An investigation of Jezebel stereotype awareness, gendered racial identity and sexual beliefs and behaviours among Black adult women

Abstract

Evidence suggests that the intersectional nature of Black women’s race and gender identities influence their awareness of sexual scripts such as the hypersexual, Jezebel stereotype. This study examined the role of the Jezebel stereotype and Black women’s identity beliefs on their sexual beliefs and behaviours. Specifically, we investigated the role of gendered racial identity beliefs on the relationship between Jezebel stereotype awareness and Black women’s sexual behaviours (sexual assertiveness, sexual satisfaction, sexual guilt and attachment avoidance in relationships). A diverse national sample of Black women completed measures of gendered racial identity beliefs, Jezebel stereotype awareness and sexual behaviours. Black women who felt more positively connected to their Black woman identity reported greater sexual assertiveness and satisfaction. Consistent with past research, more awareness of the Jezebel stereotype was associated with higher sexual guilt and attachment avoidance. We discuss the enduring legacy of the Jezebel stereotype in relation to Black women’s gendered racial identity beliefs, as well as the importance of promoting positive sexual beliefs and a sense of sexual agency among Black women in the USA.

Keywords:

• Black women
• sexuality
• Jezebel stereotype
• gendered racial identity beliefs

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Data availability statement

Specific requests for the abridged versions of the survey data can be made available on request from the PI (Seanna Leath).

Notes

1 After the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves in 1807, Black women’s reproductive capacity as “breeders” represented a significant economic investment in nineteenth-century slave markets. Enslaved women and the children that they were forced to produce, were fundamental to the nation’s economic growth and to American capitalism (Jones-Rogers 2019). Thus, the misogynoiristic portrayal of Black women as seductive, lewd and “unrapeable” functioned as an ideological tool to justify Black women’s sexual assault and violence (Lomax 2018).