Notes

page one: history
historically black women in the US have not fit into traditional ideals of femininity, which have always been focused on the white middle and upper class. The ideal woman was delicate, sexually chaste, and a nurturing mother. the conditions of slavery made it impossible for black women to fit into these ideals. enslaved black women's worth lay in their labor, both physical and sexual/reproductive. they worked in homes and in agriculture, they raised white children, and they were often sexually exploited in order to produce more slaves. this is what is referred to as racial capitalism; black bodies were commodified and given economic value, and so white slave owners relied upon black women's reproductive labor to increase their own economic holdings.

page two: controlling images
controlling images of black women were both produced by and reinforced the injustices black women suffered and continue to suffer. the stereotype of the jezebel allowed white men to sexually exploit enslaved black women, and the legacy of the jezebel still exists today. the stereotype of the mammy portrays black women as devoted to the white families they serve while being disdainful of their own children, when in reality black women have historically been forced to take care of white children at the expense of their own. the stereotype of the welfare queen portrays black women as lazy and willfully dependent on government financial aid. and the stereotype of the angry black women serves the dual purpose of undermining black women's pain, anger, and dissatisfaction (as anything they say is automatically taken to be unnecessarily angry, illogical, and exaggerated) as well as masculinizing them by portraying them as angry, aggressive, and physically imposing. these stereotypes also divorce black women even more from traditional conceptions of femininity, including and most importantly the aspect of femininity which centers motherhood.

page three: modern examples
contemporary culture sexualizes and eroticizes black women, focusing on the black butt as a legacy of Saartje baartman, but there is still the implicit understanding that this sexualization must exist for (white) public consumption. Nicki Minaj's anaconda cover, for example, led to her being heavily criticized even though she was hardly the first woman to pose so provocatively. some of the criticism might stem from the unapologetic way that Minaj is embodying and reclaiming black women's sexual appeal. this becomes more apparent when comparing her to kara walker's A Subtlety statue. it, too, features a provocative image of a black woman's butt, but she faced much less criticism than Minaj, perhaps because she did not defiantly embody this reclamation but merely put it on display to be consumed by her audience. the subtlety of the statue's message was definitely lost to some if not most of the viewers, some of whom were noted to take raunchy photos with the statues. so even though black women are not producing the same kind of labor they were hundreds of years ago, they are still largely exploited by western culture


page four:
black women still face sexual violence in large numbers today, and there are movements dedicated to drawing attention to sexual violence both in general (the metoo movement, which was founded by black activist tarana burke) or more localized movements, such as lifeinleggings or saytheirnames which are centered around sexual violence in the Caribbean. another threat to black womanhood and motherhood is the idea of the degradation of the black family, supported by stereotypes such as the absent black father or the negligent welfare queen mother. but this supposed degradation is based off of the nuclear family, which has always been for the white middle and upper class. some black feminists are pushing back against this idea, like Latoya ruby frazier, whose flint is family project centers a whole and functional black family led mainly by women.

page five:
because of the differences in how black and white womanhood is conceptualized, reproductive justice looks different for black and white women. Loretta ross defines it as "the complete physical, mental, spiritual, political, social and economic well-being of women and girls, based on the full achievement and protection of women's human rights." this approach centers more than just access to birth control and abortion, as is the goal of the pro-choice movement. ross' approach takes into consideration that black women have faced a long history in this country of not being able to parent their children, of having their womanhood constantly questioned and undermined, and of being sexually exploited. reproductive justice necessitates addressing the systems of oppression which continue to plague black women and other women of color.

page six

sources
remnants of venus
Cedric Johnson and racial capitalism
on tambourines
Flint is family
reproductive justice