Image of African American WomenDespite the strong presence of beautiful and powerful black women in the media, such as Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and Beyoncé Knowles, African American women have been considered as unattractive in the eyes of society. These notions did not develop overnight, but remain obstacles born of slavery. These stereotypes keep black women incarcerated under the belief that they are not beautiful. However, black women have and are fighting these harmful perceptions in different ways. My project will focus on two artists in particular, Maya Angelou and Kara Walker. I will look at three poems by Maya Angelou, Phenomenal Women, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and Still I Rise while examining the works of Kara Walker to compare different approaches to transforming unfavorable images of African American women. mine told me he found dark-haired girls “hideous”. I was shocked when I heard this because not only was his comment insensitive and racist, but he was also black. This comment did not surprise me because popular belief is that dark-haired girls are not attractive. In Hey Girl, Am I More Than My Hair?: African American Women and Their Struggles with Beauty, Body Image, and Hair, Tracey Owen Patton provides a historical review of the emergence of black stereotypes, explaining how black women acquired the inferiority status. . Black women are subject to Eurocentric expectations, causing these negative perceptions to evolve from the created premise that white women are the only defining archetypes of beauty (Patton 26). The societal practice of comparing black women to white women casts a negative light on the black women's community, leading to the manifesto...... middle of paper ...... beer image is still being made feel today, which can be clearly seen through the comment on my knowledge. I'm grateful to artists like Maya Angelou and Kara Walker for protesting perceptions of black women and working to transform them. Angelou and Walker use their work to demand respect for African American women, classify them as beautiful, and crush their harmful stereotypes once and for all. Works Cited Dekel, Tal. (2007). Sex, race and gender: contemporary female artists of color, the case of KaraWalker. Alantis, 31(2), 82-93. Feldstein, Ruth. (2012). “The World Was on Fire”: Black Artists and Transnational Activism in the 1950s. OAH History Magazine, 26(4), 25-29. Patton, Tracy Owen. (2006). Hey girl, am I more than my hair? : African American women and their struggles with beauty, body image, and hair. NWSA Journal, 18(2), 24-51.