Racial Differences and Online Sexual Expression

The most interesting reading this week in my opinion was the analysis of African American girls in “Girls Wide Web 2.0”, chapter Three: “Get on my Level”. Readers were introduced to the African American race and their expression online as opposed to the over usage of Caucasian American exemplars we seem to see often. Mazzarella opens the chapter with common Google results that appear when typing in “black girls” or “black teen girls”, to really grab the audience’s attention. It is quite horrifying that the majority of results are sexually explicit and put bluntly disgusting and sad. This I agree may have something to do with the association to misogynistic rap and hip hop lyrics, that stereotype and depict women as sexual objects.
The chapter focuses on a certain social network popular black teen girls, NevaEvaLand, which I myself am not familiar with or even heard about until reading the chapter. It seems from what I’ve read that most of the girls grow up with positive self esteem and confidence, especially with their body image. They express themselves much more sexually it seems then other races I have read about, and the girls interviewed had sexually explicit usernames, lyrics and pictures to attract people to their pages and gain attention. I’m not saying this is solely a black girl’s intention or that they are the only ones who do this obviously, but the chapter does denote these specific details.
Female youth may think alike in many aspects within self expression, but race and culture do have a big influence on how and what is most important to them and what they feel are central in displaying. Although only a certain percentage of the girls had pictures, descriptions were detailed on looks and attitude and points were made clear on what they were looking for. However media and music are the biggest factors on why girls are demonstrating themselves the way they are, right? Why does society play dumb when girls are being snatched up by sexual predators, when girls only have these role models to look up too mimic?
In conclusion it is very interesting to come upon such racial distinctions even in female youth. Expressionism and sexuality are main focuses in the digital world, and it is important to recognize the distinctions, whether it is race, gender, culture, etc. Maybe in turn society can find ways of bettering media to focus and change what is important and not important to display at such a young age.


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