Challenging the Myth of the Strong Black Woman

1
Challenging the Myth of the Strong Black Woman

• Outline
• Revisiting Constructions of Black Women in
  Slavery
• Understanding Contemporary Constructions of Black
  Womens Strength and Sexuality
• Locating Feminism in the Black Community.

2
Constructions of Black Women in Slavery

• STRONG SEXUAL
• exploitation as labourer exploitation as
  sexual object
• denial of her beauty and representation as
  femininity traitor to black men
• Opposite of white womena non-woman

3
Constructions of Black Women in Slavery

• White Women
• Pure
• Chaste
• Fragile
• Feminine
• Docile/obedient
• Dependent

• Black Women
• Corrupt
• Sexually perverse
• Strong
• Masculine
• Harsh/aggressive
• Independent

4
Constructions of Black Women in Slavery

• The Mammy (passive and unthreatening)
• Loyal to the white family
• Protective of white children
• Desexualized
• Harsh with black men and her own children
• The Jezebel (brazen and highly sexualized)
• Moral corrupter of white men
• Disrespectful of social norms and customs
• Traitor to black men

5
Contemporary Constructions of Black Women

• STRENGTH
• High percentage of black women as primary
  caregivers and primary breadwinners
• More black women graduating high schools and in
  universities than black men
• Growing number of black women in corporate
  America and corporate Canada and in the
  professions (teachers, nurses, etc).

6
Contemporary Constructions of Black Women

• SEXUALITY
• Black women still seen as highly sexualized
• Sexuality celebrated and popularized in music
  videos and through Hollywood
• Sexuality still seen as a threat to black
  menbaby-mother drama.

7
Challenging Notions of Black Womens Strength

• Black womens health
• Sexism and black womenspousal abuse, rape and
  incest
• Poverty and the single-headed household
• Black youth delinquency and high school drop-out
  rates.

8
Redefining Black Womens Sexuality

• Middle-class black women and the problem of
  black womens sexuality
• Black women as artists and performers in Jamaican
  dancehallchallenging the middle-class model?

9
Feminism and the Black Community

• Tension between race and gender
• Non-representative and competing political
  platforms
• Suggesting a new definition Alice Walkers
  definition of womanist.