, whether they be dark-skinned or light-skinned, and I understand that rape is mostly about control and domination:
https://abagond.wordpress.com/2010/04/13/the-danger-signs-of-a-rapist/
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Anon says,
-I’m tired of white washed, colorized black people using the mammy stereotype to try to explain why dark skinned black women (especially those who are heavy set) cannot be positive representatives for black beauty or feminity. Are you so brain washed by white America’s depiction of white women as the epitome of beauty that you believe that the only black women who are beautiful or worthy of respect or praise are those who look more like white people? There is nothing negative about being dark skinned or middle aged or not being thin. -Those were not the things that made Mammy a bad styereotype. It was the fact that she was always depicted as ignorant, masculine, and asexual with no other desires or aspiration outside of serving white people. This is what makes the Mammy depiction hard to digest and also hisytorically inaccurate. It has nothing to do with skin color, weight, or age (there were many black maids or mammys in the 1920′s through 1960′s of various skin complxions ages and weights because black women, in general, were denied opportunities to do anything better).
-So if it was a light skinned black woman who was showing the agression would it be LESS masculine. Would you compare her to Sapphire even if she acted the same way? Probably not, because you are focusing more on her skin tone ratherthan her actual aggression.
-Its ok when a light or white woman does it, but God forbid a dark chick does it and now she’s a masculine ugly stupid negative sterotype and not just a black actress simply PLAYING A ROLE IN A COMMERCIAL.
-Dark skin may have been used to characterize the Mammy in films but Mammy SHOULD NEVER be used to characterize dark skin. Dark skin and Mammy ARE NOT synonymous just like beauty, femininity, and intelligence are NOT Synonymous with light or white skin (I’ve seen white and light skinned women that remind me of Mammy and many dark skin women who in NO WAY resemble her).
laromana says,
Anon,
Thanks for your EXCELLENT analysis of the Mammy stereotype and for challenging EVERYONE to stop promoting it/the underlying ANTI-BW HATE behind it.
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The white men who raped black women during those times more than likely were attracted to them. If they weren’t, they would have abused any old black woman instead of actually having someone go out and find the most attractive female slaves.
I’m not sure if I believe most white American men(then and now) have color complexes when it comes to the women of African descent they are attracted to(don’t really care either). Either way, I don’t believe any of us really know. I mean how many of you guys have actually had a deep down conversation with a white man about what he finds attractive?
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I have… but he didn’t get very far before I called him a LIAR!!!
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“There is nothing negative about being dark skinned or middle aged or not being thin. -Those were not the things that made Mammy a bad styereotype. It was the fact that she was always depicted as ignorant, masculine, and asexual with no other desires or aspiration outside of serving white people. This is what makes the Mammy depiction hard to digest and also historically inaccurate. It has nothing to do with skin color, weight, or age (there were many black maids or mammys in the 1920′s through 1960′s of various skin complexions ages and weights because black women, in general, were denied opportunities to do anything better).”
These are excellent points. I certainly don’t think in and of itself being middle aged or not a size 00 or dark skinned are bad things. I’m two out of three of those things. But I think to the extent that the physical representations taken together signify the behavioral aspects of the stereotype, and the fact that you see that particular type of woman most often than any other in some media to the exclusion of others makes it a negative thing to me.
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I’ve been studying up on the myth of mammy for a blog I’m writing called Just Lke Family (www.justlikefamilly.wordpress.com). The blog gives white adult children a place to give tribute to the African American women who raised them as well as the thoughts and concerns of the biological children of their mother who was the caretaker. (Haven’t had any of those comments yet!) I admit that in some ways the blog is racist at its core. I am white and naturally plagued by the sin of racism. There are so many tributes and descriptions by whites of their selfless, loving caretaker, etc. (mammy). It’s shocking how similar most are. Like everyone had the same caretaker!
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@ Felicia Furman…”I admit that in some ways the blog is racist at its core. I am white and naturally plagued by the sin of racism”.
There is so much fail in this statement. Why would you create a blog that you know is “racist at its core”? Really, what is the purpose behind it? You claim that it is a space for white people to pay tribute to the Black women who raised them. But is there really a need for that?
