Abstract
Taking up Michele Wallace’s call to interrogate popular cultural forms and unravel their relationship with the political discourse of the time, this paper begins by examining the popular discourse about Black female sexuality in the USA. White, cis-hetero-patriarchal cultural and visual imagination still represents Black women either as asexual and maternal mammies or as the deviant ‘Other’ that is as Venus Hottentots or ‘hypersexual’ Jezebels. Maternal and sexual scripts were first naturalized by popular and scientific discourse(s), and then covertly deployed by the dominant white hetero-patriarchal set up to mask the exploitation of Black women, and constrict the opportunities of growth that were available to them even after the emancipation. This paper analyzes how Black women writers like Elizabeth Alexander and Alice Walker, and visual artists such as Renee Cox develop an oppositional gaze, to use Hooks’s phrase, and ‘re-frame’ the Venus Hottentot from their radical and subversive points of view. Building on theoretical insights of Gina Dent, Cornel West, and Audre Lorde, this paper engages with the oft-neglected relationship between pleasure, desire, identity, and Black female sexuality. Thus, Black female sexuality that has been expunged and/or termed ‘deviant’ actually becomes a source of empowerment for Black women.
Highlights
Taking up Michele Wallace’s call to interrogate popular cultural forms and unravel their relationship with the political discourse of the time, this paper begins by examining the popular discourse about Black female sexuality in the USA
Cis-hetero-patriarchal cultural and visual imagination represents Black women either as asexual and maternal Mammies and Aunt Jemimas or as the deviant ‘Other’ that is as Venus Hottentots or ‘hypersexual’ Jezebels, primarily
The third section of this paper explores how Black women artists registered dissatisfaction with both sexualization of Black female bodies by whites and with de-sexualization and/or erasure of their sexual desires by the models espoused by Black reformers and activists
Summary
“There were so many jokes about the Black body; so many stereotypes that were whispered, passed around and perpetuated . . . . The Black body had its own mythology; it had its own language” —Danquah (2009).. The third section of this paper explores how Black women artists registered dissatisfaction with both sexualization of Black female bodies by whites and with de-sexualization and/or erasure of their sexual desires by the models espoused by Black reformers and activists. In her resurrected form, she is not an aberrant subhuman freak but an intellectually sharp subject who voices her desires In their liberating re-presentations, Black women visual artists like Cox make a radical intervention by re-centering the Black female nude in the Euro-centric patriarchal discourse. This paper culminates by unraveling the relationship between sexuality, resistance, pleasure and the representation of the Black body These Black women intellectuals recover the knowledge about the empowering and autonomous nature of female sexuality that has been strategically suppressed by the patriarchal discourse by engaging with female anatomy, fertility dolls, and folklores concerning Black female sexuality. This paper, examines how Black female body that has often been raped, objectified, denigrated as ugly, and Black female sexuality that has been either obliterated or termed ‘deviant’ become sources of empowerment Black women
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
