Hypersexualization

Hypersexualization refers to the idea of having your sexuality determine your identity and existence. Often women of color, especially black women, are hypersexualized due to racist historical narratives that construed non-white sexuality as dangerous (Bronski, 23). These narratives paint the black women under racist stereotypes such as the promiscuous Jezebel who always wanted sex and could not be raped, the Mammy whose sole purpose was to be an economic unit by engaging in reproduction of slave capital and servitude, and the Sapphire who was maternal like the Mammy but supposedly devoid of the emotional attachment women were supposed to have which made assault upon the Sapphire more justifiable because there was the notion that they could not feel emotional trauma or pain (Combahee River Collective).