Black Women's Sexual Liberation In The 1920s And 1930s

Stanford mentions, “This song, this performance, is the epitome of Nashville womanhood: active, empowered, and take-charge,” (Stanford, 279). Stanford argues that women can be both feminist and feminine at the same time. Also, it shows them that they can be equal to the men in the society. Even though both articles is successful at presenting their point about social commentary, Stanford’s article is more effective at providing evidence and clarity, while Serpe’s

In the 1920’s, blues was a very popular and dominating genre in the music industry. Generally, the blues was sung by African American women because according to the book entitled, “Blues Legacies and Black Feminism” by Angela Davis, “…The most widely heard individual purveyors of the blues—were women.” (Davis 4) The blues delivers certain emotions such as sadness, loneliness, love, sex, and feelings about the certain circumstances the artist may be going through at the time. Two women who dominate this style of music are Gertrude “Ma” Rainey and Bessie Smith. As stated by “Gay & Lesbian Biography”, “The careers of Rainey and Smith are closely interwoven.” Ma Rainey is a woman who is admired for both her amazing vocals and her ability to entertain. Bessie Smith is a woman who started off as a background dancer for her peer Ma Rainey, but then went on to emulate her by outdoing her success. Both women are very talented musicians who can not only sing and entertain, but they also create an impact as two of the most influential feminists during the 1920’s who helped shape the blues into what it is today.

Some see gender as being “Black and White” and it is, literally. With numerous gender ideologies, not only is there division between the Black (African Americans) and the White (fair skinned Europeans), but between men and women as well. Generally, white men and white men only hold most of the power in the world that there is to possess and it has consciously been set up for them to do so. The technical name for this global concept is hegemonic masculinity. This highly sexist and blatantly racist model has been implemented by bigoted western agendas to then be culturally and systematically carried out for centuries; sometimes without question. In her novel “Black Sexual Politics”, Patricia Hill Collins masterfully highlights just how much hegemonic masculinity altered the once blissful power structure, not just in the western world but specifically within the homes of the Black community. She also confers the several quintessential benchmarks within hegemonic masculinity that the Black man must uphold in order for him to unambiguously maintain his “dominant” status.

The 1930’s were hard times for the entire working class, but as usual in history, minorities were hit the hardest. Especially the African American society had to suffer the most under the effects of the great economic depression; they were the first to be discharged from their jobs and the last to be hired. African Americans were even pushed out of jobs, which were previously scorned out by whites. Even if they were allowed to keep their jobs, they still had to face daily racism. Compared to the white folks, the wages of African American workers were at least 30% below white’s wages, even when performing the same job; considering, that even the normal wage of a white American was not enough to cover the subsistent level of expanses of a household.

In the twenty first century there are a few men in this world that admits when you think of artist, you don’t typically think of women. Women rights and racism play a strong role when it comes to African American female artist. For decades’ African American woman have always had a permanent double bull’s eye on their back. Their skin and gender was their worst enemy. In the 1700 century women rights movements started to rise. But if you look up women right movements starting in the 1700 century, the face of women rights is predominantly white women. Between books and the internet, they show that it was mostly white women who helped woman rights. If we still struggle to shine light on African American Women now in the 21st century, you cannot

Mammie, Jezebel, and the ever ready prostitute and Sapphire. In “Four Women” Nina Simone links the history of black women in America as defined

Women’s music came from radical, grassroots origins in the 1970s thanks to contributions by brave women, mostly lesbians (Mosbacher, 2002). These women used non-violent, peaceful force to forge their own way into the music industry. It was a peaceful yet political revolution of togetherness and liberation. It brought together women of different backgrounds who produced easy-listening, mellow harmonies played with lyrics filled with tumultuous

Out of all the topics for our assigned Research Paper, I decided to write about the forgotten history of African Americans, the systemic oppression we faced and how that in turn affected the way society views black women blues music. There could be many reasons why so many students are never taught the untold history African american culture and how black woman helped shape the blues. All throughout my experience in the education system I can remember very select few times where I was taught about African Americans that did something positive for our community besides Martin Luther King Jr, Harriet Tubman, and the same famous historical scholars that we always repeatedly learn about throughout the school system. I was always taught to have

