Feminism As A Black Woman

Beyoncé Knowles’s Lemonade video album brings the words of Beyoncé into a visual media and shows the viewer a deeper meaning behind the album. After this video came out many articles came forward analyzing Lemonade. One article, in particular, that was intriguing is Bell Hooks “Moving Beyond Pain.” Hooks starts her article saying that the Lemonade video was created as a money-making, business strategy, but as the text continues the reader can conclude that “Moving Beyond Pain” is actually about African American women, and women in general, standing up for themselves.

Based on the evidence supplied by author Kent Anderson Leslie, slaves in antebellum Georgia did not always live under the oppressive system of chattel labor. According to Leslie, the rules that applied to racial hierarchy were not strictly enforced, especially when it came to propertied and wealthy planters such as David Dickson who chose to raise his mixed-race daughter at home. Amanda Dickson’s experiences during Reconstruction demonstrate that she had much more freedom after slavery was abolished than may have been expected before the Civil War. Amanda Dickson’s experiences and those of her mother in particular do not fit the presumed mold of oppressed slave with no opportunity for a better life.

In the monograph, Ain’t I A Woman: Black Women and Feminism, the author describes the complexity of black womanhood from a black women’s perspectives. This book shows the impact of sexism on the lives of black women, discussing the persistent racism of the women’s movement. Even with the many present issues, “scholars in this field are in a unique position because of their ability to explore the intersection of race, sex, and class as experienced by black women in ways that are impossible for other segments of the population” (Sheftall

For nearly twenty years, Beyoncé has lived her life in the public eye yet she has always kept her cool, been submissive, and rather quiet when it came to her personal endeavors however after releasing the film “Lemonade”, we are able to see her in a vulnerable light. In Jeremy Helliger’s article: “Dear Beyhive: Stop Whining. Beyoncé Still Hasn’t Earned Her Album Of The Year Grammy” he addresses the idea that although Beyoncé was able to encourage black women to be proud and free, she also she missed the mark by adding raunchy, over the top content to her vulnerability.

Ever since the period of slavery, Black women have described the different forms of multiple oppressions they face of race, class, and gender with terms like “interlocking oppressions,” “simultaneous oppressions,” “double jeopardy,” “triple jeopardy” and so on.

In 1992, Bell Hooks published “Aint I a Woman” after working on it for several years. “Aint I a Woman” is a book detailing the lives of Black women in America from Slavery to the present and their relation to feminism. Hooks felt that there was an absence of books about the African American woman that were available. While there were books about individual African American women and their experiences in the oppressive American system, she believed that those women’s stories could not be generalized for all African American women. It was necessary to have a book at this time that acknowledged not black women and the two types of oppressions they experienced that formed their present status in America. Bell was encouraged by her peers to write this well needed book. She was especially motivated by the views that others had toward black women at the time:

In the early 1800s, most Black women were enslaved, but free Black women participated in the abolitionist cause. Some women like Maria Stewart, Frances E. W. Harper, and Sojourner Truth, spoke out to others about Black women's rights. They were some of the female leaders that put the Black Women's Rights movement into effect. Sojourner Truth was very active in the women's rights movement, and her often quoted 1851 "Ain't I a Woman" speech, nevertheless illustrates how gender oppression has unique repercussions for Black women living under a racist, economically "exploitive" system. Bell Hooks later wrote a book referring to Truth's speech titled, Ain't I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism (See Exhibit: 1). In this book, Bell Hooks examines the effects of racism and sexism on black women, the civil rights movement, and feminist movements from suffrage to the 1970s. She argues that the junction of sexism and racism during slavery contributed to black women having the lowest status and worst conditions of any group in American society. According to Hooks, Black women were stereotyped as promiscuous and immoral.

Black women of America through time have stood faced with the loss of virtue and individuality. They have had countless obstacles placed before them in their attempt to obtain freedom: mentally and physically. Although the journey for freedom is still underway, the effort has gained more progress than ever before. The photographer of this image is conveying the message that the modern day black woman in America has the ability to experience freedom in environments that in the past have been symbolically and literally oppressive using color, setting, and symbolism.

