Jezebel
Celia, at the age of 19, killed a man who was trying
to rape her. Because she was enslaved and because it was 1855, she could not
use the current laws of Missouri in her defense. Those laws stated that a woman
could use deadly force in "imminent danger of forced sexual intercourse."
But the judge ruled that Celia had no rights as an enslaved woman; she could
not refuse her "master." And so Celia was convicted of murder,
sentenced, and hanged on December 21, 1895. (Equal
Justide Initiative 2023) Amid the Memphis
riots of 1866, multiple black women were gang-raped by a White mob. None of
their perpetrators were ever tried, but that did not stop them from being the
first group of women to speak out on sexual assault before Congress. From that
time to now, Black women have been at the forefront of challenging sexual assault. (Chabane
2020) Thousands of prominent white
men, such as South Carolina congressman Strom Thruman, a Dixicrat, avid
segregationist, and one of the longest serving congressman in U.s. history,
went to his grave without admitting that he had sexual abuse, raped, and
impregnated his 1-year old Black maid working in his father's house. (King
2022) Over her lifetime, more than eighteen percent of African American
women will be sexually assaulted. (West
and Johnson, 2013) But this only
measures those that report the abuse. For every 15 Black women raped, only one tends
to report her assault. (West and Johnson ibid) Sexual assaults of Black women are linked to
the presumed hypersexualized myth accompanying the Jezebel stereotype.
Source: Sydney Carter on Twitter: "Game 22
https://t.co/ZQ9CwMWOmQ" / Twitter
Regardless of success, Black women are more likely to
be criticized for their dress. Consider the story of Texas A&M coach Sydney
carter, who faced criticism for wearing a tight pink pants suit and heels on
the court. (Bernabe
2022) She and other Black women must deal with the racial/sexual stigma associated
with presumed hypersexuality. They suffer from the controlling stereotype known
as Jezebel.
Jezebel, the hypersexualized, Black temptress, has a
long history in America's racial myths. She first appears in slavery, as she is
projected as being a lust-driven, enthusiastic sexual predator. As early as the
mid-1400s, European enslavers used this as the justification for rape and a
means of forcing them to reproduce with enslaved Black men. The Black woman
becomes more animal, with few moral qualms as her sexuality and sexual cravings
drive her. These images continue today as the promiscuous, sexually-crazed
Black woman is vilified in movies, music, and even corporate America.
Perhaps the first popularized Jezebel of the 18th
century was a native of South Africa, kidnapped as a child who became the
epitome of "savage feminity." Her name -is Saartjie Baartman or, more
pejoratively -Venus Hottentot. Baartman was born in 1789, the year of the
French Revolution. Kidnapped and forced to perform, she debuted to massive
crowds in London in 1810 at the tender age of 20. Her career continued to
blossom in France. Although Baartman never performed naked, she did wear skin-colored
tights that gave the illusion of such. And this did not stop French royalty from
erotically fantasizing about this "Black woman."
Tragically, in just six years, Baartman died of pneumonia
and alcoholism. The obsession with her sexuality did not end in her death, as any
other than Napoleon's surgeon general, her body was pillaged. They mutilated Baartman's
body, making caste of her body parts (with special attention to her supposedly
elongated labia), boiled her bones, and placed her brain and genitals in
preservation fluid, pickling them for posterity. They remained displayed at the
National Museum of Natural History until the 1970s. In 1994, as Nelson Mandela,
the first elected black president of South Africa, Saartjie Baartman finally
returned home. (Frith
2009)
Actress Aida Overton Walker was one of the first Black
women to make it big as Jezebel. Aida Overton Walker was one of the most
celebrated Black vaudeville actresses. She had performed before royalty and co-starred
in the first all-Black Broadway musical. But her most prized role was not as
either a maid or tragic Octoroon, but as Salome' "a powerful seductress
who could demand a saint's head in return for a glimpse of her body." (Linchong
2022) What is strange is that Walker, and her husband, fought hard against
the racist stereotypes of the day. They worked to produce a "clean,
refined, artistic" representation of Blacks and their realities. (Curtis
2019)
Walker, Aida Overton (1880-1914) | Encyclopedia.com
Perhaps one of the most notorious of the Jezebel's was
none other than Josephine Baker. Freda Josephine McDonald, born on June 3,
1906, was the daughter of entertainers. They worked throughout the Midwest but
barely made enough to eat. She often took odd jobs, forced to dance in the
street to survive. At 15, she ran away and began performing in an African
American troupe. Soon after, she met her husband, took his last name, and
became Josephine Baker. She arrived in New York, an accomplished dancer in
several Vaudeville shows, just in time to experience the Harlem Reanance. She performed
to mostly white audiences, dancing, and singing, often in a banana skirt. It
was no surprise that she was wildly received in Berlin in 1926. She was
projected as the more primitive and natural, predating modernity, and was the
epitome of the noble savage. She stormed Germany as it entered the
naktultur (nudist)movement. The timing was not the best, or perhaps it was, as
the emerging Nazi movement and their attempt to cleanse the country of "immorality"
and build a nation based upon Arian strength, morality, and virtues. Josephine
Baker and her shows were targeted, and she became the symbol of decadence and "racial
impurity." When she traveled to Austria, she was met with headlines that
declared her to be the "Black Devil" and Jezebel." Leaflets
heralded her performance in Vienna as the "brazen-faced heathen dance(r)."
