Embodied Public Policies: The Sexual Stereotyping of Black Women in the Design and Implementation of U.S. Policies

Abstract

Images of black women as "oversexed" and hyper-fertile have persisted in the United States from slavery through the eugen­ics movement and into modern welfare debates. Stereotypes such as the "Hottentot Venus" and the "black welfare queen" have often dominated public discourse and shaped laws gov­erning sex, reproduction and family life. Policy makers need to assess their own and their colleagues' roles in perpetuating such stereotypical constructions of individual attributes in order to create policies that recognize the ways in which the subjects of their policies are complexly shaped by social, political and economic forces.