Fwiw, Richard, I've never heard the saying "I ain't nobody's Topsy". It would be interesting to learn that "Topsy" is used as a pejorative referent for Black women in England where (if I recall correctly) you live, or in the USA where I live. It would also be interesting if either "Topsy" or "Aunt Jemima" is used as a dismissive term or a pejorative referent for White women or for any other women of color besides Black women.

Imo, the referent "Uncle Tom" is much more commonly used in the USA than "Aunt Jemima". Truth be told, I rarely have read or heard anyone refer to a woman as an "Aunt Jemima". And I can't ever recall ever using that referent to describe someone. In contrast, while I personally don't use that term a lot, there have been times {like in this thread) when I have labeled someone as an Uncle Tom.

Also, I think that "Aunt Jemim" is a much newer referent than "Uncle Tom". I'd guess that Aunt Jemima started being used in this way in the 1970s or 1980s. Before that and since, I believe that we (African Americans} use/d the term "handkerchief head" for female counterparts of Uncle Tom. "Handkerchief heads" refers to the bandanas that many 19th century and earlier Black American women in the South wore to cover their hair. However, Black men can also be described as being "handkerchief heads". I believe that it's noteworthy that Zora Neale Hurston's - Glossary of Harlem Slang defines the term "handkerchief head" as a "sycophant type of Negro; also an Uncle Tom". That 1930s glossary doesn't define "Uncle Tom" {perhaps because the meaning of that referent was so common]. But it doesn't include the referent "Aunt Jemima" or otherwise refer to it. This might mean that "Aunt Jemima" wasn't used then in the same dismissive or perjorative way that it is known to be used now.
I say "the same" because there's at least one song in Thomas W. Tally's classic 1922 book Negro Folk Rhymes, Wise and Otherwise that puts down a woman named Jemima because of her "country ways" and not because of her "Tomish" attitudes or behaviors.

**

Here's a decription of [the modern usage of] the term "Aunt Jemima":

"Aunt Jemima is a trademark for pancake flour, syrup, and other breakfast foods currently owned by the Quaker Oats Company. The trademark dates to 1893, although Aunt Jemima pancake mix debuted in 1889. The phrase "Aunt Jemima" is sometimes used as a female version of "Uncle Tom," known as a Mammy archetype, to refer to a black woman who is perceived as obsequiously servile or acting in, or protective of, the interests of whites.[1]

The 1950s television show Beulah came under fire for depicting a "mammy"-like black maid and cook who was somewhat reminiscent of Aunt Jemima. Today, "Beulah" and "Aunt Jemima" are regarded as more or less interchangeable as terms of disparagement"...


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aunt_Jemima