With Mediated Misogynoir, Kalima Young bravely confronts the viral images of Black women and girls being brutalized by police that I avoided to protect my heart. In her unsparing account, Young shows that the viral images of a white police officer throwing Dajerria Becton to the ground share an indifference to Black women’s suffering that underpins F. Gary Gray’s casual use of violence towards Black women in Straight Out of Compton and the Black community’s complicity in blaming the Black girls who survived R. Kelly’s abuse. Young lets none of us off the hook as she details the denial of innocence that renders Black women and girls victimizable within US culture. Mediated Misogynoir is a vital and timely book that is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding how popular media normalizes violence toward Black women and girls.

Antonia Randolph, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

In this volume, Young offers both an interdisciplinary exploration of the manifestations of misogynoir in traditional and social media and interpretations of media content that reproduce racial and gender violence against Black women. Grounded in theory and personal experiences, the text reveals how various constituents of US society, including those in Black communities, participate and are complicit in the oppression of Black women happening in movies, television shows, and viral posts on social media. The book presents many useful terms and frameworks for understanding mediated misogynoir. Recommended for undergraduates through faculty.

Choice Reviews