The late 60s and 70s was still a time period of a male dominated, sexist culture, and in the music industry, women relied heavily on male producers. Although the youth were proclaiming sexual freedom, and forming a counterculture against their middle class parents, rock music was still written and performed almost entirely by men, with lyrics that heavily labeled women as objects. There was also the inference that many of the existing female singers were fairly interchangeable. Feeling a need for transformation, artists like Janis Joplin created their own musical identity. Popular songs had told women that they were sexual objects, but Joplin delved deeper than that in her lyrics. Joplin spoke of the pain of being a woman and how to live with and compensate for that pain. Most female musicians weren’t accustomed to the independent formation of identity portrayed by Joplin’s lyrics, and that identity as a

Dating all the way back to the late 1700s, women of color, have had to deal with the constant objectification and othering of their bodies. The hypersexualization of Black Women, has its roots in slavery, and has become a social stigma that is both systemic and institutionalized. It is something that is present both external from the black community as well as within the black community. Not only does this stereotype have a negative impact on the way in which black girls and women navigate and exist in society, it also restricts their voice. Typically, the sexualization of women has been focused from solely a gendered standpoint, which fails to understand the complexities associated with the inclusion of factors such as race, socio-economic status, as well as sexual orientation.

girl’s need for popularity as well as having the need for having boyfriends. A female who could obtain a male companion while in school had a higher chance of getting married despite continuing her education. With the need for numerous partners, both males and females were willing to pay more for a date. Males paid in currency but often times women were expected to pay with sexual favors. The evolution of courtship also allowed for a greater degree of sexual liberation by the youths peers.

The decade following World War I proved to be the most explosive decade of the century. America emerged as a world power, the 19th amendment was ratified, and the expansion of capitalism welcomed the emergence of consumerism. The consumer era was established, which generated new spending opportunities for most Americans in the 1920’s. From the latest fashions to the world of politics, ideologies collided to construct a society based on contradicting principles. These powerful ideologies infected men and women of all classes with an inescapable desire for material possessions; however this ideological tug-of war affected women the most. Although legally declared citizens, society’s

Music was where black women could own their fantasies and take control, which society denied them by the confined norms of the private, hetero-patriarchal, and non-sexual culture of their times. In the chapter "I Used to be Your Sweet Mama" of her novel Blues Legacies and Black Feminism, author Angela Davis analyzes the legacy of the blues and the initiation of its provocative and pervasive culture that promoted sexual imagery denouncing the non-sexual depictions of love and inviting a realism to what normal relationships face when stripped from the idyllic bubble popular culture at present demands: "extramarital relationships, domestic violence, and the ephemerality of many sexual partnerships" (Davis 3). How black female artists today claim ownership of their sexuality through musical expression is a direct result of the legacy black females laid as the most tangible form of freedom

The Civil Rights Era, which took place during the years of 1955 till 1968, was indeed the movement that gave African Americans the push to achieve their first major accomplishments of the decade. The Civil Rights Movements goals were to break down the walls of legal segregation in public places, achieve equality and justice for African Americans, and to help make African Americans become more self-conscious when standing for all their interest. This movement not only benefited men, but it also benefited women. African American women played a large role in the history of the civil rights era.

Other point that I found super interesting is how white women tried to compared themselves with the experience of a Afro-latina women, I don’t think there’s much similarities with their experiences. Yes, both of them experienced sexism but not necessarily in the same way, Miriam mentions the extra barriers that women like her have “They were focusing totally on sexism. They seemed to think that all I had to do was to eradicate sexism within society and I’d be all set for life. The early white feminist that I came in contact with ignored the fact that women of color had to first get out of the bind that racism had put them in before they could even halfway deal with sexism” (Jimenez & Flores p. 279). I totally agree with this because for women