Creating Black Female Space for Sexual Expression Through Podcasting to Increase Representation
Overview: Chronicles of Black Female Sexuality (CBFS) is a podcast space for exploring and breaking the stereotypes around black female sexuality and sexual identities.
Problem: Pop culture, i.e., social media and streaming television shows, wants to be inclusive, but it can’t. It falls back on the old traditions (sexism, religion) of stereotypes. If media perpetuates stereotypes, then how do black women become more than their stereotypes…
Solution: Sharing our voices so that other black millennial women know that they are not alone in this open yet repressed culture. CBFS Podcast talks to black millennial women from a range of sexual identities to hopefully give a voice to unrecognized forms of black female sexuality and give additional viewpoints to ones that pop culture continues to stereotype.
Client
Chronicles of Black Female Sexuality Podcast
Timeline
Q1 2019 - Q2 2020 (17 months)
Research Methods
Heuristic Evaluation, Competitive Analysis, Interviews, Qualitative Research, Quantitative Research, Survey Design, Inductive Approach, Deductive Approach
Skills
Podcasting, Prototyping, UX Research, Visual Design, Branding, Motion Graphics, Audio Editing, Social Media, JavaScript
Role
Podcast Creator, UI/UX Designer, UX Researcher, Graphic Designer, Motion Designer
Industry
Entertainment
Quantitative Research
An online Google search of the term “#blackwomen” and readings show additional representation issues.
A 2011 search for black women prompted mostly results and images related to porn.
Algorithms of Oppression
- Safiya Umoja Noble
Imagery Throughout History & Media with icons such as Eartha Kitt, Gladys Bentley, Hattie McDaniel, Josephine Baker, and more.
To understand black sexuality in media, you need to compare and follow the patterns of different forms of media using deductive and inductive analysis.
For print, the pinnacle of black sexuality was JET Magazine, a weekly Black Entertainment magazine that showcased its Black Beauties as the focal section. I found an online resource that had JET covers from 1951 to 2008. I documented 778 JET covers and broke them down to headlines, subheadlines, month, year, cover person, etc.
To understand black sexuality in media, I needed to compare and follow the patterns of different forms of media using deductive and inductive analysis.
“Negro” to “Black”: Changes in racial identity terminology on covers show the shift in the culture's mindset.
Protectiveness of Black Men: The majority of titles didn’t say anything negative about black men. Meanwhile, there were several instances where women weren’t portrayed in the best light. Promotion of Non-Celebrities to Pop Culture: Before the 1970s, the JET covers highlighted educators, politicians, and up-and-coming actresses.
Cover style changes: The transition from the black and white minimalist style with pops of color characteristic of the 1950s and 1960s to full-color covers that matched societal trends and the layouts of E! Magazine and People Magazine in the late 1980s.
Examples of some of the covers below:
Additional Quantitative Research
According to the Books: Sexuality, Surprises and All
Reading up about asexuality history and black sexuality allowed me to see the lack of research into the less mainstream areas of sexuality and how this lack could cause people to misidentify themselves, others, and create wild assumptions.
The asexuality census had to create a variable group called “raceTypo,” for black people, after it was found that the box marked for “Black: and/or African Diaspora,” says “NO” inside the checkmark box instead of being blank. This error led to numerous people checking “Black: African” that didn’t originally identify that way.
“Guide to the Asexual Community Survey Data”
- Tristian Miller
The over-sexual assumptions were further created in the sterilization of black people and poor whites.
"Black Sexualities"
- Barnes and Battles
Asexuality can be misdiagnosed as hypoactive sexual desire disorder, or HSDD, which in some ways relates to homosexuality and bisexuality being considered a mental illness in the 1920s.
- Chasin 167–180
Traits of asexuality: left-handedness, the more siblings a person has, the more likely they are to be asexual, and shortness.
Asexuality: What It Is and Why It Matters
- Bogaert
In the sixteenth century, when the Europeans arrived, they assumed the minimal clothing of the African people meant that they were sexually primal. The clothes in reality were contingent upon the tropical climate of the continent.
"Black Sexualities"
- Barnes and Battles
Over 90% of Black Cis-Female Sexual Representation in Media is focused on Straight, Lesbian, or Bisexual Relationships with Minimal References to Asexuality or Demisexuality.
*Most - Some - Least Referenced
The television and movie references below only include relationships where one person is a cis-female. If expanded, the research would include transwomen. I also realize with the expansion of sexual identities that not all identities will be covered below. (The engaging thing about this process is that it’s entirely about accessibility and representation, and it could be switched out for any gender and/or disability and/or ethnicity.)
"Within television history, black women have gone from Mammy characters to independent sexual beings. Beulah—a show from 1950 starring Ethel Watters, who was later replaced by Hattie McDaniel— is characterized as the 1950s version of black asexual representation. The Mammy persona is used as an example by Tricia Rose in the book, Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy, when referring to asexuality, but it lacks an understanding of self-preservation over sexual orientation."
*Mammy is a derogatory term and is used for research purposes ONLY. DO NOT REPEAT.
Results/Solution
What makes a safe space?
Sexuality is an expression of bravery and being comfortable with yourself.
I did a deep dive into what safe spaces are and what makes a safe space a safe space using qualitative research, i.e., surveys, diary studies, and observations.
I used House of Yes as my sample space as it’s a place of open expression of sexuality through art, dance, and burlesque. It changed the question of “How might we..” to "If I was brave enough I would…"
This phrase used both cards/surveys that participants could answer.
During the process, I found that the level of anonymity was an issue with these physical surveys, so throughout, I tried to establish trust with the participants by expanding into creating online surveys for added security and to establish this trust.
From these interviews, I found that sensitive subjects like sexuality require a lot of delicacy.
I did end up removing the question about pictures. It was originally there because I didn't think about the sensitivity of the topic I was asking about, but once, it was brought to my attention I removed it for the in-person surveys and cards and keep it as an optional question for the online surveys. Online surveys add an additional layer of safety and helped participants feel a little safer.
3 Testing Styles, 18 Participants
I presented my findings to my peers for additional analysis. Using surveys helped me to understand the importance of trust in order to understand your users.
Anonymity
Answer
Results/Solution
Media Representation is the Solution to the Lack
From these research processes, I found that creating a form of media would be the best way to raise awareness and provide a safe space for black women, so I created a podcast. During this process, I wanted to get several perspectives from different sexual identities. I was able to interview a woman who identifies as a black asexual woman, but I did find that the previous questions didn’t fit. At the time, it made me feel like that interview was a failure, but now I see that it highlights the lack of black female identities within media and the difference between US and UK media.
"I will create a platform that both explores diverse black female sexual identities but also criticizes the mental and social impact of the systematic lack of diverse sexual representation in streaming services, i.e., Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu, and social media."
It took me becoming comfortable with myself and who I was to fully understand my sexuality.
Podcast Guest
My ideas of black women were more influenced by music videos than what I saw on tv or in the people around me.
Podcast Guest
There is so much pressure not to be the black Jezebel on social media.
Podcast Guest
Music Shines As a New Contender in the Battle for Representation
My previous research didn’t cover music, but I found that over 70% of the answers to my interview questions came back to music lyrics and music videos. If I added music to my qualitative research, I could explore the references to black sexuality based on genre. Based on these interviews, I could hypothesize that hip hop and rap culture would continue to play a role in the answers, but I would be interested to see the inductive reasoning, or surprise findings, that could come out of more research. How would asexuality, omnisexuality, etc., show up in music? How could it be recognized? How does sexuality get communicated when someone covers a song outside of LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans) identities and wants to model it closer to their sexual identity that is more underrepresented?