Black Feminist Research Articles

Black Women’s Body Image: Implications for Identity Formation and Well-Being

This paper serves as the introduction to a special issue on Black women’s body image. Today, controlling images of Black women, such as the Jezebel, Mammy, and Sapphire stereotypes, are evident in controversial public and corporate policies regarding natural hair choices, differential judicial outcomes for darker-skinned Black women, and inequitable responses to Black women’s COVID-19 symptoms and maternal health experiences. In response to these events, many Black women are (re)claiming control over their biological, social, and cultural bodily experiences across public and private spaces. Thus, we highlight how the papers in this special issue represent a large-scale effort to apply the Black feminist thought framework to the scientific study of body image among Black women. Consistent with body positivity principles, all papers use the foundation of Black feminist thought in the experiences and knowledge of Black women, consider the roles of power, privilege, and oppression throughout the inquiry process, and address the utility of findings for improving the lives of marginalized groups through structural and social change. With this special issue, we hope to advance scholarship on the ways in which Black women’s bodies are evaluated and monitored. Black women’s efforts to resist and dismantle these controlling images and gendered racial injustices are also critical contributions needed to strengthen this area of research.

Burning Desires: Zanzibari Women in the Throes of Concubinage and Gunpoint Matrimony

This article examines the two instances of concubinage (suria) during the Omani rule of Zanzibar and the Ndoa Za Karume Forced Marriage Act that followed the revolution in 1964 on the island. Both practices can be seen as laboratories in which the complexities of sex and power were in full display. Throughout, the author draws inspiration from anthropologist Tim Ingold's theory of human correspondence alongside valuable insights from the intersection of black feminist thought and humanistic anthropology to deepen our understanding of both concubinage and forced marriage as forms of sexual bondage occurring within particular political circumstances and historical realities. For indeed, both objectifying practices assumed a variety of meanings in colonial and postrevolutionary Zanzibar. When conjugating suria and ndoa within the complex grammar of race, class, and gender, we also often encounter inconsistencies inherent in fraught human relationships and furthered by the marked fluidities and slippages of both practices and their varying connotative, pragmatic, and ideational significances. Was the Ndoa za Karume an act of retribution against concubinage? Or was it a contribution to a nation-building project in a society adrift? To consider these questions, the article draws on a variety of ethnographic insights gathered in Zanzibar and Oman between 2016 and 2019 and a constellation of texts, including archives, local historiographies, a collection of Swahili statements for and against ndoa possessed by an interlocutor, memoirs, and other field notes gathered in 2020–21. The article explores what was at stake in these two parallel modes of exploiting women's bodies, arguing that they cannot be understood in isolation from their “correspondences” and the emotionality manifested in both gendered social dramas.

Dripping in molasses: Black feminist nostalgia and Kara Walker’s A Subtlety

ABSTRACT Kara Walker is best known for her depictions of sexualized violence and gendered racism during slavery in the form of black paper silhouettes. Scholars such as Salamishah Tillet argue that Walker's art, along with art by some of her post-civil rights contemporaries, offers ‘aesthetic interventions’ to problematic racial histories as part of a larger project of memory reclamation and justice. Walker's A Subtlety, Or the Marvelous Sugar Baby, an Homage to the unpaid and overworked Artisans who have refined our Sweet tastes from the cane fields to the Kitchens of the New World on the Occasion of the demolition of the Domino Sugar Refining Plant is another such interventionist project. Debuting in the Williamsburg neighbourhood of Brooklyn, New York in May of 2014, A Subtlety explores how a figure like mammy ‘survives as a cultural force that influences and reflects a national conscience’ (Wallace Sanders [2008]. Mammy: a century of race, gender, and southern memory. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 12). And yet, to say that the historical rootedness of the title, sugar sphinx sculpture, and molasses-covered walls and cherub-faced small figures throughout the installation were ambiguous to some spectators, is an understatement. Hundreds of photographs and videos were uploaded to social media sites with people making gestures towards the figure that some critics deemed highly inappropriate. This paper explores how A Subtlety both understands and undermines representations of Black women's bodies and how Black artists in the African diaspora contend with complex cultural signs of the past in the present. Utilizing studies of Black feminist theory and visual culture, I argue that Walker’s A Subtlety – and her art more broadly – offers theoretical and geographic space to ponder where Black pleasure and collective memory can exist in systems of misogynoir, as well as in the Black nostalgic imagination.

