Diana Jeater
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199290673
- eISBN:
- 9780191700569
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199290673.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
This chapter focuses on one important dimension of women's experience of empire, their encounter with attempts to control and redirect their sexuality. Controlling men's labour, always of paramount ...
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This chapter focuses on one important dimension of women's experience of empire, their encounter with attempts to control and redirect their sexuality. Controlling men's labour, always of paramount importance to the architects of empire in Africa, was matched, if not at times surpassed, by colonial concerns over the sexuality of African women. As the nature of gender relations changed under the architecture of colonial administration, so the experiences of women were altered. Control over women's labour was also vital to the imperial project, and African women experienced major changes in the quantity, nature, and context of their work within the empire.Less
This chapter focuses on one important dimension of women's experience of empire, their encounter with attempts to control and redirect their sexuality. Controlling men's labour, always of paramount importance to the architects of empire in Africa, was matched, if not at times surpassed, by colonial concerns over the sexuality of African women. As the nature of gender relations changed under the architecture of colonial administration, so the experiences of women were altered. Control over women's labour was also vital to the imperial project, and African women experienced major changes in the quantity, nature, and context of their work within the empire.
Rosanna F. DeMarco
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195398090
- eISBN:
- 9780199776900
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195398090.003.0017
- Subject:
- Psychology, Social Psychology, Clinical Psychology
This chapter describes the ways in which self-silencing theory can be used to understand the experiences of women in inner-city Boston living with HIV/AIDS. The author discusses how the ...
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This chapter describes the ways in which self-silencing theory can be used to understand the experiences of women in inner-city Boston living with HIV/AIDS. The author discusses how the self-silencing construct contributed to the creation of a gender-sensitive culturally relevant intervention related to safe sex behaviors for women at risk. The chapter presents a program of community-based participatory action research that involves (a) an examination of the complex problem of women living with HIV/AIDS in the United States, and (b) the use of the author's culturally relevant intervention to change behavior, increase self-esteem, decrease depression, and give ”voice” to women. The author argues that self-silencing theory can be applied in creating an innovative approach to HIV/AIDS prevention for women.Less
This chapter describes the ways in which self-silencing theory can be used to understand the experiences of women in inner-city Boston living with HIV/AIDS. The author discusses how the self-silencing construct contributed to the creation of a gender-sensitive culturally relevant intervention related to safe sex behaviors for women at risk. The chapter presents a program of community-based participatory action research that involves (a) an examination of the complex problem of women living with HIV/AIDS in the United States, and (b) the use of the author's culturally relevant intervention to change behavior, increase self-esteem, decrease depression, and give ”voice” to women. The author argues that self-silencing theory can be applied in creating an innovative approach to HIV/AIDS prevention for women.
Lawrie Balfour
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195377293
- eISBN:
- 9780199893768
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195377293.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This chapter focuses on the 1920 essay “The Damnation of Women,” Du Bois's collective biography of African American women. Despite the masculinism that defines much of his writing, and the tensions ...
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This chapter focuses on the 1920 essay “The Damnation of Women,” Du Bois's collective biography of African American women. Despite the masculinism that defines much of his writing, and the tensions that qualify even his strongest arguments on behalf of gender equality, this essay demands that readers grapple with the meaning of “womanhood” and “citizenship” through the lens of black women's history. It also reorients feminist citizenship theory in the United States by demonstrating the need to go beyond reckoning with race to confront the lingering shadows of slavery.Less
This chapter focuses on the 1920 essay “The Damnation of Women,” Du Bois's collective biography of African American women. Despite the masculinism that defines much of his writing, and the tensions that qualify even his strongest arguments on behalf of gender equality, this essay demands that readers grapple with the meaning of “womanhood” and “citizenship” through the lens of black women's history. It also reorients feminist citizenship theory in the United States by demonstrating the need to go beyond reckoning with race to confront the lingering shadows of slavery.
DIANA JEATER
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198203797
- eISBN:
- 9780191675980
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198203797.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
This chapter demonstrates construction of a moral discourse in Southern Rhodesia that was influenced by the concept of morality brought into the region by the white Occupation. The criminalization of ...
