Jeanne Pitre Soileau
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781496810403
- eISBN:
- 9781496810441
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496810403.003.0004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter presents African American girls talking about, as Daryl Dance in Honey Hush said: “men, sex, clothes, hair, cooking, children, and then back to men and sex.” These subjects are ...
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This chapter presents African American girls talking about, as Daryl Dance in Honey Hush said: “men, sex, clothes, hair, cooking, children, and then back to men and sex.” These subjects are approached in a dramatic and distinctly Black way. Girls handclap to “I like coffee/I like tea,” play “The boys like the bacon/The girls like the eggs,” and perform “When I was a baby” using distinctive body motions, intricate clapping, and specific utterances of encouragement. The ring play “I was goin’ to the lake” presents a rare case where girls replace gentle mothering with open aggression. These childhood games represent lore learned by carefully watching and listening to each other and older female relatives and friends.Less
This chapter presents African American girls talking about, as Daryl Dance in Honey Hush said: “men, sex, clothes, hair, cooking, children, and then back to men and sex.” These subjects are approached in a dramatic and distinctly Black way. Girls handclap to “I like coffee/I like tea,” play “The boys like the bacon/The girls like the eggs,” and perform “When I was a baby” using distinctive body motions, intricate clapping, and specific utterances of encouragement. The ring play “I was goin’ to the lake” presents a rare case where girls replace gentle mothering with open aggression. These childhood games represent lore learned by carefully watching and listening to each other and older female relatives and friends.
Sarah Projansky
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814770214
- eISBN:
- 9780814764794
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814770214.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This chapter explores the local and alternative coverage of Sakia Gunn, an African American lesbian who was murdered in Newark, New Jersey, in a 2003 bias crime. Although Gunn is not a high-profile ...
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This chapter explores the local and alternative coverage of Sakia Gunn, an African American lesbian who was murdered in Newark, New Jersey, in a 2003 bias crime. Although Gunn is not a high-profile mediated girl like those previously discussed, she made the cover of newspapers. Her death led to sustained and continuing public discussion in various media; her murder sparked public debate and scandal; and she was posthumously adored, mourned, and celebrated. Gunn is considered a spectacular girl in alternative locations, as none of this attention happened in a sustained way in mass-market mainstream media sources. As an explicitly queer African American girl, Gunn is relatively atypical in the media, yet the chapter argues that she is a spectacular girl nevertheless, that one can see her if one looks to media texts other than grocery store magazines, girl films, and world-class athletes.Less
This chapter explores the local and alternative coverage of Sakia Gunn, an African American lesbian who was murdered in Newark, New Jersey, in a 2003 bias crime. Although Gunn is not a high-profile mediated girl like those previously discussed, she made the cover of newspapers. Her death led to sustained and continuing public discussion in various media; her murder sparked public debate and scandal; and she was posthumously adored, mourned, and celebrated. Gunn is considered a spectacular girl in alternative locations, as none of this attention happened in a sustained way in mass-market mainstream media sources. As an explicitly queer African American girl, Gunn is relatively atypical in the media, yet the chapter argues that she is a spectacular girl nevertheless, that one can see her if one looks to media texts other than grocery store magazines, girl films, and world-class athletes.
Nazera Sadiq Wright
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252040573
- eISBN:
- 9780252099014
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252040573.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gender Studies
Long portrayed as a masculine endeavor, the African American struggle for progress often found expression through an unlikely literary figure: the black girl. Drawing on heavy archival research on a ...
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Long portrayed as a masculine endeavor, the African American struggle for progress often found expression through an unlikely literary figure: the black girl. Drawing on heavy archival research on a wide range of texts about African American girls, this book explores the phenomenon of black girlhood. It shows that the figure of the black girl in African American literature provided a powerful avenue for exploring issues like domesticity, femininity, and proper conduct. The characters' actions, however fictional, became a rubric for African American citizenship and racial progress. At the same time, their seeming dependence and insignificance allegorized the unjust treatment of African Americans. The book reveals fascinating black girls who, possessed of a premature knowing and wisdom beyond their years, projected a courage and resiliency that made them exemplary representations of the project of racial advance and citizenship. The book asks why black writers of the period conveyed racial inequality, poverty, and discrimination through the lens of black girlhood; why black writers and activists emphasized certain types of girls; what tropes can be identified in the early literature of black girlhood; and where these girlhood tropes originated. It examines how black girls were represented in the earliest extant examples of the black press and it examines the first writings of black women about girlhood during the antebellum era. In doing this and more, the book documents a literary genealogy of the cultural attitudes toward black girls in the United States.Less
Long portrayed as a masculine endeavor, the African American struggle for progress often found expression through an unlikely literary figure: the black girl. Drawing on heavy archival research on a wide range of texts about African American girls, this book explores the phenomenon of black girlhood. It shows that the figure of the black girl in African American literature provided a powerful avenue for exploring issues like domesticity, femininity, and proper conduct. The characters' actions, however fictional, became a rubric for African American citizenship and racial progress. At the same time, their seeming dependence and insignificance allegorized the unjust treatment of African Americans. The book reveals fascinating black girls who, possessed of a premature knowing and wisdom beyond their years, projected a courage and resiliency that made them exemplary representations of the project of racial advance and citizenship. The book asks why black writers of the period conveyed racial inequality, poverty, and discrimination through the lens of black girlhood; why black writers and activists emphasized certain types of girls; what tropes can be identified in the early literature of black girlhood; and where these girlhood tropes originated. It examines how black girls were represented in the earliest extant examples of the black press and it examines the first writings of black women about girlhood during the antebellum era. In doing this and more, the book documents a literary genealogy of the cultural attitudes toward black girls in the United States.
