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Whoa!!! This is heavy, Tracy! Maybe I'm too intellectually lazy to think this hard; the philosophical point of view here is very true and concise. Hard for me to ponder this, though, at this late stage of my life.
My own life experiences were somewhat dissimilar, although I certainly recognize the societal truths you have raised. When I ponder your points, I get angry, and I don't want to go there. That doesn't mean, though, that what you have to say is not important or valid.
This is so interesting! Interesting as hell.
Good Gawd Ah'mity - 2nd- and 3rd-wave male-hating feminism, sepia-colored - no, thanks, not gonna go there - had far too much of that in my former (mostly white woman's) profession & married life.
SirLoinDeBeef
I like the sex-negative 2nd wave feminists the best.
The ONLY feminist book worth reading or that ever should be taught is "Intercourse" by Andrea Dworkin. She 'wrote the book' on the whole thing. I read it several times in 2002-3 and it changed my life profoundly. Everything else is just silly soft-core liberal alleged thinking.
I do wonder, however, about some of the follow-on thinkers who seem to be hung up on the White Male Patriarchy, If all the White Men were dead tomorrow and all the others' fearful tiny penises amputated, would women be happy? Or would they find some other excuse for their misery?
Great article and it is fully understandable especially if you are a woman of color and had been compared to our caucasian sisters. This is educational and should be given attention at all angles. Thank you Tracy....
Reminds me of when I took a couple of women's (or womyn's) studies classes in college. One of those was Women of Color in the U.S. I was the only white male in a class of about 80. There were a couple of black dudes and the rest were women of various hues. I somehow made it out with my intimidated phallus intact.
Maybe I was working out some issues taking that class. Getting some cheap abuse.
Brice Cameron Oh.... you were 'that guy'. We had one male from Germany, who learned ALOT by the time he was done with his 'questions'. Often the class would get off topic because of the effort it took just to get him up to speed, based on his male perception. I think we all learned something from the exercise, to be more patient and understanding of the fact that we're all operating from different angles.
Good post Tracee. This topic is so interesting and educating. I also found a post by a yahoo writer that echoes and parallels the themes you mention here. If interested, you can check the link out at:
http://voices.yahoo.com/the-female-african-american-image-early-film-and-154186.html
...And I can't wait to delve into the WTF version of your writing and position on "working their mother issues with the BIG, BLACK, EXPENSIVE dominatrix....
Criticalthinker Good article and analysis of the Mammy, Jezebel, and the Sapphire image, still, promoted today (in more covert ways).
Thanks for addressing my comment. :)
" Her killing by the ‘noble’ and innocent wife and the lack of culpability for the male all reinforce that ‘boys will be boys’ and that its up to the women to uphold all that is decent in marriage."
I always found it ~odd~ that despite the fact that the Michael Douglass character obviously drowned her, she pops back to life and it's the wife that kills her. The tone sets women against each other competing over a man who somehow remains blameless. The movie is credited with having "scared the pants back onto men" because that woman you shouldn't have hooked up with in the first place might be crazy. Because only mentally unstable dependent clingy women act as the seductresses.
Definitely a good observation.
"PS…if you ever need to delve deeper in the WTF version of my writing, I am planning on discussing the frequency in which White males happily work out their mother issues with Big, Black expensive Dominatrix."
This reminds of a section of the autobiography of Malcolm X where the whole "white men paying the darkest, strongest black women to whip the hell out of them" thing was mentioned. I get that it was a part of the whole "white men are really twisted and only want black women for sex" meme, but still that imagery stuck with me. So I'll definitely check out the further discussion.
Good post.
Toni_M The ending to Fatal Attraction went through several revisions, all insisted and formulated by the males writing the film. There was something very specific they were trying to convey, though I don't think it was 'on purpose' to reduce women. It may have been because like with white writers who have a problem making material for non-white audiences. There's a disconnect between your version of me and my version of me. Plenty of women wondered why the wife has to fight so vigilantly against this 'crazy' woman, and how she was comforted by her family and her husband and that her keeping her family in tact is much more important than dealing with a cheating husband. It did have 'wives' versus 'mistresses' discussions cropping up in magazines, owned and operated by men of course. Glen Close spoke out about her issue with the way her character ended up being depicted in the released version. There are several endings available now including the one that made it to the theater version.
I just have to ask, have you ever been the Big, Black expensive Dominatrix to the White Guy Trying to Work Out His Issues? Now that would be an interesting read....
Jamila I am not that. Unfortunately, I missed out on a lot of money because I am not the 'type' needed to satisfy those needs. When I say Big, and Black. I mean big, tall, and/or obese darker hued Doms are in such high demand among clients.
The types of physically intimidating women they seek and the sessions have much to do with yelling vile names at him, whipping, and humiliation scenes. Telling him that he's not good enough with his small Johnson and pale skin.
If you take a closer look, this type of female is also the 'mate' of some Black men, doing the exact same thing (having a relationship built on conflict and tension), with humiliating and derogatory sexual scenes and the reminder that he's inferior. The type of things you don't say to someone you love, but these Black men who respond to this (IMHO) were raised by Black mother's who humiliated them during childhood.
Both the White men and Black men use this 'type' of Black woman to work out their inferiority issues; the White man is ashamed of his 'desire' to dominate (have sex with) this type of Black woman (larger than life/exaggerated dominance/masculine) and the Black man is working out his conflict of love, humiliation and hatred of his Black mother.
