Black Feminist Theory; Black Women and Sexualized Images (2 Subjects)

A WMST-L query in January 2008 asked for literature on two subjects: Black
feminist theory and Black women and sexualized images.  This file contains the
responses.  For more WMST-L files available on the Web, see the
WMST-L File Collection.

Hello All,

I am looking for literature on two subjects, Black feminist theory and 
Black women and sexualized images. Your suggestions would be appreciated.

Thank you,

LaKeisha L. Caples

Hello LaKeisha, 
   
  You could look to the work of Katie Hogan for views and critical,
  feminist perspectives on black women, gender, sex, media and
  cultural representation, sexual health... I have found her work very
  useful in my thinking and research.
   
  Best wishes, 
   
  Laura
   
Laura M. Bisaillon, M.U.P.
Etudiante au programme de doctorat en santé des populations
Membre, Unité de recherche sur la santé des femmes
Université d'Ottawa
1 Stewart, bureau 300
Ottawa ON K1N 6N5 Canada
http://www.whru.uottawa.ca/en-home.php

Hi LaKeisha
 
For Black Feminist Theory and off the top of my head, you generally
can't go wrong with Patricia Hill Collins, bell hooks, Kimberle
Crenshaw, M. Jacqui Alexander, or Alice Walker (to name just far too
few).  As for sexualized images, one place to start might be a book
called "Race, Ethnicity, and Sexuality" by Joanne Nagel.  I also
recommend "Sing, Whisper, Shout, Pray" ed. Alexander et al.  I hope
you'll share your suggestions with the list!
 
Best,
 
Barb

Hi LaKeisha,
 
I like bell hooks, Selling Hot Pussy.
 
And here are some images you might find useful (if it's a teaching thing):
 
http://sociologicalimages.blogspot.com/2007/09/black-women-as-wild-animals.html
 
http://sociologicalimages.blogspot.com/2008/01/fetishization-of-black-womens-behinds.html
 
Lisa
  
Lisa Wade, PhD
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Occidental College
Los Angeles, CA

Hi LaKeisha:

Definitely check out Deborah Willis and Carla Williams' The Black Female
Body: A Photographic History.

See also Kimberly Wallace-Sanders' anthology, Skin Deep, Spirit Strong:
The Black Female Body in American Culture.

There's my own book, Venus in the Dark: Blackness and Beauty in Popular
Culture.


Some classic essays to help you theorize on black female sexuality and
black feminist theory:

Hortense Spillers' "Interstices: A Small Drama of Words," in the anthology
Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality.

Evelynn M. Hammonds' "Black (W)holes and the Geometry of Black Female
Sexuality," in Differences, vol. 6, no. 2-3 (1995): 126-45.

Also by Hammonds, "The Problematic of Silence: Toward a Genealogy of Black
Female Sexuality," in the anthology Feminist Genealogies (edited by M.
Jacqui Alexander and Chandra Mohanty.

Also in that anthology, M. Jacqui Alexander's "Erotic Autonomy as a
Politics of Decolonization: Feminism, Tourism, and the State in the
Bahamas."

Darlene Clark Hine, "Rape and the Inner Lives of Black Women in the Middle
West: Ruminations on the Culture of Dissemblance," in Beverly
Guy-Sheftall's anthology, Words of Fire.

There are many more, but these texts are a great beginning!

Best,
Janell Hobson
jhobson  AT  albany.edu

-- 
Janell Hobson
Graduate Director
Department of Women's Studies
University at Albany, SUNY
1400 Washington Ave.
SS 341
Albany, NY 12222
jhobson  AT  albany.edu
www.albany.edu/faculty/jhobson

Hello -- On this topic, Venus in the Dark by Janell Hobson was one of
the favored books by the students in my grad and undergrad classes in
feminist theory (grad) and popular culture (undergrad) last semester.

Jane 

jcaputi  AT  comcast.net

I have found teaching "Black Sexual Politics: African Americans,
Gender, and the New Racism" by Patricia Hill Collins works well. It's
more contemporary and deals with media that the students are familiar
with.

For black feminist theory, again with teaching in mind, bell hooks is
a great way to start - very accessible yet complex. "Ain't I a Woman:
Black Women and Feminism" in particular.

Laura

Laura Marks
PhD Candidate
Department of English
Louisiana State University
lmarks2  AT  lsu.edu

Almost everyone who has replied has given ideas for texts, and the question
does ask for "literature."  But I don't think a discussion of black women
and sexualized images can be held in 2008 w/o inclusion of Kara Walker's
art.
--ShaunAnne

ShaunAnne Tangney
Associate Professor of English
Humanities Division
Minot State University
500 University Ave W
Minot, ND  58707
sa.tangney  AT  minotstateu.edu

*Black Feminist Thought* by Patricia Hill Collins is a great work.
Also Belle Hooks  *From Margin to Center* covers some of the theory about
black female sexualization.
Also there is an article in *The Fire This Time* about Lil Kim and her ideas
about being a feminist and embodying negative stereotypes about women in hip
hop.

Wonderful suggestions all. You might also want to check out the *Women's
Studies Quarterly *special issue - The Sexual Body - Volume 35 Numbers 1&2
2007 Edition

Stacie McCormick
wsqassociate  AT  gmail.com
stacie.mccormick  AT  gmail.com

-- 
Stacie McCormick
Administrative Associate
WSQ
at the Feminist Press
365 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY  10016
www.feministpress.org/wsq