Black Women Comics: Sensuality and Intersectionality

Abstract

ABSTRACT Can sexual jokes and raunchy routines of black women be used to address serious social, religious, and political issues? This article attempts to answer these questions by applying Patricia Collins’s intersectional theory to some selected works by these American actresses and comedians: La Wanda Page, Thea Vidale, Sheryl Underwood, Amanda Seales, Hope Flood, and Simply Marvellous. In an attempt to gain power, self-assertion, and liberty, these comedians employ vulgarity and sexual allusions to openly reveal the three taboos of the society. Being openly performed using the bodies as a way of narrative expression, stand-up comedy allows a mixture of both street culture and pornography to gradually emerge on the surface and open the floor to more black women comedians to join the trend. Using Patricia Collins’s intersectional theory, this article addresses the social, religious, and political issues raised in the selected comedians’ raunchy works and also examines the factors leading to the emergence of this black feminist trend from 1970s to 2000s.