Androgyny Image

This depiction of an African American woman appears on the cover of a songsheet of a remake of the musical hit Short'nin' Bread, an old spiritual popularized by the film Maytime in 1937. The reintroduction of such spiritual music has spawned intense controversy over the years depending on the context in which the material appears. This controversy has led such popular figures as Auntie Mame to be considered either propagators of racial dvisiveness or promoters of racial harmony and understanding. The rendering at left, at least by today's standards, would tend to propagate stereotypes of African Americans as subservient and subhuman. This image shows such minimal sensitivity to the female character that she not only appears subservient, but in her blank features, fails to make a clear impression as either a man or a woman.

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Short'nin Bread

Androgyny Image