Deconstructing the Myth of the Strong Black Woman

1
Deconstructing the Myth of the Strong Black Woman

• AS/HUMA 1300
• Faculty of Arts

2
Challenging the Myth of the Strong Black Woman

• 1. Black womens strength
• 2. Black female sexuality
• 3. Saartjie Baartman and the
• Sexualization of the Black Female Body
• 4. Understanding contemporary
• constructions of black womens
• strength and sexuality

3
Constructions of Black Women in Slavery

• Physical Differences
• Strength
• - Justified their exploitation
• as labourers
• - Denied black womens
• beauty and femininity

• Sexual Differences
• Innate Sexuality
• - Justified their exploitation as sexual objects
• - Marked them as traitors to black men

4
Moynihan Report

• 1. Report argues that black families in the US
  are
• matriarchal based on high rates of male
  desertion,
• illegitimate births and female-headed households
  
• 2. Matriarchy seriously retards the progress of
• blacks because it is so out of line with the
  rest of
• American society.
• 3. Even though black women are the most
• economically powerless in US society, they are a
• culturally dominant force that hinders the
  progress
• of black men.

5
Eldridge Cleaver

• Thats why, all way down through history, he
  has propped her up economically above you and me,
  to strengthen her hand against us.

6
Saartjie Baartman and the Sexualization of the
Black Female Body

• The Hottentot Venus

• Black Female Body in Pop Culture

7
bell hooks

• As a group, black women are in an unusual
  place in this society, for not only are we
  collectively at the bottom of the occupational
  ladder, but our overall social status is lower
  than that of any other group. Occupying such a
  position, we bear the brunt of sexist, racist,
  and classist oppression. At the same time, we are
  the group that has not been socialized to assume
  the role of exploiter/oppressor in that we are
  allowed no institutionalized other that we can
  exploit or oppress (Black Women 144)

8
Black Womens Health

• 1. Heart disease is the leading cause of death
  for
• black women in the U.S.
• 2. In 2005, AIDS diagnoses for black women was
  nearly 23
• times the rate for white women. (The rate of AIDS
  diagnoses
• for black men was 8 times the rate for white men)
  
• 3. African-American women have an 85 higher
  rate
• of ambulatory medical care visits for high blood
  pressure
• than Caucasian women.
• 4. African-American women have the highest death
  rate from
• breast cancer and are more likely to be diagnosed
  with a
• later stage of breast cancer than white women.