EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Pleasing the masses: Messages for daily life management in African American women's popular media sources

A.R. Black and N. Peacock

American Journal of Public Health, 2011, vol. 101, issue 1, 144-150

Abstract: Objectives: Using African American women's insights on their own health experiences, we explored how their daily life management was linked to the "strong Black woman" (SBW) script, and the health implications of that script. Methods: Using the search term "strong Black woman," we identified 20 articles from African American women's magazines and 10 blog sites linked to the SBW script and analyzed their content. We created thematic categories (role management, coping, and self-care) and extracted issues relevant to African American women's health. Results. Adherence to the SBW script was linked to women's daily life management and health experiences. Themes such as self-sacrificial role management ("please the masses"), emotional suppression ("game face"), and postponement of self-care ("last on the list") incited internal distress and evinced negative health consequences. Conclusions. Scientists, activists, and health care professionals would be aided in forming initiatives aimed at reducing health disparities among African American women by heeding the insights on their health experiences that they express in popular media sources.

Date: 2011
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.2105/AJPH.2009.167817

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2009.167817_4

DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2009.167817

Access Statistics for this article

American Journal of Public Health is currently edited by Alfredo Morabia

More articles in American Journal of Public Health from American Public Health Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christopher F Baum ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-19
Handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2009.167817_4