Reflections on Identity and Media Representation
In a short opinion essay, reflect on your own identity (race, culture, gender, sexuality, religion, class, or language) and how you see it represented in South African media. This was originally a question I had to answer for an assignment. The instructions restricted me to one page, which meant I had to be concise...but now, I want to explore it fully, without limits. I want to talk about who I am, how I see myself, and how South African media reflects, or distorts, people like me.
As a young Black South African woman, my identity is shaped at the intersection of race, gender, and culture. Media plays a huge role in how I see myself and how society sees people like me. When I watch TV, scroll through ads, or engage with digital content, I see fragments of my identity, sometimes affirming, often distorting, and occasionally completely missing. Representation in South Africa is inconsistent. We’re still negotiating the legacies of colonialism, Eurocentric beauty standards, and old stereotypes.
Growing up, I rarely saw young Black women portrayed as complex, intellectual, or powerful in mainstream media. More often, we were background characters, domestic workers, victims, objects of desire, school drop-outs, teenage mothers, single mothers barely making it, and while yes those are unfortunately the reality of black woman...1. it is not by choice and 2. we are more than that. Rarely were we the architects of our own stories. Those portrayals subtly told me that intelligence, aspiration, and agency weren’t traits associated with people who look like me.
That was limiting. But over time, I discovered spaces where Black creativity and leadership thrived, social media communities, independent content, and platforms celebrating African fashion, natural hair, and local entrepreneurship. These counter-representations helped me reclaim my identity, showing me that we’re not one-dimensional. We are creative, intellectual, sensual, spiritual, and diverse.
From a theoretical perspective, Stuart Hall (1997) and Fourie (2019) argue that identity isn’t fixed, rather it’s produced within representation and discourse. Media shapes identity precisely because it defines the boundaries of belonging. When the majority of beauty campaigns feature light-skinned women, or when English is used as the marker of sophistication, subtle messages about worth are sent. These choices can exclude, even when the content appears inclusive.
The Curro advertisement controversy in April 2024 is a clear example. A school group posted a marketing campaign showing a Black child acting as a cashier, which many saw as reinforcing racial stereotypes. Critics argued it misrepresented African identity by prioritizing Eurocentric beauty standards, while others said it was a modern, global perspective on South African fashion. For me, this controversy demonstrates how misrepresentation isn’t just a creative oversight...it has real emotional and social consequences. Young Black children internalize these portrayals. They imagine where they belong and what they can aspire to based on media cues.
But media can also be a site of transformation. By actively seeking and supporting counter-representations, I’ve seen how powerful it is to challenge stereotypes and broaden narratives. Platforms that celebrate Black womanhood...highlighting entrepreneurship, intellect, creativity, and beauty in its many forms...offer alternative visions of possibility. They prove that representation isn’t just about visibility; it’s about authenticity, agency, and pride.
Reflecting on my identity through media has made me aware of both the constraints and opportunities of representation. I’ve learned to ask: Who is speaking? Whose gaze is centered? Whose voice is missing? I’ve learned to reclaim my story in spaces where my identity is acknowledged in its fullness. As Hall reminds us, cultural identity is always a matter of becoming. Through critique, engagement, and creation, I continue to define mine in defiance of limiting portrayals. I won’t wait for mainstream media to validate my existence...I’ll create spaces where my identity can flourish freely, in all its complexity.
Xoxo
Nirvana