Skinner stories : a community's perspective on the representation of coloured people today

This work investigates the meanings coloured people derive from media representations of' colouredness'. To position coloured identity in post apartheid South Africa, it pays close attention to the ways apartheid stereotypes play themselves out in particularly television media today. It looks at representations of working class coloured identities and asks for a shift in representations which undervalue that identity. Since this research focuses on both an analysis of television content and reception analysis amongst the women of the Cape Flats community of Hanover Park, a working class coloured community, it cannot be removed from questions about the existence of coloured identitity. It argues that despite the apartheid imposition of the label it exists in as much as there are those who identify with the label, and therefore give it meaning. This meaning is complicated by working class identities. In looking at the meanings these women derive, negotiate and construct from these narratives, it highlights the impact of gender roles and class not only on the act of reception but the creative processes of meaning generation. This work does not limit itself to a television analysis but also looks at print media in the tabloid, the Daily Voice, since it speaks to a specific working class, coloured market, and highlights its representation of coloured identities. Lastly, there has always existed a cultural link between coloured and African American identities. While recent scholars highlight the importance of this link based on identification with black Diasporas occurring within the coloured community, this work argues that this identification could have negative repercussions. It problematizes the representation of African American masculinities, but more importantly, draws similarities between the representations of coloured women in the soap opera narratives and oppressive caricatures of African American women. It shows that these caricatures have been commercialized through the hip hop genre, questioning the potential for similar images of coloured identity to be normalized and therefore problematizes coloured identification with this American product.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Centre for Film and Media Studies

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Samson, Sean

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8122

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/8122