A lot of white people seem to believe that the Black nannies/maids who work for them are “just like family”. They want to believe that the only role these women played were as caretakers for them and their children. 9 times out of 10 these women were most likely drained physically and emotionally from having to do it all while smiling in some white person’s face, but they needed the money to survive.
It is demeaning. Not something to glorify, even with movies like “The Help”.
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BTW, being white doesn’t have to mean that one is “naturally plagued by the sin of racism”.
That sounds more like false liberal white guilt rather than somebody who truly wants to understand what life is like for many people of color.
There are no excuses. If a person wants to overcome their prejudices, they can.
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To the folks saying that white men who raped Black women during slavery were attracted to them…maybe some, but surely you do realize that rape isn’t necessarily about attraction? It is about power and subjugation. Yes, there might have been some sexual desire but it was mostly a way to show these women that they were property and they had no personal autonomy.
They lacked the freedom to determine what could be done with them or to them. Most Black women of that time were viewed as chattel, including the mulatta and quadroon/octoroon women of the Creole balls.
As to the Mammy stereotype, I believe this is still being perpetuated today.
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Um, angry much?
As a white man, who was once a little white boy, I can assure you, my Mammy was very much the kind, heavyset, happy stereotype you malign so casually. I can also tell you, Mildred, was the at the top of my, to go to list.
It was Mildred, then Grandma and finally my own mother.
Mildred was in our household because she was a wonderful human being. My father, from Alabama treated her ten times better than any of his white employees. A neighbor accused her of stealing once and my father beat him to a pulp in the front yard. It was magical to watch.
Everyone has to work, the terminology may change but there is no difference between a modern day nanny and a former day mammy. Get your head out of the movies, that wasn’t real.
There are good and bad people everywhere, regardless of skin colour. Your article is disgusting and offensive to both white and black people.
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“…my Mammy was very much the kind, heavyset, happy stereotype you malign so casually. I can also tell you, Mildred, was the at the top of my, to go to list.
It was Mildred, then Grandma and finally my own mother.”
Yes, Luke, Mildred was so loved and important that you still disrespect her by writing about her like she was a pet instead of an adult employed by your father.
If this article is “disgusting and offensive” to you it is because for once in your life you had to think of the grown Black woman charged with your care as a real, human being with a range of emotions and experiences, not the cardboard stereotype you found so comforting for so many years.
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@Luke: You are as deplorable as those abominable Confederate monuments that need to be torn down with a wrecking ball.
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@ Luke: You are disgusting and you are what’s wrong with the world you have nothing no redeeming qualities you are no better than those ghouls who dress up in the sheets and pillow cases over their heads wrecking fear and death through out the South. As i said in my previous post you are an old and decrepit Southern relic that needs to disappear with those abominable Confederate monuments.
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I’m starting to wonder if people like Luke are in reality, comedy writers.
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what were your parents doing they couldn’t feed you on time luke
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I remember vaguely of my oldest half sister who was just as abagond discriped ,light skin or rather had far less epiderminal skin pigmentation then anyone else in our family, ,regularly work for wealthy white familes and I also remember one (the male and his wife) visiting our poor home to try to convince our mother to let her continue working in thier home ,as I said I remember the incident vauguely as I was a young kid at the time.
The whole mammy stereotype strikes me as a desire for subservience and the need to rationalize thier oppressive relationship to former slaves now coerced servants.
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@Felicia and @Luke and anyone else who wants to wax nostalgic about their black mammy, oh and to members of my own black community (because you love mammies too) A very large population of smart, intelligent, and empowered black women are sick and tired of being the lowly caretaker of the world. We are tired of caretaking for whites. We are tired of caretaking for our own who want a good mammy to fall back on when you’ve messed up your life, taken too many drugs, have too many kids that you can’t care for, or just can’t stand the idea of really being an adult. The black church loves a mammy too. She is there Wednesdays, Sundays, and any time in between, taking care of everyone, putting her widow’s mite in the collection tray, and praying that boo boo will change his sinful ways so that he can raise his own kids. STOP already! The mammy role is played out. Mammies grow sick and tired of doing too much for too many for too long. Then they die and everyone sings Al Jolson style of good ole mammy and how she is missed. Sickening! This is a new day for the black woman!
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