The Castration of the African American Body is a constant theme that I will continue to refer to. Castration is the removal of the ovaries or testes. This will be our functional, definition of castration; however I would like to use castration in order to refer to, the attempt to dismantle the physical and emotional core of African American People. However, we are resilient people and that will never happen; although attempts have been ample.
I think perhaps what really got me passionate about starting this Blog was a small portion of bell hook's book Killing Rage. She writes about how during slavery, the operation on the female genatalia on enslaved women was very common. She sites one particular, women, I cant remember her name, if you know, please post it. Anyways, this woman's vagina was operated on 30 times. This passage moved me to tears. And I soon began thinking about the ways in which African American Women have subject to castration. Currently, while female castration is not literal in America their are different outlets in which we can see the fascination and objectification of not only the African American female body but the entire community. Historically, there is no better example of the severing of the human body then public lynchings. In which the African American Body was put up for display and then killed by hanging, where large groups of people watched. Another very obvious example of the butchering of the African American Body is their depiction in music videos. Usually, the focus is one particular area of the body(and I am sure we all know what area I am talking about). I will primarily comment on clippings or films that do this. However, I think it should be interesting to follow Michelle Obama during her time to see if she is subject to this type of objectification.
Nevertheless, A professor that I heard lecture one day, went into depth about this sick fascination with the need to monitor and cut up the African American Body when discussing the prison industrial complex. If anyone has more information about that or could point to sources involving that, please post. I am still developing my thoughts as to ways in which the Castration of the Female Body is present. Let me know what you think...
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Your discussion of the cutting up the the colored female body is especially present in todays media. Not only are these bodies sectioned off and presented- these body parts are now microscoped and treated with a sort of fascination. For example, I was watching Two Can Play that Game, and Vivica Fox's ass seemed to have a supporting role in the film. Her ass served as a shallow object of desire; however the camera and I as treated Vivica's ass as something that needed to be discussed. I was embarrassed, jealous, watchful, in awe, and protective of her ass. If the camera serves as the media and I operate as the colored woman's voice, do you think both voices must be explored to humanize women of color?
ReplyDeleteHey Rachel, I know its taken me forever and a day to reply to this comment. To answer you question, I do think that both voices , the media, and the colored woman's voice must be explored to humanize woman of color. In this blog I hope to keep looking at why historically, the camera or the media chooses to dehumanize woman and analyze what works this exploitation of Women of Color actual does in the real world. I believe the first step into looking at how this exploitation affects our communities and other Women of Color.
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