Giddings Chapter Summary ':A Search for Self:'

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Giddings Chapter Summary.A Search for Self.

• The image of Afro-American Women
• Blacks found postwar America a hall of mirrors,
  where they saw their reflections first from one
  angle, then from another.
• -DuBois, Souls of Black Folk

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The Image of Afro-American Women

• Two Developments in the Period
• 1. Rise and fall of Black Militancy
• 2. Decline of feminist consciousness after the
  passage of the 19th Amendment

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The Rise Fall of Black Militancy

• White feminist promote two issues that affect
  Black Women
• Passage of Equal Rights-eliminate protective
  legislation for women
• Birth Control Movement-legalizing contraception
  with the idea of getting rid of poverty which
  turned into a campaign.
• to keep the unfit from reproducing
  themselvesracial concerns overwhelmed those of
  sex. -Geoffrey Perrett

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Realization of Black Feminist Efforts

• Elise McDougald wrote that, Black womens
  feminist efforts are directed chiefly toward the
  realization of the equality of the races, the sex
  struggle assuming a subordinate place.
• Question- What does Elise mean, when she said
  that, feminist efforts are directed towards
  realizations of the equality of races?
• Answer-It means that when race over shadows sex
  as the more important issue women loose overall
  and the power is split between causes.
• Such as with anti-lynching and Equal rights.

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The Rise Fall of Black Militancy

• Black militancy was also demonstrated by male
  intolerance of traditional views accorded to
  black women.
• Example- grotesque Aunt Jemimas of the street
  car advertisements that proclaim only an ability
  to serve.-Elise McDougal
• A Response from the Messenger to the Daughters of
  the Confederacy wanting to erect a statue in
  Washington D.C. in memory of Black Mammies.
• We favor erecting a monument to the Negro Women
  who have risen above insult, assault,debauchery,pr
  ostitution, and abuse to which these unfortunate
  Black Mammies were subject. -Chandler Owen,
  co-editor of the Messenger

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The Decline of Feminist Consciousness

• In this period Black Women would be appreciated
  not only for their strength but for their
  feminine attributes as well.
• femininity, not feminism, was the talk of the
  twenties
• The emphasis was on glamour, so much so that it
  was this decade that put a beauty parlor in
  nearly every small town
• Cosmetic Sales grew into a 500 million a year
  turnover
• Glamour also created a whole new career for young
  women, that of the beautician.
• The marriage rate shot up, the number of
  professional women went down, and sexual freedom
  was a subject of greater concern than sexual
  liberation.

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Media Glamour

• All major periodicals, such as The Opportunity,
  The Crisis, and the Messenger, featured
  attractive Black Women on their covers.
• Press- January 1924 issue of the Messenger,
  announces they will show pictures as well as
  writing, Negro Women who are unique,
  accomplished, beautiful, intelligent,
  industrious, talented and successful.
• Novels-Jean Toomers Cane celebrated feminine
  beauty to the ultimate. Complexions were
  compared to ginger, honey, cinnamon, dusky
  sunsets, and the like.

8
The Backlash of Beauty

• Products used by Black women to enhance their
  beauty were skin lighteners and hair
  strengtheners drew comment on the irony of
  wanting to approximate White standards of beauty
  in such a race-conscious era.
• Amy Jaques Garvey believed that the glamour fad
  was dangerously imitative of a White society in
  the process of decay
• The New York times reported on the use of
  products as Black-NO-More, questioned the
  sincerity of the racial pride and concluded that
  blacks were really ashamed of their race.
• However Magazines recognized Black Beauty did not
  have to correspond with conventional standards.
  Dont hesitate to send in your picture because
  you dont consider yourself unusually
  good-looking, September 1921 Half Century,
  There are many types of colored beauty. Not all
  of them appeal to every individual.

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Madame C. J. Walker

• Born Sarah Breedlove in Louisiana's Delta, in
  1867 to former slaves, Walker was orphaned at
  five, married at fourteen, a mother by twenty and
  a widow soon after.
• She supported herself and daughter by working as
  a washer woman and was determined not to be a
  washer woman all her life and to do something
  about her hair that was falling out.
• Had the vision of the old man who gave her the
  ingredients for her hair formula and then tried
  it on herself and friends and decided she would
  sell it door to door.
• She then established a chain of beauty parlors
  throughout the country, Caribbean, and South
  America.
• She owned factories and technically advanced
  laboratories.
• Walker set up training schools in hair culture,
  and employed Black Women agents to sell the
  products on commission.
• By 1910 the Walker company employed 5,000 Black
  Female Agents, that averaged about 1000, a day 7
  days a week.
• Madame C. J. Walker was the first Black woman
  millionaire.
• Well known for her contributions to Black
  educational and Welfare institutions, especially
  those that directly benefited women.
• Upon her death in 1919her will stipulated that
  2/3rds of her fortune go to various charities and
  that her company always be owned by women.

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Out of Glamour Periods Criticism comes for
Madame C. J. Walker

• On the surface, Walkers Success could be
  attributed to her clients desire for straight,
  Caucasian-type hair.
• However, in every interview she claimed that her
  produced cured the dryness of he scalp to promote
  natural hair growth to bring out the natural
  texture.
• Regardless of Walkers intentions she gave
  dignified employment to thousands of women who
  would otherwise have had to make their living in
  domestic service, she also helped others get jobs
  as a result of their improved appearance.

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Afro-Americans have come to some consensus about
their physical self, but the deeper question of
identity remains.

• How grand it was to be valued not for what one
  might becomebut for what was thought to be ones
  essential self,
• -Nathaniel Huggins

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Jessie Fauset

• Blacks should develop a racial pride that would
  enable them to find our own beautiful and
  praiseworthy selves, an intense chauvinism that
  is content with its own types, there was less
  consensus on which of those selves or types
  should be displayed to the rest of the world.