Using this as a backdrop, Josephine Baker became a spy funneling secret
messages of information she heard while performing in enemy territory. (Lewis
2022)
Hip-hop has served to reinforce these narratives,
particularly the Jezebel and Sapphire. We see the overly sexualized Black
female in the most recent Super Bowl show of, Rihanna as her lead song was "Bitch
better have my money." As in the past, some Black feminists have long questioned
the song and her performance. And while some recognized that the performance
legitimated people engaged in "sex work and trade," they do not
reflect the authenticity of Black women. (Mock 2013) Others have argued that
Rihanna glorified violence against black women and gave vent to the "kidnapped
female" troupe. A third analysis suggests that Rihanna's work is situated
within Audre' Lorde's theory of the practice of eroticism. Accordingly, Lorde
(1978) asserts that the erotic is "a source of power and information
within our lives." (Lorde quoted by Keigan, 2016). The debate lingers, but
what is clear -the image of the Black Jezebel is alive and well in America. What
is clear is that these images, while representing the lives of single women, do
not represent the lives of others. And even though Rihanna might embrace the
sexual and the erotic in her life and music, others have not adopted or, according
to some, legitimized their victimization, exploitation, and abuse.
Hip-hop, evolving in the early 1970s by Black and
Latino youth, began as a statement of protest, and culture has become saturated
with sex, violence, and drugs. Or as Hip-Hop artist Lauren Hill (1998)
observes, "started out in the heart. . . Now everybody tryin' to
chart". HipHop groups such as Public Enemy's "Fight the Power"
(1989), N.W.A.'s F Tha Police (1988), Queen Latifa (1993), U.N.I.T.Y., or TuPac
1992 Changed -a strong message challenging institutional racism, police
misconduct, and oppressive poverty prevail. But soon after rocking our world,
Hip-Hop swerved deeply into the erotic, the sexual, and the violent as LLCool J
talks about feeling "kind of horny" and wanty to "Blow your
socks off, make sure your G spots off" in his 1995 track "Doin It. Or
more recently in Kanye West's 2005 single "gold Digger" where he
stereotypes women as only wanting him for his money. This is followed by
G-Easy's 2017 single "No Limit" which describes black women as only
engaging in sex for money, gifts, and other objects of value. These activities
are only legitimized by female artists such as Cardi B in her top-selling song
"No Limit" where she raps about only engaging in sex for money. And
so, while Rihana might be celebrated for her endurance and authenticity, others
see it as a justification for Chris Brown's victimization and assault and helps
preserve the patriarchal exploitation of black women. (Crumpton 2020)
Currently, Jezebel is popularized by current Black hip-hop stars such as City
Girls, Cardi B, and Megan the Stallon.
Sapphire
Iranetta Wright, recently hired Superintend of Schools,
appears to have ticked off principals and upper administrators in her first
year as district leader of the Cincinnati Public Schools. According to their union,
she has created a "culture of intimidation and fear." In a letter to
the board, administrators complain that she has instituted a system of "micromanagement"
that "is impeding daily tasks." (Dykes
2023) The fact that upwards of these
administrators are likely white males (N.C.E.S. 2020) probably
has nothing to do with it. The projected $48 million budget cuts might have
alarmed these leaders. (Fox19
2023) Perhaps she is being penalized for being a strong Black woman;
perhaps her race and gender preclude her from being in control. And rather than
dealing with the reality of the situation's need for change, her detractors would
hide behind the "angry women syndrome." Perhaps she is being
stigmatized as being a Sapphire.
The angry black woman associated with the Sapphire
myth has been equally vilified throughout American history. The angry Black
woman, seen in many of our institutional settings, represents Black women as
more aggressive, ill-tempered, bitter, overbearing, hostile, and just angry. This
accounts for the lack of Black women in the labor force, just at 7 %, and even
less in leadership positions. Among the top corporations in America, black
women only account for 1 in 25 top posts in the C-Suite. (McKinsey
and Company 2022)
More to come...
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