Essay on African American Femininity: Two sides of a coin

The slave owner’s exploitation of the black woman’s sexuality was one of the most significant factors differentiating the experience of slavery for males and females. The white man’s claim to the slave body, male as well as female, was inherent in the concept of the Slave Trade and was tangibly realized perhaps no where more than the auction block. Captive Africans were stripped of their clothing, oiled down, and poked and prodded by potential buyers. The erotic undertones of such scenes were particularly pronounced in the case of black women. Throughout the period of slavery in America, white society believed black women to be innately lustful beings. The perception of the African woman as hyper-sexual made her both the object of white man’s abhorrence and his fantasy. Within the bonds of slavery, masters often felt it was their right to engage in sexual activity with black women. Sometimes, female slaves made advances hoping that such relationships would increase the chances that they or their children would be liberated by the master. Most of the time, slave owners took slaves by force.

As stated in Webster's II Dictionary, a woman is defined to be an adult female human. In today's society being an African American woman is a rigid task to live up to. It means to reside to what their ancestors have left behind, which means to be stronger than ever. Rosa Parks was strong, Harriet Tubman was also strong, and Jezebel was even stronger. So what exactly does it mean to be a woman? It means to stand up for what is right, even if that means sacrifice, it means to be strong whether it be physically, emotionally, or mentally. African American women are perceived to be the backbone of the family, meaning that even though the male may support the family financially, that the women have the emotional and mental part in the bag.

Black women’s bodies have always been seen as different. They are deemed as exotic and highly sexual because of the protruding nature and curvaceous shape of their hips, butts, and breast. An example of this exoticism and ridicule can be traced back to the early 1800s. Sarah Baartman, also known as the “Hottentot Venus” became an object of fascination, degradation, and humiliation. Her features were not foreign to Khoisan Women. However, the Europeans who kidnapped her and the people who went to view her body as an exhibit could not believe how big her butt, breast, and hips were. Sarah did not fit into the white standardized image of the body, so her body was seen was unnatural and even un-human. One online magazine writer asserts that, “what

White explores the master’s sexual exploitation of their female slaves, and proves this method of oppression to be the defining factor of what sets the female slaves apart from their male counterparts. Citing former slaves White writes, “Christopher Nichols, an escaped slave living in Canada, remembered how his master laid a woman on a bench, threw her clothes over her head, and whipped her. The whipping of a thirteen-year-old Georgia slave girl also had sexual overtones. The girl was put on all fours ‘sometimes her head down, and sometimes up’ and beaten until froth ran from her mouth (33).” The girl’s forced bodily position as well as her total helplessness to stop her master’s torture blatantly reveals the forced sexual trauma many African females endured.

To many people, America’s history may appear to be a series of events shaped by the decisions and actions of white men. However, this perspective fails to recognize the tremendous impacts that minority groups had, have, and will have in shaping and influencing America’s past, present, and future. The Revolutionary War is an example of how women and African Americans played an important role in critical events in American history. In the Revolutionary War, Americans fought for freedom and independence from Britain, leading to the birth of our nation. Without the contributions of women and African Americans, the Revolutionary War may not have been successful, and American history may have followed a very different course.

Since the dawn of early civilisation and subsequent traditional gender roles, one of the most prominent issues with which society struggles is gender inequality. The Book of Negroes illustrates Aminata’s worries as she is provided only one option: to entertain men with her body. “...I wondered how I would earn enough for food, clothes and repairs for my shelter. ‘What?’ Sam said. ‘You think rebels don’t have brothels? As long as there are fighting men, there will be work for girls like Rosetta - and work for you as well.’” (Hill 312) British soldiers and American rebels both sexualised the bodies of black women to the point of encouraging the prostitution of young girls. In a similar context, a 2008 study conducted by researchers from Wesleyan

women was an effective way to assimilate them and change their gender roles. An analysis of the

Stephanie Malena Hist B17a TR 1:00 - 2:35pm September 26, 2017 Sexist Decline to Racism In Jennifer Morgan’s article “Some Could Suckle over Their Shoulder”: Male Travelers, Female Bodies, and the Gendering of Racial Ideology, she suggests that sexist beliefs contributed to the justification of racialized slavery. She proves this by providing accounts of European explorers describing those they encountered, which at first reveal an admiration for the strength and beauty they (African women) possessed but later began to associate them with “unholy beasts”. These Europeans lacked the ability to understand the independence of women in the matriarchal tribes having been blinded by biases learned by living in a patriarchal society.

