Mainstream Pop Culture and the “Jezebel”

Much of the content addressed in this THPERF 282: Gender and Performance course of Fall 2021, was centered around the works of the popular African American artist, Beyoncé. In reviewing the mastery of her 2013 self-titled album and supporting academic material, this course allowed each student to explore the limitless boundaries of what it would look like to perform one’s racial and gendered identity and sexuality within a performance context. From week to week, one of the most prominent and protruding questions that I maintained was “Why do so many Black female performers play into the Jezebel stereotype?” Following the creation of my last article, an Op-Ed – Sex. It Sells. But It Is Keeping Black Women In Chains – which discussed the damaging reality of the over- sexualization of Black women in mainstream multi-media (Radcliffe 1), I began to deeply consider the complexities of my question.