Selling Breonna: Twitter Responses to Breonna Taylor on the Covers of O, The Oprah Magazine and Vanity Fair

Abstract

Black women are largely invisible in mainstream media’s coverage of police brutality, despite the rise of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. Breonna Taylor’s killing by police in March 2020 gained some media attention after George Floyd’s killing. To engage with BLM, O, The Oprah Magazine and Vanity Fair released special issues in September 2020 featuring Taylor’s portrait on the covers. This study examined the Twitter response to these covers to illuminate how mass media commodify Black womanhood. A critical discourse analysis (CDA) using an intersectional feminist lens revealed themes related to the profitability of Black death, gendered Black allegiance, and Black woman aesthetics.