After watching the Oprah’s Next Chapter episode with Gabrielle Union, Phylicia Rashad, Alfre Woodard and Viola Davis entitled “African-American Women in Hollywood,” I can’t stop thinking about what Gabrielle said about her past.
She admitted that she used to be a mean girl and would hate on any and every woman she felt was a threat to her or diminished her shine. Talk about a shock factor!
While I am very proud that Gabby grew up and finally began embracing women, it did get me thinking about the amount of mean girls we all see being praised in the media today.
With reality TV shows and the “ratchet” women that are popular on them running rampant, society can easily turn on their televisions and witness someone being bulled, verbally and/or physically.
There are some that might say that these television shows don’t do any harm. However, I don’t think that the increased rates of bullying and bullying-related suicide correlating to the amount of “ratchet” reality TV being created is a mere coincidence. Do you?
There are a couple of females on very popular Vh1 shows that I see constantly getting into drama with other cast members. From yelling at others to throwing drinks and fighting, these women are completely out of control.
There is another black female star athlete that has a reputation for being a mean girl. Instead of helping and being a support system to a younger rising star that looked up to her, she instead decides to turn her back to her. In a game played by people who are predominately white, she is quick to be labeled as a black mean girl that picks on people.
Then there is a very popular Caribbean “Bad Girl” who doesn’t even seem to try and hide the fact that she gives zero f*cks. Whenever she feels like someone is attacking her, she’s quick to snap and let everyone know how “bad” she is, not knowing that she’s making herself look like a damn fool.
What do all three of these women have in common? They are black women who do not know how absolutely ignorant and degrading they can make themselves look, while reflecting on millions of other black women around the world.
Now I’m not trying to say that only one specific group of people are more violent or angry than any other, because I know for a fact that every race has mean girls. But when black women are constantly being portrayed as loud and angry all the time, this is doing nothing but aiding stereotypical thoughts about us to people who do not personally know us.
We live in a society where the most angry women that you see on television are black women. And the truth of the matter is that because of these images, even intelligent, dignified black women are believed to be this same way.
Take for example Michelle Obama. While interviewed on the Gayle King Show back in January 2012, she stated:
“That’s been an image people have tried to paint of me since the day Barack announced, that I’m some kind of angry black woman.”
With the stereotypes that we face everyday, popular black women cannot afford to act a damn fool in the public eye. With their “I don’t give 2 fucks” attitude seen all across the world, it might just be time to.
If FLOTUS can be seen as an angry black women, beauty, brains and all, how do these ratchet women think they are being viewed?
It’s time for these women in the media to wake the hell up and realize that they are doing nothing but hurting themselves and people that look like them.
And yes, many say that they do not want to be role models, but guess what? You’re famous, so you automatically are!
And if you truly don’t want to be one, then get off the screen and stop being famous.
These are your two choices. Either start giving a fuck or sit your behind down and go be the ratchet, bad girl idiot away from the spotlight!
It’s not like intelligent, dignified black female fans of the media will miss you anyways. You’re just doing us more harm than good.
Isha Thorpe (pronounced eye-shah) is a News/Politics Editorial intern at GlobalGrind. She is also a contributing writer at Yahoo! and Examiner. Follow her on Twitter for all things news @IshawThorpe