Beyond the womb: a mosaic of organizational advocacy for reproductive justice

ABSTRACT Within the US, recent calls for greater work-family justice have not only forced organizations to re-conceptualize work, but to re-define the role of organizations themselves. This shift has been striking during times of socio-political change as demonstrated most recently by organizational responses to the reversal of Roe v. Wade, with many companies pledging funding for birthing people seeking abortions. While this type of support is valuable, the singular focus on abortion rights within the reproductive justice context minimizes the scope of its intersectional legacy. The purpose of this paper is to advocate for the organizational application of a comprehensive framework for reproductive justice (CFRJ) guided by intersectional Black Feminist epistemology. We will show that many US organizations have already engaged in reproductive justice by weaving together a mosaic of three socio-political moments (the pathway to marriage equality, restrictive immigration policies and COVID-19), that garnered organizational support and advocacy. These moments reflect the comprehensive nature of reproductive justice as conceived by the Black Feminists who originated the term. These ‘turning points’ demonstrate the organization’s capacity for leadership during times of crisis. The paper concludes with recommendations that explore potential pathways for moving forward in supporting work-family and reproductive justice within organizations.

The digital nesting of Black feminism

The digital nesting of Black feminism

Versatile Black Female Identity in Olympia Vernon’s Eden

Political movements of racism and feminism during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries included monolithic approaches to identity that treated each category of race and gender exclusively. As a result, these movements fail to serve the black feminist liberation project because they do not treat blackness and gender as interlocking aspects that shape their experience. Therefore, this article aims to examine how black women’s intersectional position is represented in Eden(2003), a novel about the American South by Olympia Vernon, and how this examination enhances a powerful, versatile black female identity. Drawing on theories of intersectionality and gendered subjectivity as positionality, this study highlights how black Maddy Dangerfield, the protagonist, navigates women’s racial and gender suppression in the novel. In doing so, Maddy acquires consciousness that problematic racial and gender configurations throughout history do not necessarily hold deterministic powers over her subjectivity. In this sense, versatility as a form of radical black female subjectivity is an outcome of a simultaneous positioning as part of a historical context and detached from the determinism of that context. Maddy uses her positional perspective to create new meanings about blackness and femaleness. This process exposes how values attached to race and gender hold no deterministic power over a woman’s subjectivity. The significance of this study lies in shedding light on how versatile black female identity is part of a non-traditional way of resisting racial and gender domination that enacts engaging intersectionality and positionality

Women and Culture of Violence and Abuse in Yoruba Land in the Context of Luke 13:8-16

In most of the cultures in the world, women are considered to be inferior to men. African culture, Yoruba in particular, though diverse, is not an exception. Women are wives and mothers. They do the cooking, the mending, the sewing and the washing. They take care of the men and are subordinate to male authority. They are largely excluded from high status occupations and from positions of power. The most basic division of labour appears to be founded on sex or gender. Clearly women are biologically different from men; but gender roles in most societies are a product of culture rather than biology. The division of labour on the basis of sex supported and justified by a value system which gender roles as normal, natural, right and proper. In every society, a higher value is placed on culture than on nature. This paper is aimed at identifying gender violence and abuse, social cultural factors which continue to act against the principles of social justice and equality despite all the national and international initiatives on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women. The paper adopted Black feminism as it affects the female in general. It then suggests that man and woman are created in the image of God and no one is inferior to the other. The work concludes by showing the world that violence, abuse and marginalizing women in the society is a crime against humanity and both male and female should rise up to fight it as a crime against gender or violence against women.

Black Feminist (Re)Constructions of Education in the Afterlife of Abolition: An Invitation

ABSTRACT Scholars have utilized the allegory of Reconstruction to trace threads between the historical and contemporary struggles for freedom. In this article, I highlight the ways that abolition has always been a dual project and remains as such in our present time. It calls for the complete destruction of oppressive structures while simultaneously demanding that we consider our world once those structures are ameliorated. Using (Re)construction as a framework, I examine how historical Black women teachers built and created alternatives and struggled for an abolition democracy in the afterlife of abolition. (Re)construction also invites us to explore these alternatives in our current time, with the aim of constructing a New World full of radical (im)possibilities.

Intersectional blackness matters: Why family science should care about the College Board's A.P. African American Studies course controversy

AbstractThis article examines how the recent controversy about the College Board's A.P. African American Studies course has implications for studies on Black families. In relegating Black feminism and Black queer theory as optional research topics in the course, the College Board failed to recognize the importance of theorizing intersectional blackness in research in Black Studies in general and research on Black families in particular. The College Board failed to recognize how race, gender, sexuality, and other social forces converge to provide a richer picture of Black lives. In utilizing a theoretical lens of intersectional blackness as a foundation, I use both the Florida Board of Education's position regarding the “merits” of the A.P. course and the College Board's decision to fringe certain topics as examples of how both Black families and Black Studies are maligned by framing both as inferior and lacking.