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This chapter demonstrates construction of a moral discourse in Southern Rhodesia that was influenced by the concept of morality brought into the region by the white Occupation. The criminalization of female adultery crystallized the idea that sexual acts could be wrong in themselves, a concept stressed by missionary groups to enforce Christian concepts of correct male and female gender roles. Sexual immorality provided another set of rules with which to control the behaviour of insubordinate women. The 1920s was a decade in which African women continued to assert their independence. The ideology of inherent ‘immorality’ of African women rose to prominence. By 1936, the long-awaited pass system for women was instituted in the shape of the Natives Registration Act, which put a check on the influx of young women who evade parental control and enter into an immoral life.Less
This chapter demonstrates construction of a moral discourse in Southern Rhodesia that was influenced by the concept of morality brought into the region by the white Occupation. The criminalization of female adultery crystallized the idea that sexual acts could be wrong in themselves, a concept stressed by missionary groups to enforce Christian concepts of correct male and female gender roles. Sexual immorality provided another set of rules with which to control the behaviour of insubordinate women. The 1920s was a decade in which African women continued to assert their independence. The ideology of inherent ‘immorality’ of African women rose to prominence. By 1936, the long-awaited pass system for women was instituted in the shape of the Natives Registration Act, which put a check on the influx of young women who evade parental control and enter into an immoral life.
Judith N. McArthur and Harold L. Smith
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195304862
- eISBN:
- 9780199871537
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195304862.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Having won the ballot, the former suffragists organized the nonpartisan League of Women Voters, through which women could continue to work as a pressure group for a female reform agenda. Minnie ...
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Having won the ballot, the former suffragists organized the nonpartisan League of Women Voters, through which women could continue to work as a pressure group for a female reform agenda. Minnie Fisher Cunningham helped found both the Texas and the national LWVs; from 1921-23 she served in Washington, D.C. as the national organization's first executive secretary, working closely with President Maud Wood Park. She helped the LWV, as part of the Women's Joint Congressional Committee, lobby through Congress two signature achievements: the Sheppard-Towner Maternity and Infancy Act (1921) and the Cable Act (1922). Cunningham oversaw the planning for the LWV's Pan American Congress of Women in 1922, and she quietly and persistently worked to keep the LWV's Negro Problems Committee from dying of neglect. After becoming chair of the committee in 1924, she advocated that the LWV encourage and assist African-American women to vote.Less
Having won the ballot, the former suffragists organized the nonpartisan League of Women Voters, through which women could continue to work as a pressure group for a female reform agenda. Minnie Fisher Cunningham helped found both the Texas and the national LWVs; from 1921-23 she served in Washington, D.C. as the national organization's first executive secretary, working closely with President Maud Wood Park. She helped the LWV, as part of the Women's Joint Congressional Committee, lobby through Congress two signature achievements: the Sheppard-Towner Maternity and Infancy Act (1921) and the Cable Act (1922). Cunningham oversaw the planning for the LWV's Pan American Congress of Women in 1922, and she quietly and persistently worked to keep the LWV's Negro Problems Committee from dying of neglect. After becoming chair of the committee in 1924, she advocated that the LWV encourage and assist African-American women to vote.
Sarah Azaransky
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199744817
- eISBN:
- 9780199897308
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199744817.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter describes landmark legal arguments Murray made about equal protection in the 1960s. Using the category of “Jane Crow,” she demanded that the law be responsive to the synthetic nature of ...
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This chapter describes landmark legal arguments Murray made about equal protection in the 1960s. Using the category of “Jane Crow,” she demanded that the law be responsive to the synthetic nature of identity. In so doing, Murray placed African American women's experiences at the center of democratic consideration. Despite her attempts to build coalitions, she found herself increasingly at odds with leaders of the feminist and Black Freedom movements.Less
This chapter describes landmark legal arguments Murray made about equal protection in the 1960s. Using the category of “Jane Crow,” she demanded that the law be responsive to the synthetic nature of identity. In so doing, Murray placed African American women's experiences at the center of democratic consideration. Despite her attempts to build coalitions, she found herself increasingly at odds with leaders of the feminist and Black Freedom movements.
Gwendolyn Midlo Hall
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195112436
- eISBN:
- 9780199854271
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195112436.003.0017
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
Louisiana was, and is, a truly, multicutural society that developed very differently from the thirteen original Angolo colonies. In colonial Louisiana, an entirely new Creole culture was created from ...
