“An ill-bred lady with a great big chip on her shoulder”: Gender and Race in Mainstream and Black Press Coverage of Eartha Kitt’s 1968 White House Dissent

Authors

Sarah Janel Jackson, University of Minnesota, Twin CitiesFollow

Disciplines

Communication | Gender and Sexuality | Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication | Race and Ethnicity

Abstract

An analysis of mainstream and black press coverage of Eartha Kitt’s January 1968 White House dissent on the Vietnam War is presented. Of particular interest is the way journalists constructed Kitt’s dissent for their audiences within intersecting discourses of gender and race. Findings reveal that mainstream journalists tended to undermine Kitt’s dissent by representing her within a gendered racial binary that denied her access to definitions of true womanhood. At the same time, despite presenting more explicit sexual objectification of the actress, journalists in the black press allowed her dissent legitimacy, challenging mainstream discourses.

Recommended Citation

Jackson, Sarah Janel (2011) "“An ill-bred lady with a great big chip on her shoulder”: Gender and Race in Mainstream and Black Press Coverage of Eartha Kitt’s 1968 White House Dissent," Journal of Interdisciplinary Feminist Thought: Vol. 5: Iss. 1, Article 4.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.salve.edu/jift/vol5/iss1/4