Rewriting the queer potential of She’s Gotta Have It

ABSTRACT This paper argues that the 2017–2019 comedy-drama Netflix series She’s Gotta Have It attempts to rewrite the past represented within the 1986 feature-length film of the same name through its portrayal of Black women’s sexuality. While lauded, the film was met with criticism of Spike Lee’s portrayal of women in the film as ultimately misogynist and homophobic, evidenced by Lee’s decision to show protagonist Nola Darling being punitively raped by one of her sexual partners as well as by the flat and stereotypical construction of the Black lesbian character, Opal Gilstrap. In contrast, the 2017 series introduces us to Nola Darling as a pansexual and polyamorous Black visual artist in a rapidly gentrifying Fort Greene, Brooklyn. This paper identifies sexual politics and self-representational strategies as two sites of nostalgic re-construction in which elements of the past are both reproduced and revised. For instance, Nola’s self-identification as pansexual and her sustained relationship with a reimagined and more robustly characterized Opal illustrate that Nola’s sexual desires are not bound by heteronormativity. At the same time, the series echoes the film in that the primary sexual and romantic conflicts revolve around the ways Nola’s Black femininity is juxtaposed with the Black cis masculinity of her three primary suitors. The use of self-representational strategies, primarily Lee’s signature 4th wall breaking, provides a sense of continuity through its nostalgic callback to Lee’s earlier works, while also allowing Nola to articulate the ‘new’ identities of polyamory and pansexuality which depart from the language used in the ‘86 portrayal. Relatedly, Nola’s work as a visual artist allows the show to prioritize Nola’s perceptions of her lovers and herself. Overall, this paper mobilizes Black feminist, lesbian, and queer analyses in service of identifying and complicating Lee’s efforts to recuperate misogynist and heteronormative gendered portrayals in a contemporary medium.

Thank You Black Feminism: Ten Strategies to Foster Radical Healing (for Healers and Those in Need of Healing)

The authors pay homage to Black feminists and Black feminism as they reflect on the impact of Black feminism on their lives. The authors challenge readers to examine the ways that anti-Black racism (ABR) persists within the field of psychology and introduce ten strategies from their experiences and research on Black feminism-informed interventions that facilitate resistance and prevention through radical healing. In addition to the strategies offered, readers are provided with next steps and recommendations for addressing ABR in psychology and facilitating radical healing through Black feminism.

Anti-racist research practice partnerships as critical education: dismantling the master’s house with their own tools?

ABSTRACT This paper reflects upon “Justice Now Coalition” (JNC), an anti-racist research practice partnership (RPP). The Coalition drew from the Black Emancipatory Action Research (BEAR) Framework as well as Black feminist, Afro-futurist, and critical race epistemologies to answer two research questions: 1) How can an urban education RPP that includes academic, community, and youth partners engage in a collaborative inquiry process that helps to dismantle the STPP/Nexus; and 2) How does engagement in the collaborative inquiry process influence research projects, group dynamics, and community members? We present a self-reflective, ethnographic case study of an anti-racist RPP that we led. We find that the collaborative inquiry teams’ primary way to dismantle the STPP/Nexus is to center Black children. They approached their work not from a policy change perspective, but in the co-creation of a space where Black youth speak, are heard, and take the agency to reimagine and reconstruct their school environment. Data also show the leadership of Black women who collaborated with partners with the intentionality of demonstrating love and critical care for Black communities. This work extends the vision of RPPs to be explicitly anti-racist and decolonizing by engaging in an Afro-futurist space in the present.

Black Feminist Uses of the Erotic

Black Feminist Uses of the Erotic

Psychologists as Anti-Racist Change Agents on Campus: “What We Do Is More Important than What We Say or What We Say We Believe”

Psychologists, based on their training in the science and practice of change, are well-equipped to make vital contributions to combating inequity and embracing social justice at colleges and universities. By examining the oppressive systemic contexts of higher education and reviewing models of change, this article provides psychologists with critical perspectives and practices to ensure a more transformative and anti-racist approach to change. We consider three conceptual models to help move colleges and universities forward, employ evidence-based research and assessment strategies, and apply them at the individual, group, and organizational levels. A Black feminist critique is also utilized to further understanding of the role of resistance, coalition building, and freedom in creating change on campus.