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Louisiana was, and is, a truly, multicutural society that developed very differently from the thirteen original Angolo colonies. In colonial Louisiana, an entirely new Creole culture was created from the knowledge, skills, folk art, and world views of Africans, Native Americans, and Europeans. This chapter explains that it was women—especially mothers and surrogate mothers—who primarily molded the new generations. The experience of African women in colonial Louisiana reflected a broader continuum ranging from the most brutal forms of economic and sexual exploitation to impressive upward social mobility and economic power. Colonial Louisiana was a rough, violent, frontier world where slave women were overworked, driven beyond the limits of their physical endurance, tortured, and victimized. African women and women of African descent were crucial in the creation of this new and unique Louisiana Creole language and culture. They took care of their own children, and of many white children as well.Less
Louisiana was, and is, a truly, multicutural society that developed very differently from the thirteen original Angolo colonies. In colonial Louisiana, an entirely new Creole culture was created from the knowledge, skills, folk art, and world views of Africans, Native Americans, and Europeans. This chapter explains that it was women—especially mothers and surrogate mothers—who primarily molded the new generations. The experience of African women in colonial Louisiana reflected a broader continuum ranging from the most brutal forms of economic and sexual exploitation to impressive upward social mobility and economic power. Colonial Louisiana was a rough, violent, frontier world where slave women were overworked, driven beyond the limits of their physical endurance, tortured, and victimized. African women and women of African descent were crucial in the creation of this new and unique Louisiana Creole language and culture. They took care of their own children, and of many white children as well.
Maxine Leeds Craig
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195152623
- eISBN:
- 9780199849345
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195152623.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter presents the history of early African American beauty contests, which were black institutional responses to racist depictions of black women. They constitute evidence that African ...
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This chapter presents the history of early African American beauty contests, which were black institutional responses to racist depictions of black women. They constitute evidence that African Americans did not accept the dominant racial order as natural. With few exceptions, the contests were produced by black institutions exclusively for black audiences. Separate by design, these contests can be considered nationalist, though they should not be automatically grouped analytically with later expressions of black separatism. The early black beauty contests were produced in an era of white racist segregation. In that context, black social institutions did not, in and of themselves, present a direct or immediate challenge to whites. Beauty pageants were generally sponsored by members of the black middle class and reflected the biases characteristic of the class. Black newspapers and social clubs established separate black beauty pageants as nonconfrontational ways of expressing racial pride, but they often reinforced hierarchies of gender, class, and color in their challenges to white supremacy.Less
This chapter presents the history of early African American beauty contests, which were black institutional responses to racist depictions of black women. They constitute evidence that African Americans did not accept the dominant racial order as natural. With few exceptions, the contests were produced by black institutions exclusively for black audiences. Separate by design, these contests can be considered nationalist, though they should not be automatically grouped analytically with later expressions of black separatism. The early black beauty contests were produced in an era of white racist segregation. In that context, black social institutions did not, in and of themselves, present a direct or immediate challenge to whites. Beauty pageants were generally sponsored by members of the black middle class and reflected the biases characteristic of the class. Black newspapers and social clubs established separate black beauty pageants as nonconfrontational ways of expressing racial pride, but they often reinforced hierarchies of gender, class, and color in their challenges to white supremacy.
April R. Haynes
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226284590
- eISBN:
- 9780226284767
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226284767.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
“Licentiousness in All its Forms” recovers African American women’s significant intervention into sexual discourse between 1835 and 1845, a period here designated the interracial moment in moral ...
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“Licentiousness in All its Forms” recovers African American women’s significant intervention into sexual discourse between 1835 and 1845, a period here designated the interracial moment in moral reform. In an era of amalgamation riots, some black abolitionists forged a delicate coalition with white evangelicals. Female moral reformers condemned “licentiousness in all its forms,” and black abolitionists applied this language to “the licentiousness of slavery.” In turn, African American women built upon the physiological contention that all bodies were equally prone to virtue or vice. By distinguishing universal sexual virtue from white female purity, they undercut stereotypes of black licentiousness. Activists such as Sarah Mapps Douglass, Nancy Prince, Lavinia Hilton and Hetty Burr inspired Sarah and Angelina Grimké’s famous analysis of women’s moral equality with men. In this activist context, it became both possible and necessary for a few white women to question assumptions of their inherent purity. In the process, they applied the language of solitary vice to their own lives. African American women strategically appropriated antimasturbation physiology even as they remained focused on structural oppression. Although they only temporarily destabilized racialized discourses on female sexuality, their moral reform efforts had significant consequences for American sexual thought.Less
“Licentiousness in All its Forms” recovers African American women’s significant intervention into sexual discourse between 1835 and 1845, a period here designated the interracial moment in moral reform. In an era of amalgamation riots, some black abolitionists forged a delicate coalition with white evangelicals. Female moral reformers condemned “licentiousness in all its forms,” and black abolitionists applied this language to “the licentiousness of slavery.” In turn, African American women built upon the physiological contention that all bodies were equally prone to virtue or vice. By distinguishing universal sexual virtue from white female purity, they undercut stereotypes of black licentiousness. Activists such as Sarah Mapps Douglass, Nancy Prince, Lavinia Hilton and Hetty Burr inspired Sarah and Angelina Grimké’s famous analysis of women’s moral equality with men. In this activist context, it became both possible and necessary for a few white women to question assumptions of their inherent purity. In the process, they applied the language of solitary vice to their own lives. African American women strategically appropriated antimasturbation physiology even as they remained focused on structural oppression. Although they only temporarily destabilized racialized discourses on female sexuality, their moral reform efforts had significant consequences for American sexual thought.
