“…In short, a black, ugly, evil, you-know-what…she has been used as the white man’s sexual outhouse, and shamefully encouraged by her own ego-less man to persist in this function…at best we are made to feel that we are poor imitations and excuses for white women… who’s suffering and patience is too long and enduring to be believed…if this is freedom, then Heaven is hell, right is wrong, and cold is hot.”
In September of 1966, Jazz diva/activist Abbey Lincoln laments the world’s treatment of the African American female in society. When discussing the objectivity of women in society people often jump straight to thinking of white women. However, this blog is about all female races and cultures in America. Women had to fight for their identity in society, one that they could call their own. This excerpt explains the identity that society and the male population in America gave to women. In year’s prior, African American women were treated lower than dirt with no identity. An advertisement from the Carolina Centinel in the year 1818 describes a runaway female slave much more like an animal than a human being. They describe her as have a “sullen look” with “tall and stout built” features and “yellow complexion.” They also describe her as walking “with her toes very much out” with “one of her for-fingers very crooked near the joint of the thumb, which prevents her from straightening” (Advertisement from Carolina Centinel, 1818). When discussing the objectivity of women in society and gender violence one forgets that men were not always the offenders. In an excerpt from The Gender of Violence, white “plantation mistresses” had a “significant impact on the lives of slaves” crediting her to a “system that was oppressive and harsh” (Glymph, 27). Glymphs chapter on the gender violence exhibited that not only men oppressed and objectified women of color, but white females as well. It is important to recognize that up to a point in history, some women, such as Catherine Beecher, referred to in the previous post, in society objectified their own gender almost as much as men. The gender violence that occurred toward African American progressed in a slower manner than that of gender violence toward white woman in society. In her writing Lincoln explains how the African American women’s head was “more regularly beaten than any other woman’s, and by her own man” as well as the “scapegoat…and forced to start realism and chided if caught dreaming.” (Lincoln, 1966). The image of during this time period was sexualized in a different perspective as “maligned, assaulted, and negated.” The African American woman was the “first to be called ugly and never yet beautiful” (Lincoln, 1966). The empowerment of the African American woman is shown here in the third wave of feminism; speaking out against the racially and gender motivated objectivism and demonization of the African American woman.
Sources: “Abbey Lincoln, ‘Who Will Revere the Black Woman?’ 1966.” Week 12, Lines 130-132, 142-143, 148.
https://cmasseyweb.wordpress.com/2016/11/20/abbey-lincoln-who-will-revere-the-black-woman-1996/
Woman as an Object of Society 