bell hooks
Cultural theorist bell hooks (aka, Gloria Watkins), writes in her essay 'Ain't She Still a Woman':
Increasingly, patriarchy is offered as the solution to the crisis black people face. Black women face a culture where practically everyone wants us to stay in our place.
Progressive non-black folks, many of them white, often do not challenge black male support of patriarchy even though they would oppose sexism in other groups of men. In diverse black communities, and particularly in poor communities, feminism is regarded with suspicion and contempt. Most folks continue to articulate a vision of racial uplift that prioritizes the needs of males and valorizes conventional notions of gender roles. As a consequence black males and females who critique sexism and seek to eradicate patriarchy in black life receive little support.
How can we relate this to the pulsating core (i.e., the effects of 'whiteness') of The Bluest Eye?
posted by belag @ Sunday, September 30, 2007
22 Comments:
Ok, name me men/characters that we have talked about in our course that were not effeminate (and there were tons!). Let's see if you remember that far back!
Some statistics: Every 10th African-American man is predicted at a certain point in their life to serve a prison sentence on a criminal charge...After serving time, the citizen's right to vote in free elections is revoked...
Chauvinist
• noun a person displaying excessive or prejudiced support for their own country, cause, group, or sex.
• adjective relating to such excessive or prejudiced support.
Handy, aren't they? (spellchecks that is) Not to come off as the obnoxious pain in the collective behind but some things just get the better of me.
Anyway, personal comments, CITATIONS! Disraeli/Twain/Marshall come to mind...
("There are three types of lies - lies, damn lies, and statistics.") Contextual input please.
Also, a conviction does NOT guarantee permanent disenfranchisement, at least not in most of the continental United States (consider 7 states do so in absolute terms versus 50 states in the "Union")
Source: http://www.aclunc.org/voting/041019-factsheet.html
BTW, I don't suppose we have any visitors that are card carrying ACLU members?
I know this stuff is as ancient as the cobwebs on my landmower so it's pretty pointless to respond but getting something going would be nice...feels *ancient* (discussion that is)
that is up to you my friends...get the group going and start clicking...
yes, I have friends who are ACLU members... would you like to ask them questions?
yes, true not in every state, but boy or boy are laws bendible when it comes to color
Here's one:
Why's it such a Bad(tm) thing to carry one of those cards/memberships around? I've seen that particular organization singled out on more than one occasion (i.e. Politician X. Y. Z. the IV is an ACLU member, holy crap, stop the presses!) That sort of thing...is there a reason?
yes, since they protect/advocate all liberties (civil) guaranteed by the american constitution (the right to bear arms, the right to protest, burn a flag in protest, etc.), hence are not very popular with the mainstream - in other words, are sometimes seen as hard-core liberals, leftists...very much like the helsinki committee for human rights...
I suppose that makes sense, and there's always Rush Limbaugh's about face on the whole issue ever since his pills thing...Or at least so it appears, I never got the vibe he liked the ACLU very much.
*for the record*
I do *NOT* listen to that radio show, but you gotta give the man some points.
Have you tried listing to 'Air America' online? There are a couple of cool shows on - al franken's i think it's called, the o'franken factor..
These effects on black women is present in "The Bluest Eye" just as Gloria Watkins portrays it in 'Ain't She Still a Woman'. 'The non-black folks' often determine what is seen as right and wrong and they determine beautiful. It suits them to stand aside and watch the black community deal with its own problems (if they even bother to watch).
The women in 'The Bluest Eye' are represented as inferior to their husbands. Perhaps the most 'independent' females of the novel are the prostitutes.
In the white community, women still cannot be independent, and as the black folks try to be like them in every way, they do not accept the patriarchal solution to their problem.
The Blog or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bluest Eye
Excellent
In "The bluest eye", the white people are those who create the sense of what's beautiful, right and good,and this concept influences the black people(Pecola) They are treated as minor, as Miss Marie names them "lower class 'niggers'", compared to the "middle class 'colored people'". The poverty and misery that surround those families, force them to be more tough, more resistible and stronger(Mac'teers)
so the paradigm of class plays its part then?
In the novel "The Bluest Eye", whiteness prevails over everything, from what is good to what is considered "beautiful". All the black women are more or less non-dependent of their husbands(men). Mrs. MacTeer, for example, the more struggles she has to overcome as an effect of whiteness, the stronger she becomes, both for herself and her girls. Thus, she doesn't rely on patriarchy. Another character who also doesn't rely on patriarchy in order to survive the hardships they face is Mrs. Breedlove. Mrs. Breedlove, on the other hand, resists patriarchy (as seen in Winter when she gets in a fight with her husband). She feels that Cholly is a failure to the family and that they are better off without him. She can only find beauty in the white family (whiteness) she works for; she considers Pecola to be ugly.
The prostitutes in the novel completey despise patriarchy and men in general. They have the ability to support themselves and aren't ashamed of their profession. They are, actually, the most liberated of all the women in the novel. (Whiteness has no deep effect to these women).
The only black women who concede to patriarchy are the women from Aiken, Mobile, and the other towns listed. They fully accept all the expectations manifested by patriarchy.
just a note: Mrs. MacTeer calls Mr. MacTeer to 'intervene' in the Henry incident. Would this qualify as patriarchy?
I think it does qualify as patriarchy, but even without Mr.MacTeer, I believe that Mrs.MacTeer (being the woman she is) could take care of the situation herself. She doesn't necessarily need her husband to handle the situation, but she only feels it right for her to tell Mr.MacTeer exactly what has happened and let him procede in doing what he believes is right. Thus making the situation man to man, rather than woman to man, which I believe is more appropriate.
good
This is such an exhausted topic. OK, let's start.
In my opinion, what bell hooks talks about is best shown by the way the school kids treat black girls. Although this has never been explicitly stated so far, we can understand it through the analysis of what the school kids DID NOT do to Maureen Peal. Black boys do not trip her in the hallways, white boys do not stone her, black girls would do anything to be her friends, and white girls do not look away when she is assigned as their school partner. Through this negations, we get to see what actually happens to black girls, who are treated in an ill fashion both due to their race (by white boys and girls) and due to their gender (by black boys).
Then, understand that the things that happen to black girls do not happen to girls like Maureen Peal. It is "whiteness-in-action".
what would then be an 'inactive case of whiteness'?
Bell Hooks writes that the black woman has always received the lowest attention, placing her at the bottom of the racial hierarchy. The black woman does not receive any kind of protection from black/white males; she cannot associate with each since she is always guided into patriarchy and inferiority.
Furthermore, the black woman is also neglected by white women, who ignore her when advocating gender "equality". Hence the black woman is a victim of both racist and sexist ideologies that are rooted in the American patriarchal system.
Pecola cannot rely on anyone to save her from the "necklace of boys (black or white)" except on her black female friends. In addition she succumbs to the unorthodox treatment exercised by her father (the rape). Pauline becomes the perfect servant, Geraldine the perfect maid, and that's about it.
Women in this novel cannot prosper except within the limits of white/black male patriarchy.
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