Patricia Hill Collins’ piece, “Defining Black Feminist Thought”, sets out to do exactly that: to determine what Black Feminism is, who is a Black Feminist, and who can become a Black Feminist. While not always specifically stated, her argument and analysis arises from the historical context of the role of Black women in feminist and activist spaces, as well as the social reality of differing lived experiences of Black women from traditional white female feminists. Created in 1990, Collins’ work is well situated in the time period of Third Wave Feminist thinking, incorporating strong themes of the need for intersectionality and alternate opinions within feminism, as well as proposing that multiple versions of feminism can be possible,

The term womanism is coined by Alice Walker, the author best known for her book “The Color Purple.” Walker used the term for the first time in 1983, when she talked about the womanist theory in her book In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens: Womanist prose. The womanist movement centres on the feminist effort of black women. Womanism grew because activists felt that the feminist movement did not fully cover the plight of black women. Rather than focusing on social change or activism, womanism (sometimes referred to as “black feminism”) focuses more on celebrating womanhood and the African American woman’s strength and experiences. When they push for change and attention to social issues, womanists focus on racism and class

In the Feminist Theory, bell hooks provide vivid examples and assertions on how mainstream feminism exclude the issues of women of color. Mainstream feminism in America pertains to the ideals of “white, middle-class privileged woman” as they “reinforce white supremacy by negating the issue of race and class amongst woman of color” (hooks, 2000, pg. ). Due to not fulfilling the attempt to gain equality, as they may claim to do, it also can be an organization that displays “narcissism, insensitivity, sentimentality, and self-indulgence” (hooks, 2000, pg. 3). As mainstream feminism shuns the needs and interests of African-American women, it allows current social issues and inequalities to persist.

A wife, mother, multi-millionaire, iconic pop star, to many young women, a role model, and now a proclaimed feminist. Beyoncé has become the center of discussion when it comes to challenging our ideas of what modern feminism is. But what is feminism? In Mary Crawford 's textbook, Transformations: Women, Gender, and Psychology, she states, "Perhaps the simplest definition of a feminist is an individual who holds these basic beliefs: that women are valuable and that social change to benefit women is needed" (10). In Flawless, Beyoncé tries to break down the more complex parts of feminism that others may not understand and otherwise view as contradictory. So, while others may suggest that Beyoncé cannot be a

According to Oxford English Dictionary, Black Feminist can be defined as a movement consisting of African American women advocating social, political, legal, and economic rights for women equal to those of men (Oxford English Press). Black feminism argues that sexism, social class oppression, and racism are inseparably bound together (Collins). The feminist movement has been around since the 1880s when the word “Feminism” appeared in the French language (Collins). The word found traction in Britain in the 1890s, and the United States in 1910, feminism sought to influence popular culture by its very presence and by its persistent demands to be recognized as the official voice of all women (“What is Feminism”). Although the Black feminist

While on her previous albums, Beyoncé was trying to empower all women, on Lemonade, Beyoncé speaks directly to black women. “As Jacqui Germain astutely noted on feministing.com, ‘Beyonce using the specific cultural marker of ‘Becky,’ [a social trope for white womanhood] in Lemonade is less a question of who’s excluding whom and why, and more so just us watching Beyonce be the ... multi-layered Black woman’” (Thompson, C., 2016). It was through this album that Beyoncé changed how the public thought of her. She was no longer afraid to not fully share what she wanted to say about current culture, and finally talked straight to black women to raise them up. It was also through this album that Beyoncé changed her image. Before her sixth album, Beyoncé definitely had feminist songs, but with Lemonade, she used rage to share her message, a message telling women that even after getting married, a man may not always be right for

I don't think I quite remember when I started to identify as a black feminist. There was never that moment of clarity because to me black women are equal to everyone, we deserve to be recognized and celebrated just like everyone else. This movement was founded on the historical disadvantage of women. Black feminism to be specific is the desire for equal access to opportunities for females, not systemic racism, sexism, mass incarceration etc. People get so hung up on the word but fail to realize that feminism fights for gender equality in a culture that has historically devalued women. Feminism isn't about making women stronger, we're already strong. It's about society acknowledging that strength and treating us as equals. What everyone fails