Contesting the Aunt Jemima Trademark through Feminist Art: Why is She Still Smiling?

In 1989, Quaker Oats Company, in celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the Aunt Jemima trademark, made extensive alterations to her face and body. Her image was ‘updated by removing her headband and giving her pearl earrings and a lace collar.’ Aunt Jemima, the commodified version of a Southern mammy, has always been a heavy-set, dark-skinned, bandanna-wearing black woman with a broad, teethy smile.

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