Throughout history, black female bodies have been marginalized by white society and viewed as only being valued for their bodies, specifically their genitals. bell hooks’ essay titled, “naked without shame: a counter-hegemonic body politic”, discusses the domination of the black female body and how there is little discussion on how the body has been “foregrounded as a site of conquest in all efforts of colonization”. According to hooks, black bodies are rarely highlighted in a way that counters the hegemonic representation of being

Simpson’s race, alleged questionable reputation, and social status. Judge Menzies’ perception that a respectable white woman would likely experience a higher level of “injury” in comparison to a black woman showed his racist ideology. In today’s culture, women face similar struggles in reporting being the victim of rape for fear of being judged. Often, a woman who has been victimized by a rapist, feels ashamed and will be less likely to report the incident. David Eltis’ narrative provides evidence of complex power relations as a result of the insider/outsider European mindset. Europeans believed that they were superior to Africans and preferred black men over black women in their acquisition of slaves. This points directly to gender identity (or lack thereof), throughout the transatlantic slave trade and postemancipation. Women in today’s society continue to fight for equality, especially equal pay for performing the same work as men. Saartjie (Sara) Baartman experienced inexplicable exploitation and abuse at the hands of Cezar, Dunlop and Reaux. Ms. Baartman’s anatomical differences were exploited as were her sexuality and womanhood. In today’s society, women often choose to cosmetically enhance their breasts, lips, and buttocks to emulate “African”

Things fall apart In African culture women were not always treated with gender equality, and utmost decorum. Throughout the research that has been utilized in this essay, one can grow in knowledge over several sub-topics. As we progress through the essay it is important that we take three certain precautions. First to prevent having a stereotypical inclination we will bring social rituals to attention.

Sarah “Saartje” Baartman stands as an historic symbol of the racial injustices and sexual exploitation of African American women. Baartman is a female from South Africa whose body shape became a fascination in western society. Her ample hips and large buttocks were not idealized, but seen as savage, deviant, and apelike. In Europe, during the 19th century, she became an object that was exhibited in “freak” shows under the name of Hottentot Venus. Hottentot was the face of the inhumane performances that abrogated her basic human rights. Not only was Baartman used for entertainment purposes, but she also became a subject for scientific studies. Sarah Baartman represents the history of inhumane treatment

“Nervous Conditions” narrates the harsh experiences of women in Africa who happen to be subjected to the patriarchal system and to the colonized regime. In Imperial leather, Anne McClintock indicates that, “colonized women, before the intrusions of imperial rule, were invariably disadvantaged within their societies, in ways that gave the colonial reordering of their sexual and economic labor very different outcome from those of colonized men” (6).Women’s experience of colonization by this sense is enormously different from that of men and their experience of colonization upholds influences on women’s life, relations, status and roles within their own imperial societies. The colonized women must

Corwin Mhlahlo’s argument begins with fully understanding the Africa perspective on female sexual desire. In these patriarchal societies, like Zimbabwe-Rhodesia, female desire and sexual pleasure is frowned upon, which led women and their needs discouraged, suppressed, and repressed (Mhlahlo 97). This negative view on female sexual desire began with the traditional “male-chauvinistic” views: an

“Walker succeeds in marking the white female body as the degraded one, the plantation mistress serving as an embodiment of an entire system’s expropriation of the labour, especially the reproductive labour, of black women. In this instance, for this viewer, conceptualism trumps the negative stereotypes attached to the naked black female body, but another problem arises – the de-territorialisation of the ‘Hottentot Venus’ and the disappearance of Sara Baartman. Like Walker’s Camptown Ladies, Venus calls attention to uses of the eroticised black female body and its supposed hyper sexuality in the service of constructing whiteness.” Arlene R. Keizer (2011) ‘Our Posteriors, Our Posterity’: the problem of embodiment in Suzan-Lori Parks’s Venus and Kara Walker’s Camptown Ladies, Social Dynamics: A journal of African studies, 37:2, 200-212, DOI: