The Legacy Of Sexing The Savage

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.

When a black woman lowers her life standard, she invites outsiders to pose judgement on the entire group. These unethical behaviors of black women is capitalized off of by mainstream media. Shows such as VH1’s Love and Hip Hop keeps the negative stereotypes of a black woman alive. The black woman who rises above all adversity gains value and respect amongst the

This week’s reading of Roderick A. Ferguson’s Aberrations in Black: Towards a Queer of Color Critique offers a queer of color analysis that poses itself against Marxism, revolutionary nationalism, liberal pluralism and historical materialism, and opts instead for an “understanding of nation and capital as the outcome of manifold intersections that contradict the idea of liberal nation-state and capital as sites of resolution, perfection, progress and confirmation (3). By challenging some of the main complacent thinking that characterized canonical sociology, Ferguson pushes for an engagement with racial knowledge about African American culture as it was produced by American sociology if one is to fully understand the gender and sexual variations within the African American culture. One of the principle assumptions of canonical sociology is represented by its use of cultural, racial and sexual differences in the process of pathologizing African American culture. By juxtaposing canonical sociological texts from the Chicago School of Sociology with that of African American literature, Ferguson provides a genealogy of this foundational issue of imagining African American culture as sites of polymorphous gender and sexual perversions and how these perversions are in turn associated with societal and moral failings.

Throughout America’s history there have been many struggles with equality amongst the many racial identities that live in this “melting pot.” Acceptance of the many races is a continuous goal in the war on racism in America. Once accepted, many racial identities go under huge scrutiny by the media, society, and their other racial counterparts, etc. Black Sexual Politics by Patricia Hill Collins is a critical analysis of blacks in America and blacks as a race. The book analyzes this race on various levels, and these levels include, but are not limited to the following: the concept of “new” racism, gender ideology within the race, and the potential for progression of

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

As mentioned before, girls in the poorer states are focused on expressing their sexuality online, and fall under the category of Freaks, Down-Ass Chick, and Pimpette. Stokes followed up by pointing out two groups of girls who were not necessarily focused on finding a partner for intercourse, Virgins and Resisters. These outliers went against the sexual scripts reinforced in the hip hop culture and were not as concerned about being involved in risky sexual behavior. Stokes also explained how organizations such as HOTGIRLS, Inc. (Helping Our Teen Girls In Real Life Situations) in Atlanta, Georgia were attempting to foster, “healthy sexual development in Black adolescent girls by integrating health and media attention focused on condemning individual artists and regulating content on channels” (125). This quote displayed how certain organizations were looking to end the problem by targeting the source of where youth of color learn what was socially acceptable. The author did not fail to eliminate any explanations, since she summed up the problem that was going on in society and how groups were attempting to combat the problem and end the negative sexual

As the issue of race and rape often entangled with one another, it was often observed that the issue of skin color greatly determined the punishment for crimes committed. White men on one spectrum were more than likely to not be convicted for the rape of an African American woman and were rarely convicted for raping white women. On the other hand, African American men were recommended for the death penalty if found guilty of raping a white woman; although most (if not all) were hung if even suspected of the act. The negative connotation of African Americans, more specifically African American women possessed by the Caucasian race can even be traced back into literature of the early 1900’s. An article published by a white southern woman in a periodical titled “The Independent” on March 17th, 1904 stated, “Degeneracy is apt to show most in the weaker individuals of any race; so Negro women evidence more nearly the popular idea of total depravity than men do. They are so nearly lacking in virtue that the color of a Negro woman’s skin is generally taken (and is quite correctly) as a guarantee of her immortality…I sometimes read of a virtuous Negro woman, hear of them, but the idea is absolutely inconceivable to me.”, (Cook,

Throughout the course of the semester, we have covered how sexual violence is a tool used by white men, as a way to keep those who they have deemed unworthy, beneath them. Ultimately, the pieces of film and literature presented in class are all becoming connected to one another, and is laying out a more superior story than originally perceived. Without much thought, these five sources may not seem to be associated with each other, although, when one critically analyzes the information presented more meticulously more doors of understanding become unlocked. Which is fascinating since some of these stories had taken place long before the end of the Civil War, while others have been occurring all the way up till the twenty-first century,

