Abstract
In US advertising history, older African American women’s bodies have been used to sell domestic products through the hypervisibility of the black Mammy. Thus, mid-life black womanhood is often presented as asexual, overtly jovial, and nonthreatening in visual media. Comparing the Aunt Jemima “makeover” with the Dove Pro-Age advertisements, Fuerst argues that, in an effort to target black women as consumers, these two brands have engaged in a dialog with African Americans, and accordingly adjusted their visual representations of older black women as potential consumers, to varying degrees of success. While these images are at a risk of being “white-washed,” subjected to the triple jeopardy/discrimination of race, gender and age, Fuerst makes a case for the recovery of older black women’s bodies in these advertising campaigns.
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Fuerst, S. (2016). The Sexy Aging Black Woman in US Advertisements: From Aunt Jemima to the Pro-Age Campaigns. In: Arapoglou, E., Kalogeras, Y., Nyman, J. (eds) Racial and Ethnic Identities in the Media. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56834-2_13
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