I am body worshiped in my 'side' work and paid to represent all of the 'good things' of women. High, high, high heels. Legs, pretty toes, booty, very, very feminine in dress and demeanor but I am mean as Hell. I represent the 'out of reach/perfect' woman that will never have 'him' and so he gives, and gives and wishes he was good enough. Inferiority issues just the same, but his has to do with the 'prize' woman and not with the woman who he loves/and hates.
But that's another post.
She should have used "Wide Sargasso Sea" by Jean Rhys as her narrative. Jean Rhys makes more sense to me than "Fatal Attraction", because "Wide Sargasso Sea" deals with racism, sexism and classism.
"While on the pedestal of purity, White women came to be valued by society as the ‘highest form of decency’, White women became the poster child for all things good and pure, this dialogue is a very telling one if you have any knowledge of Madonna Whore.
Once placed on this pedestal by men, she lost her ability to be a full human being, to experience life, sex, emotions, anger and many other things that one would need in order to properly express their human experience."
And what about the BLACK WOMAN'S HUMAN EXISTENCE? Last time I checked we still haven't ARRIVED!!! What About our human existence?!!! I can sum it up in three words: "STRUGGLE, HARDSHIP and SURVIVAL
Ms Bayou Storm We won't have an expression of our full existence as women, as black women, as women of color, until we begin to tell our own narrative. I've been reading personal narratives all my life, and the words of people told by their own admission has always been something I found to be powerful. First person is where we start to change how other's think of us. Race, gender, color and all.
Definitely not your mama’s relationship book…
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Sapphire On a Side Note: Patriarchy, Purity and the Obviously Intimidated Phallus
Tracy drops the knowledge…
Author : Tracy Renee Jones
Author's Website | Articles from Tracy Renee Joneshttp://www.beyondblackwhite.com/goddess-of-the-week-tracy-renee-jones-too-fly/
Thanks to this side conversation started by the lovely and talented Toni M where she asked
What comes first? The Mammie or her sister/evil split personality facet, the woman known as Sapphire?
Well, she didn’t exactly phrase the question like that, but, you get the picture. My response, which can be read here, was a surmise based on things I learned during the noble and necessary Women’s Studies classes taken during undergrad.
I drew the likelihood that within our popular culture timeline, Mammy came first. I say this because her position as a subservient ‘slave’ is much comforting and relevant to the history of those that whom created her than would her being a sexually and aggressive character.
Until…wait. Here is where we backtrack to that Women’s Studies class and our reading of a book called Backlash: The Undeclared War Against Women by Susan Faludi.
In this book, Faludi does a historical break down of women’s place in pop culture and what these types of stereotypical presence in media mean to the self determination of women.
She questions the implications of the dialogue of women’s interest having been manufactured, financed and under the direction of White men without a thought of the consequences of the types of images these controlling forces promote on women and girls. Her strongest case, in particular, belonged to the motive Fatal Attraction and the several edits that were made to the lead female character in order that she appear less and less stable.
Glenn Close’s character Alex Forrest did not start out as a psychotic woman of lose morals, but who else but a crazy woman has affairs with married men. Her killing by the ‘noble’ and innocent wife and the lack of culpability for the male all reinforce that ‘boys will be boys’ and that its up to the women to uphold all that is decent in marriage.
It seems that men have always been suspicious of White women, or rather, I’d say, women in general. This nervousness in regard to the opposite sex has caused men to create these systems in which women are no longer feared. By controlling, and vilifying women, men found a way to silence and reduce the power of the big bad woman.
While on the pedestal of purity, White women came to be valued by society as the ‘highest form of decency’, White women became the poster child for all things good and pure, this dialogue is a very telling one if you have any knowledge of Madonna Whore.
Once placed on this pedestal by men, she lost her ability to be a full human being, to experience life, sex, emotions, anger and many other things that one would need in order to properly express their human experience.
She becomes a victim to male expectations that are wrapped into maternal frustration and experience as well as sexual. Men are attracted to those who remind them of their mother, whether she is just like her, or the total opposite. The mother plays a role in a male’s perception of females in general.
This superwoman heroine, created to be a measuring stick for all that represent the potential of White women was cherished, protected, fought for.
But since the Devil always needs an advocate it became the Black woman who would represent all that is evil. The aggressive, lour mouth, uncontrollable Sapphire will not be tamed.
She doesn’t want your man’s penis, she’s as big and as bad as any male could ever be, she’s strong enough to work in the fields along side the Black man.
If you look closely enough, you’ll see that she was created as a focal point of fear, her mere existence immaculate these White males. He fears her beyond sexual presence (could this disconnect also be fear of Mandingo?)
Intimidated phallus strikes again!
He learned to control his mother, but what about the OTHER woman??? On the hierarchy of relevancy, the White man benefits more by re-creating his ‘mother’ into a suitable domestic for his children and a nonthreatening domestic.
The Black woman, on the other hand, can be no more than what White Patriarchy allows her to be, the angry anti-White woman.
PS…if you ever need to delve deeper in the WTF version of my writing, I am planning on discussing the frequency in which White males happily work out their mother issues with Big, Black expensive Dominatrix. That’s a discussion for another time, and another place. #NSWF