Within popular culture today, objectified female bodies can be represented everywhere from advertising images to magazine covers, television, music and many more. Through these media institutions, we allow them to construct social identities in ways that allow us to understand what it means to be black, white, Asian, male or female etc. Within many popular culture mediums such as music, stereotypical representations of racially marked female bodies are often formed. Thus, these representations also have the ability to create stories about a certain culture. In music videos, it does not go unnoticed that women are portrayed as objects whose objectives are to pleasure men. In this paper, I will argue how racially marked female bodies are represented. This paper will mainly focus on how these racially marked women are depicted in the hip hop culture. To demonstrate this, I will draw examples by using award winning music videos by Nicki Minaj, R.Kelly, 50 cent to exemplify representations of the female body and how they are objectified as sex objects. In conclusion, we will be able to see how the female bodies are used in mainstream hip hop videos to convey seductively.

Examining the links between sexuality and power in a system of interlocking race, gender, and class oppression should reveal how important controlling Black women's sexuality has been to the effective operation of domination overall. The words of Angela Davis, Audre Lorde, Barbara Smith, and Alice Walker provide a promising foundation for a comprehensive Black feminist analysis.

She erases the blackness of the woman to justify her actions, a common endeavor in white America’s exploitation of the black body. This endeavor is evident of the

Black women’ bodies have been historically attached to primitive hypersexuality and sexually deviant behavior. This racist and sexist ideal is intrinsically tied to the controlling image of black women as a Jezebel/Hoochie figures. This Jezebel caricature represent the most abhorrent portrayal of black women as libidinous creatures. According to distinguished Sociology Professor Patricia Hill Collins the “jezebel” or “whore” image depicts a, “sexually aggressive women whose sexual appetites are at best inappropriate and, at worst, insatiable…” (Collins #) she frequently craves sex with both women and men and constantly seeks to engage in oral and anal sex etc.

Although embracement or celebrations of this stereotypically black feature may empower these women who reverse or redirect the hegemonic gaze that had been centered on their backsides for so long, these Eurocentric derived presumptions and idealizations of female blackness, nevertheless, remain. However, attempts to redefine these social constructions, while accentuating this feature Beyoncé refers to as “bootylicious,” has transformed beauty industries and ideas of sexual desirability which “subverts social hierarchies and normalcy” (Hobson 88). These redefinitions of beauty, more specifically, black beauty, from the “grotesque, carnivalesque body,” (Hobson 88) seeks “a healthier body image than their white counterparts” who are exclusively depicted as slender and petite (Durham 36-37). Thus, black women begin to visualize their own bodies and other black women bodies in ways that lead to non-sexualized, non-deviant conclusions. Challenging these “controlling images,” as Patricia Hill Collins identifies in Hobson’s article, only “unmirrors” black femininity and its history, a term Hobson cited from black artist and theorist, Lorraine O’Grady, because in order to “name ourselves rather than be named we must first see ourselves” (89). She later adds

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

In both “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song” and “Do the Right Thing” the relationship between blackness and violence fluctuates between a mode of aggression and a tool of survival. Both films consistently attempt to represent violence by blacks as a symptom of white dominance and brutality. In “Sweet Sweetback” black violence is perceived by the dominant white institutions (i.e. the police and the officers) as an act of intentional aggression. White perception deems that blacks will be violent – both physically and sexually – because they are naturally violent. It is the responsibility of the whites to protect society from the hypersexual, hyper-violent black male (Class Discussions, 2014). Such is the case when police officers storm the hotel room in search of Sweetback only to find a black male naked with a white woman in the bed, presumably after having sex. The officers were quick to physically attack both individuals, though the black man received a longer and harsher punishment. Their response highlights the taboo nature of black and white relations in “Sweetback” as well as the dominant fear of black males as sexual aggressors who take advantage of white women whenever possible (Class Discussions, 2014).