Interventions supporting positive psychosocial functioning of Black adolescent girls: A narrative review

ABSTRACTThe disparate experiences of Black adolescent girls across academic and behavioral domains when compared to their same-gender peers call for further examination and discussion to aid in tailoring support efforts. This narrative review aims to identify processes that contribute to the psychosocial functioning of Black girls, an understudied area of research. By employing an intersectional framework grounded in Black feminist ideology, this article explores the racial identity and socialization of Black girls, their academic and behavioral experiences within school and beyond, how the strong Black woman schema can conceal the needs of Black girls, and the impact of racial stress. Identified themes of support for Black girls include gender-specific programming that focuses on positive racial identity development, messages regarding positive racial views as part of racial socialization, psychoeducation on the impact of racial trauma as well as lessons on power, privilege, and oppression to aid in self-understanding and cultivate critical consciousness.

Structural Racism Within Reason

Abstract In this discussion, I engage the politics of intention to explore how structural racism structures the production of meaning and the practice of reason. Building on María Lugones's analysis of intention formation as a form of practical reasoning, I explore the reasoning at work during the 2011 Stand Your Ground (SYG) hearing of black survivor of domestic violence, Marissa Alexander, to contend that structural racism—in this case, both intimate personal violence and intimate state violence against black women—enacts race/gender domination through projecting constructed intentions onto black women as a strategy to rationalize punishing black women. I also discuss two key black feminist critiques of reason—Patricia Hill Collins’ discussion of “controlling images” (2000) and Michelle Cliff's concept of the “mythic mind” (1982)—to propose controlling intentions as a framework to theorize how structural racism produces fictive intentions used to rationalize the criminal punishment of survival and justify that outcome as common sense.

What Transnational Feminism Has Not Disrupted Yet

Abstract Examining the critical genealogy of transnational feminism, this essay proposes a feminist theoretical model called quilted epistemology derived from the Black feminist art of quilting. Aiming to strengthen transnational feminism, quilted epistemology intends to resolve some of the existing limitations of transnational feminism and embrace multiple and incompatible feminist knowledge positions from the Global South to the Global North.

Interracial romances and colorblindness in Shondaland’s Bridgerton

Previous literature has considered Shondaland and portrayals of interracial romances for depicting post-racial and post-feminist utopias. Given mass media’s ability to create/reproduce ideologies, Shondaland’s most popular and most recent installment, Bridgerton, offers an opportunity for assessing narratives related to race and gender. The current study considers these narratives in Bridgerton, as well as the role of colorblind casting techniques for constructing those narratives. The current study uses a critical race theory approach, incorporating Black feminist thought and intersectionality. Season one of Bridgerton reveals three themes as they relate to race and gender, (1) romance, love, and who is worthy of love, (2) the body and historical context, and (3) dark corrupting light. Specifically, Black women are depicted in various positions of power that minimize racism and yet are simultaneously depicted in positions of oppression that serve to naturalize oppression of Black women, offering support for Bonilla-Silva’s colorblind racism in media.

The racial economy of Instagram

AbstractThis paper explores the mechanisms of white supremacy within digital spaces in relation to the body/embodiment, social justice movements, and the nature and expression of contemporary feminism. New digital political economies work through social media such as Instagram to colonise, disempower and obscure the work of Black feminists in the sphere of fat liberation (re‐framed as ‘body positivity’), and in terms of imperatives for self‐care, which have been co‐opted by an emerging online wellness industry. I call to account the pervasiveness of neoliberal logics which are re‐shaping (post)feminism and re‐inscribing white supremacy onto bodies online and offline through ‘disciplined whiteness’.

Can’t Just Send Our Children Out: Intensive Motherwork and Experiences of Black Motherhood

AbstractRace and racism play an integral role in shaping mothering practices. Specifically, motherwork examines how Black mothers use strategies and practices to shield children from, as well as help them navigate through, experiences of racism. The necessity of these mothering practices may be fundamental in how motherhood is experienced for Black women. This study used qualitative in-depth semi-structured interviews with 35 predominantly middle-class Black mothers of children in adolescence and young/emerging adulthood. A grounded theoretical and Black feminist approach was taken to analyze data. Black mothers take on numerous laborious and exhaustive strategies to shield their children from racism through what I theorize as the concept of intensive motherwork. I define intensive motherwork as the exhaustive efforts and effects of Black mothers protecting and empowering their children and themselves in the face of anti-Black racism. Intensive motherwork can be seen in three broad themes: (1) protective mothering, (2) resistance mothering, and (3) encumbered mothering. This work expands current discourse on Black families by highlighting the overlap between the intensive nature of Black women’s mothering, the laborious practices that are deployed, and the role of race and racism on Black women’s mothering experience.