Anthony Appiah and Negotiating Identity...

from http://divergences.be/local/cache-vignettes/L400xH322/02_Evolution-581e3.jpg

Is the reoccurring image of sensationalized Venus Hottentot creating a new caricature for black femininity that extends beyond the 'Jezebel' sexualized minstrelsy? And if so, how do black women negotiate this image and hypervisability in American culture, particularly in regards to their images in digital environments?

The potential of a Venus Hottentot caricature and negotiations of black women's images in digital spaces can be explored in context of Anthony Appiah’s theories concerning societal norms as social scripts in Ethics of Identity. 

“In constructing an identity, one draws…on the kinds of person available in one's society... Collective identities… provide what we might call scripts: narratives that people can use in shaping their projects and in telling their life stories.”