OWEN WHITE
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198208198
- eISBN:
- 9780191677946
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198208198.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
This chapter sketches a history of the contact between French men and African women which created a mÉtis population in West Africa. It compares French attitudes and practices with those of other ...
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This chapter sketches a history of the contact between French men and African women which created a mÉtis population in West Africa. It compares French attitudes and practices with those of other Europeans. It provides some idea of how such relationships were conducted across the federation and changed over time.Less
This chapter sketches a history of the contact between French men and African women which created a mÉtis population in West Africa. It compares French attitudes and practices with those of other Europeans. It provides some idea of how such relationships were conducted across the federation and changed over time.
Nicholas M. Creary
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780823233342
- eISBN:
- 9780823241774
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823233342.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
In August 1965, the community of the Little Children of our Blessed Lady (or LCBL Sisters) at Hwedza asked Sister Rocha Mushonga to accompany Sister Ancilla, their delegate to the congregation's ...
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In August 1965, the community of the Little Children of our Blessed Lady (or LCBL Sisters) at Hwedza asked Sister Rocha Mushonga to accompany Sister Ancilla, their delegate to the congregation's first general chapter, as a secretary. Thus began the indigenization of the LCBL Sisters' leadership. This chapter describes how small groups of soft-spoken yet resolute groups of African women became nuns. The stories and experiences of these African nuns clearly shows them as agents taking some measure of control over their lives, and their actions had significant effects on African culture as well as on the relations between European administrators and missionaries. These were not merely passive, docile women who did what they were told to do by parents, priests, or politicians. Rather, they defied their parents and their culture. African men's actions also contributed to the forging of a new Southern Rhodesian colonial social practice.Less
In August 1965, the community of the Little Children of our Blessed Lady (or LCBL Sisters) at Hwedza asked Sister Rocha Mushonga to accompany Sister Ancilla, their delegate to the congregation's first general chapter, as a secretary. Thus began the indigenization of the LCBL Sisters' leadership. This chapter describes how small groups of soft-spoken yet resolute groups of African women became nuns. The stories and experiences of these African nuns clearly shows them as agents taking some measure of control over their lives, and their actions had significant effects on African culture as well as on the relations between European administrators and missionaries. These were not merely passive, docile women who did what they were told to do by parents, priests, or politicians. Rather, they defied their parents and their culture. African men's actions also contributed to the forging of a new Southern Rhodesian colonial social practice.
Elizabeth Hayes Turner
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195086881
- eISBN:
- 9780199854578
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195086881.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter shows how the progressive women's communities emerged during the Progressive Era. Galveston supplied an environment conducive to middle and upper-class women's advancement from ...
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This chapter shows how the progressive women's communities emerged during the Progressive Era. Galveston supplied an environment conducive to middle and upper-class women's advancement from congregational life into community activism. It helped extend women's issues to public forums. Three progressive communities emerged: African American Women's Hospital Aid Society, the Women's Progressive Club, and the Negro Women Voters' League. They all had nurtured ameliorative and reforming sentiments. These associations were separated by race but their goals advanced women to positions of leadership. Thus, the first two decades became women's decades as they organized to protect the health, seek equal rights and opportunities for women and combat discrimination. It worked for a healthier, safer urban environment for the women.Less
This chapter shows how the progressive women's communities emerged during the Progressive Era. Galveston supplied an environment conducive to middle and upper-class women's advancement from congregational life into community activism. It helped extend women's issues to public forums. Three progressive communities emerged: African American Women's Hospital Aid Society, the Women's Progressive Club, and the Negro Women Voters' League. They all had nurtured ameliorative and reforming sentiments. These associations were separated by race but their goals advanced women to positions of leadership. Thus, the first two decades became women's decades as they organized to protect the health, seek equal rights and opportunities for women and combat discrimination. It worked for a healthier, safer urban environment for the women.
