One of the key ideas that I would like to kick off this blog post with, comes from our readings of Feminist Spaces:Gender and Geography in a Global Context. The reading states,” Home is a key site in the production of gendered difference, meaning, and identity. I would like to first compound upon this idea before I delve deeper into what this means for the black woman. One of my first thoughts of this quote comes from our parental upbringing. We naturally as children absorb and associate the practices and activities of our parents. One of the key gendered differences I was taught was that men were supposed to take the trash can out on the tree lawn and also bring it back. Society commonly places specific outdoor chores on men and the realm of the home upon the women. I would like for us to think about how these different roles and task assignments affect how we are visible in society. If we bring this idea to a scale of the neighborhood we can see these differences in visibility. For example, men being allowed to go outside the home to complete their task and be “seen” allows them to act their role as a man while simultaneously controlling their perception by others in the neighborhood. Women typically are constrained to the home so not only is it natural for others in the neighborhood to not know what they contribute to the daily household operations but also not be “seen” by others in the neighborhood. This lack of visibility showcases the general devaluing of female-identifying individuals as contributors to society. Invisibility of the female role in the household is also a form of control in the sense that they are given a specific place that excludes them from the space of the neighborhood as working people. With all of this being said, I would also like to think about this from an intersectional perspective. With our readings of “Homeplace”, we see the home as a space of black resistance, the only safe haven away from racial violence and discrimination. As black women are homemakers, the same way that all other women are. They constantly get burdened with the tasks of maintaining the home, but in a certain sense maintaining blackness. Black liberation is obtained in the home through the quality care and tenderness of the tasks being handled by black women. Even if we take a look back in the Civil Rights Movement, there were many dinners with civil rights leaders in the home, with meals and spaces created by black women. This creation of space into a place of safety, refuge, and liberation comes with a cost. Black women’s space is not interacted with in a manner that they have a place of refuge and freedom. They are subjugated into the role of being a female homemaker that not only makes them invisible because of their race but their gendered norms that makes them invisible to the family that they protect within the home. It brings me to the question of how do black women become safe? Their space is designed to protect, yet they are the unseen gatekeepers of black safety and freedom. I would like to end this post with a video that highlights how black women are brutalized by police violence but nobody says their name. I then propose the question, how do we liberate these women when they are fighting the plight of race and gendered norms. Here is the video: The urgency of intersectionality | Kimberlé Crenshaw | TED
Hi Arthur,
ReplyDeleteIt's great to see Crenshaw being brought into the conversation here--intersectionality is definitely a crucial component of social justice and examining the home beyond the singular axis of gender is, as hooks proves in Homeplace, a necessity for liberation. I like your description of Black women as doubly invisible, too. It’s easy to ignore the unique forms of oppression that arise from Black Womanhood as a singular concept in favor of looking at it as two separate identities.
It's also interesting to think about the power given to Black women in creating spaces of safety and liberation in contrast to the burden that places upon them. While hooks obviously sees potential in the history of Black women as homemakers, she also identifies that patriarchy—and particularly the imposition of white patriarchal ideas—creates a hostile environment for women. I really like how you question the safety of Black women who create homeplaces. They make the space safe for others, but how safe are they? Particularly with the example of victims of police brutality, it’s clear that liberation requires more than a singular approach.
If you're looking for more on the subject of intersectionality, I'd highly recommend the works of Gloria Anzaldua, especially Borderlands / La Frontera. It deals with Anzaldua's various identities and how they impact her ability to move through the world, and it uses the geographic metaphor of the border in a very interesting way. I've had to read excerpts for classes like, four or five times at this point, and it's always a fun time.