and moral belief that women defined their femaleness by bearing children, and being a lesbian was thus "unnatural" because this was not possible. Yet, Hooks finds that the possibility exists that blacks are seen as more homophobic not because they are but because those who are tend to express themselves in a more outspoken way then similarly minded people in other communities do. Hooks also points out how attitudes toward homosexuals in the black community can be affected by outside factors, and one such is the positive portrayal of a lesbian relationship in The Color Purple, which contrarily produced a belief that lesbian relationships threatened heterosexual relationships in the black community (Hooks 120-23).
Blacks and homosexuals share certain issues in the public arena, and Hemphill notes this when stating that blacks, women, gays, Hispanics, and others are predominantly passive consumers of mass-media representations of their lives. Some of this is seen to be a parody of those lives. Television in particular sends these images into the home:
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