Stephanie Y. Mitchem
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195167962
- eISBN:
- 9780199850150
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195167962.003.0018
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
“Jesus is my doctor”, a claim made by many black women, raises a rich mélange of culturally resonant issues. Faith is articulated as an active, powerful, protective, creative partnership with a God ...
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“Jesus is my doctor”, a claim made by many black women, raises a rich mélange of culturally resonant issues. Faith is articulated as an active, powerful, protective, creative partnership with a God who loves completely and without reservation. Lived in the body, community, and world, African American women's faith often extends to hope for the healing of all people as a natural corollary of envisioning a new, more perfect world. Faith in “Doctor” Jesus is neither superstitious nor contradictory when grounded in such social and ideological understandings. This chapter explores black women's beliefs in faith healing. It is based on interviews of black women, mostly in the Detroit area, conducted between 1996 and 2003 about their understandings of faith, health, healing, and spirituality. First, it considers some of the basic issues when gender and health cross in black women's lives. Then, it looks at the crossings of medicine with the lives of African American women. Finally, it examines accounts from members of the grassroots Detroit Metropolitan Black Women's Health Project.Less
“Jesus is my doctor”, a claim made by many black women, raises a rich mélange of culturally resonant issues. Faith is articulated as an active, powerful, protective, creative partnership with a God who loves completely and without reservation. Lived in the body, community, and world, African American women's faith often extends to hope for the healing of all people as a natural corollary of envisioning a new, more perfect world. Faith in “Doctor” Jesus is neither superstitious nor contradictory when grounded in such social and ideological understandings. This chapter explores black women's beliefs in faith healing. It is based on interviews of black women, mostly in the Detroit area, conducted between 1996 and 2003 about their understandings of faith, health, healing, and spirituality. First, it considers some of the basic issues when gender and health cross in black women's lives. Then, it looks at the crossings of medicine with the lives of African American women. Finally, it examines accounts from members of the grassroots Detroit Metropolitan Black Women's Health Project.
Jane Landers
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195112436
- eISBN:
- 9780199854271
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195112436.003.0014
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
This chapter examines the case of Juana, and this case clearly indicates that several important institutional, political, and social factors operated to guarantee even enslaved women some rights and ...
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This chapter examines the case of Juana, and this case clearly indicates that several important institutional, political, and social factors operated to guarantee even enslaved women some rights and protections in Spanish Florida. One was the observance of a legal code that upheld the rights of women generally and supported their access to the courts. This access to legal recourse and “voice” generated a rich documentary record for African and African-American women in the Hispanic South that allows historians to explore issues of race, sexuality, and gender more fully than they might through Anglo-American records of the same period.Less
This chapter examines the case of Juana, and this case clearly indicates that several important institutional, political, and social factors operated to guarantee even enslaved women some rights and protections in Spanish Florida. One was the observance of a legal code that upheld the rights of women generally and supported their access to the courts. This access to legal recourse and “voice” generated a rich documentary record for African and African-American women in the Hispanic South that allows historians to explore issues of race, sexuality, and gender more fully than they might through Anglo-American records of the same period.
Lanita Jacobs-Huey
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195304169
- eISBN:
- 9780199866939
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195304169.003.06
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
This chapter explores conversations involving black and white women across multiple settings (for example, cosmetology schools, hair educational seminars, Internet discussions) that further elucidate ...
