Comparing The Mammy Archetype Origins And Implications

The Mammy image originates after slavery in the south of North America. The mammy archetype is described as “black in colour as well as race and fat with enormous breasts […] her head is perpetually covered with her trademark handkerchief to hide the kinky hair that marks her as ugly. […] she is strong, for she certainty has enough girth, but this strength is used in the service to her white master and as a way of keeping her male counterparts in check; she is kind and loyal, for she is a mother, she is sexless…”.As Sydnee Winston writes in her paper, “The Mammy Archetype origins and implications”, mammies were portrayed as maternal women that had no identity outside being a good servant. They were stereotyped as women with no family, so they could concentrate on taking care of white people, always neglecting their own needs. Mammy was seen as a black slave that wanted to be a part of the “white community”. Her image symbolizes the perfect relationship of a black slave with her white master. There is not much historic evidence to support the image of self-sacrificing mammy, as it was created by slaveholders and plantation owners as a justification for slavery. It showed slavery as empathetic, because mammies were portrayed as devoted servants that deeply loved their white “families”. What’s more, portraying mammies as sexless was supposed to deny sexual abuse slaves have experienced from plantation holders.

Sydnee Winston writes that “The positioning of the mammy as “contented” and “pleased” with her domestic role established an ideal of black woman being “okay” with economic exploitation”. The truth was, they had to act “happy” with how their employers were treating them, because they needed those jobs to