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Race writing and decolonisation assignment 1

Reflective log (544 words)

Upon reflection, I have found that in my discussion board posts over the course of this term,
my key intellectual interests often surround the need for intersectionality in literature as well
as the portrayal of women of colour in literature and history. Through my discussion posts,
I’ve found that a common point of interest in each has been the difference between the
depiction of black women and white women in media and literature; for example in Gilman’s
‘Black Bodies, White Bodies’1, he explores how the historical attitudes towards feminine
beauty often result in the masculinisation black women to show them as inherently sexual
with a primitive desire for sexual activity – thus they are seen as the antithesis to white
women who would be viewed as delicate, innocent and covertly sexual. This can be seen in
media even today as explored in Claudia Rankine’s Citizen2 who explores the
masculinisation of tennis player Serena Williams, in which she shows that even the greatest
female sportswoman is not exempt from microaggressions. Through the example of Serena
William’s experience, we see how her body and her accomplishments become reduced to the
stereotype of the ‘angry black woman’, whereby she is caricaturized and reduced to a non-
human entity, merely to be seen as entertainment. This racist phenomenon has been explored
in Sojourner Truth’s speech titled ‘Ain’t I A woman’3 where she simply and firmly asks –
why don’t you view me as a woman? What makes me different from other women? She
explains the need for intersectionality using the anecdote “That man over there says that
women need to be helped into carriages and lifted over ditches…Nobody ever helps me into
carriages, or over mud-puddles”4. Through this, she shows the innate difference between
black women and white women; that white women have been infantilised, protected, and
worshipped by men whereas black women are left to survive and struggle on their own. Not
only does she explore the need for intersectionality in feminism but also how misogyny has
differently affected black women and white women; while black women are perceived in
parallel to a man, white women are seen as less than women and more as children – a
paradox which is harmful to everyone.

1
Sander L. Gilman, Black Bodies, White Bodies: Toward an Iconography of Female Sexuality in Late
Nineteenth-Century Art, Medicine, and Literature, The University of Chicago Press, 1985
2
Claudia Rankine, Citizen: An American Lyric, Penguin poetry, 2015, pp 34-36
3
Sojourner Truth “Ain’t I Woman?”, Speech Delivered at Ohio Women’s Rights Convention, May 1851
4
Sojourner Truth “Ain’t I Woman?”, Speech Delivered at Ohio Women’s Rights Convention, May 1851, p1
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As Truth’s essay was the first piece of critical material I came across on this module, it
affected the lens through which I read and analyse the rest of the texts on the module. I often
find myself coming back to her anecdote in everyday life as well as when reading, her speech
made me realise that fundamentally the need for intersectionality is a product of patriarchy
and the idea that women will be seen as lesser than men, thus racism towards black women is
a product of racist ideologies from slavery in whereby the enslaved women would be treated
equally and if not worse than their male counterparts.

Bibliography

Sander L. Gilman, Black Bodies, White Bodies: Toward an Iconography of Female Sexuality
in Late Nineteenth-Century Art, Medicine, and Literature, The University of Chicago Press,
1985

Sojourner Truth “Ain’t I Woman?”, Speech Delivered at Ohio Women’s Rights Convention,
May 1851

Claudia Rankine, Citizen: An American Lyric, Penguin poetry, 2015