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This chapter explores conversations involving black and white women across multiple settings (for example, cosmetology schools, hair educational seminars, Internet discussions) that further elucidate what is at stake for African American women in discussions about hair. African American women's hair narratives and knowledge about hair were, in many ways, filtered through their experiences of marginalization as a collective of women whose ethnic features were long considered unattractive. Black women's ideas about hair are intricately connected to cultural identity, gendered experiences, and racial consciousness. In three separate hair discussions, white women unwittingly ran into trouble despite their attempts to align with black women. This chapter examines the nature of their linguistic missteps and black women's (mis)readings to illuminate what went wrong and what contributed to these women's conversational alignments and misalignments.Less
This chapter explores conversations involving black and white women across multiple settings (for example, cosmetology schools, hair educational seminars, Internet discussions) that further elucidate what is at stake for African American women in discussions about hair. African American women's hair narratives and knowledge about hair were, in many ways, filtered through their experiences of marginalization as a collective of women whose ethnic features were long considered unattractive. Black women's ideas about hair are intricately connected to cultural identity, gendered experiences, and racial consciousness. In three separate hair discussions, white women unwittingly ran into trouble despite their attempts to align with black women. This chapter examines the nature of their linguistic missteps and black women's (mis)readings to illuminate what went wrong and what contributed to these women's conversational alignments and misalignments.
Mary Farmer-Kaiser
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823232116
- eISBN:
- 9780823234943
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823232116.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Social History
Congress established the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands—more commonly known as the Freedmen's Bureau—in March 1865. Upon its creation, the short-lived and ...
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Congress established the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands—more commonly known as the Freedmen's Bureau—in March 1865. Upon its creation, the short-lived and unprecedented federal agency assumed the Herculean task of overseeing the transition from slavery to freedom in the immediate post-emancipation South. It became the embodiment of the triumphant North in a defeated South, and its agents the very face of federal authority. This bureau profoundly affected the lives of African-American women in the age of emancipation. Aside from applying the northern economic theory of free labor in a southern context, the bureau also worked to institute a social reconstruction based on northern middle-class notions of domesticity, dependency, and family relations. Whatever the intentions and actions of bureau officials stationed across the South, freedwomen—much like freedmen—encountered, trusted, and challenged the bureau and used it to their own ends. The bureau accomplished a great deal before being officially dismantled in 1872.Less
Congress established the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands—more commonly known as the Freedmen's Bureau—in March 1865. Upon its creation, the short-lived and unprecedented federal agency assumed the Herculean task of overseeing the transition from slavery to freedom in the immediate post-emancipation South. It became the embodiment of the triumphant North in a defeated South, and its agents the very face of federal authority. This bureau profoundly affected the lives of African-American women in the age of emancipation. Aside from applying the northern economic theory of free labor in a southern context, the bureau also worked to institute a social reconstruction based on northern middle-class notions of domesticity, dependency, and family relations. Whatever the intentions and actions of bureau officials stationed across the South, freedwomen—much like freedmen—encountered, trusted, and challenged the bureau and used it to their own ends. The bureau accomplished a great deal before being officially dismantled in 1872.
Karin E. Gedge
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195130201
- eISBN:
- 9780199835157
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195130200.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
The diaries and correspondence of two dozen northern Protestant women offer little evidence of a close bond with a pastor unless the pastoral relationship became a marital relationship. Despite ...
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The diaries and correspondence of two dozen northern Protestant women offer little evidence of a close bond with a pastor unless the pastoral relationship became a marital relationship. Despite expressions of admiration for an occasional “good sermon” or a “dear pastor,” women expressed disillusionment and disappointment when pastors failed to offer effective spiritual support from the pulpit or in person in times of need. Few reported any face-to-face religious conversations with pastors; those who did recorded responses ranging from surprise to embarrassment to frustration to outrage. Cultural constructions of gender difference imposed distance in the pastoral relationship, whether women expressed it as reverence for the minister as an “ambassador of Christ,” or inchoate resentment of masculine privileges and shortcomings, or a fear of rejection, or a troubling recognition of their own romantic desire or jealousy.Less
The diaries and correspondence of two dozen northern Protestant women offer little evidence of a close bond with a pastor unless the pastoral relationship became a marital relationship. Despite expressions of admiration for an occasional “good sermon” or a “dear pastor,” women expressed disillusionment and disappointment when pastors failed to offer effective spiritual support from the pulpit or in person in times of need. Few reported any face-to-face religious conversations with pastors; those who did recorded responses ranging from surprise to embarrassment to frustration to outrage. Cultural constructions of gender difference imposed distance in the pastoral relationship, whether women expressed it as reverence for the minister as an “ambassador of Christ,” or inchoate resentment of masculine privileges and shortcomings, or a fear of rejection, or a troubling recognition of their own romantic desire or jealousy.
DIANA JEATER
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198203797
- eISBN:
- 9780191675980
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198203797.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
Inspired by a wish to emancipate African women from lineage control, in order to further the Administration's proletarianization policy, the Native Marriages Ordinance of 1901 was built around the ...
