The mom archetype is a racial stereotype originating in the US, depicting a large, motherly black woman with exaggerated features. It has its origins in slavery, where black slave girls were used as nurses for white children. The stereotype has persisted in American entertainment, advertising, and culture, and is considered offensive by many. Aunt Jemima is a classic example of the mom stereotype.
The mom archetype is a racial stereotype originating in the United States. Many people find this archetype racist and offensive, but it still crops up in American entertainment, advertising, and culture, and some examples can even be found on the shelves of most American grocery stores. Because of negative associations with the negative archetype, the slang term “mama” for “mother” is considered offensive in some regions of the United States, especially in reference to a black woman.
This racial stereotype has its origins in slavery. The classic mom archetype depicts a large black woman, dressed in bold, bright colors, usually with a rag over her head. She is typically good-natured, and often motherly, with a broad smile on her face. She is also loud and sometimes outspoken, as well as being motherly, sometimes snapping back at people to get them to behave. In visual representations, the mother’s lips are often grossly exaggerated and cartoonish, and she may have extremely large hips and heavily frizzy hair under her headdress.
Black slave girls were often used as nurses for white children in the days of slavery. The stereotype of an overweight, kindly nurse was largely duplicated in the American South in the 1700s and 1800s. Somewhat uniquely in a slave-owning society, “mother” had authority over white children, but this authority was usually tempered by fear, and the relationship between the female slave and her charges was inherently unequal, not least because many black nurses had their babies taken away and sold or raised by other women.
The mummy archetype appears frequently in books and artwork produced during the slave era in the United States, and was commonly included in blackface minstrel shows and other entertainment intended to appeal to a white audience . After the abolition of slavery, the mummy archetype lived on, appearing in advertisements intended to evoke the “old South” and in novels, films and other forms of entertainment. She has become very familiar to many Americans, including those unfamiliar with the racially charged history of the archetype.
One of the classic examples of the mom stereotype is Aunt Jemima, the fictional character behind a line of breakfast foods. While the face that appears on packaging today is simply that of a relatively benign black woman, some of the historical packaging showed the mother archetype in full bloom, with huge lips and hips and a motherly look. The black community has periodically expressed discontent with particularly blatant examples of the archetype, but the continued use of this racial stereotype suggests that defeating it may be an uphill battle.
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