Hypersexual Black Women in the Ecuadorian 'Common Sense': An Examination of Visual and Other Representations

In: Civilisations: d'anthropologie et de sciences humaines, Band 60, Heft 1, S. 59-80

Abstract

In this essay, I contribute to the examination of racism and discrimination in Andean societies, and particularly in Ecuador, by focusing on the reproduction of stereotypical representations of black women as hypersexual beings in ordinary Ecuadorian society. I pay careful attention to visual images and their accompanying written texts in the Ecuadorian press and in other media. This allows for a consideration of ideological continuities across different periods of Ecuadorian history. Stereotypes about blackness, black bodies, and black sexuality abound in Ecuador. They share similarities with comparable representations in other Latin American contexts or on the transnational scene. They work to evoke black uncontrolled sexuality as the trope per excellence for 'savagery' at the same time that they suggest black female body's availability for white-mestizo male consumption/penetration. I propose an analysis of the recurrence of these images with respect for the specificities of the recent history of the Ecuadorian national context. Adapted from the source document.