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Inspired by a wish to emancipate African women from lineage control, in order to further the Administration's proletarianization policy, the Native Marriages Ordinance of 1901 was built around the thought that African male sexuality was ‘perverse’ and should be subject to State monitoring. Although the material transformations brought about by white occupation and colonization were fundamental to the construction of moral discourse in Southern Rhodesia, they provided only the context, within which specific contestations took place. No dominant, single hegemonic moral discourse emerged in Southern Rhodesia; what did develop and take firm root was a concept of the ‘moral realm’ itself. Africans as well as whites began to conceptualize the issues of gender and sexuality in terms of individual acts — the acceptable and the ‘perverse’ — which were disassociated from the broader context of family membership.Less
Inspired by a wish to emancipate African women from lineage control, in order to further the Administration's proletarianization policy, the Native Marriages Ordinance of 1901 was built around the thought that African male sexuality was ‘perverse’ and should be subject to State monitoring. Although the material transformations brought about by white occupation and colonization were fundamental to the construction of moral discourse in Southern Rhodesia, they provided only the context, within which specific contestations took place. No dominant, single hegemonic moral discourse emerged in Southern Rhodesia; what did develop and take firm root was a concept of the ‘moral realm’ itself. Africans as well as whites began to conceptualize the issues of gender and sexuality in terms of individual acts — the acceptable and the ‘perverse’ — which were disassociated from the broader context of family membership.
Sarah Azaransky
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199744817
- eISBN:
- 9780199897308
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199744817.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter covers Murray's career and writings as a young lawyer in the late 1940s through the 1950s. It explores her development of a new kind of American history and an account of black American ...
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This chapter covers Murray's career and writings as a young lawyer in the late 1940s through the 1950s. It explores her development of a new kind of American history and an account of black American identity as integral to her democratic thought. In response to McCarthyist insinuations that she is disloyal, she published a family memoir that portrayed her multiracial family and the history of violence against which it was formed. In the late 1950s, Murray left the United States for Ghana in search for a sense of home, but ultimately concluded that her racial identity and history made her irrevocably American.Less
This chapter covers Murray's career and writings as a young lawyer in the late 1940s through the 1950s. It explores her development of a new kind of American history and an account of black American identity as integral to her democratic thought. In response to McCarthyist insinuations that she is disloyal, she published a family memoir that portrayed her multiracial family and the history of violence against which it was formed. In the late 1950s, Murray left the United States for Ghana in search for a sense of home, but ultimately concluded that her racial identity and history made her irrevocably American.
Crystal N. Feimster
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781469624181
- eISBN:
- 9781469624204
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469624181.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, American History: Civil War
This chapter focuses on African American women's resistance to sexual violence during the transition from slavery to freedom and how their campaigns against rape influenced national debates about the ...
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This chapter focuses on African American women's resistance to sexual violence during the transition from slavery to freedom and how their campaigns against rape influenced national debates about the emerging meanings of freedom and black citizenship. During Reconstruction, the Republican governments lost political power in the South, paving the way for night riders and Klansmen to rape and sexually brutalize black women for political gain. In response, black women renewed their efforts to redefine citizenship to include all women and their right to determine when and with whom they had sexual relations. Citing the sexual vulnerability of slave women and their efforts to defend themselves, this chapter examines how black women and their allies shaped the Republican Party's vision of racial equality from the 1850s until the end of Reconstruction. It shows how black women's radical campaigns for sexual justice and Republican ideas about legal equality combined to make visible the emergence of a new sexual citizenship that culminated during the Civil War.Less
This chapter focuses on African American women's resistance to sexual violence during the transition from slavery to freedom and how their campaigns against rape influenced national debates about the emerging meanings of freedom and black citizenship. During Reconstruction, the Republican governments lost political power in the South, paving the way for night riders and Klansmen to rape and sexually brutalize black women for political gain. In response, black women renewed their efforts to redefine citizenship to include all women and their right to determine when and with whom they had sexual relations. Citing the sexual vulnerability of slave women and their efforts to defend themselves, this chapter examines how black women and their allies shaped the Republican Party's vision of racial equality from the 1850s until the end of Reconstruction. It shows how black women's radical campaigns for sexual justice and Republican ideas about legal equality combined to make visible the emergence of a new sexual citizenship that culminated during the Civil War.
