Written By Maria Motunrayo
One of the main works of Black Feminism is the deconstruction of stereotypes constructed during slavery to benefit capitalism, which still impacts Black consciousness today. It is only when we understand the construction of these stereotypes, and their function in our society, that we can then begin to define ourselves as Black women for ourselves. Or else we will certainly, as Audre Lorde (1984) writes, be defined by others— for their use and to our detriment. It is only once we are self-defined as Black women that we can achieve power within our communities and be truly liberated.
This piece will show how Black Feminism dismantles intersecting systems of oppression by examining the work of Audre Lorde, Angela Davis and bell hooks and interrogating the ultimate corruption of Black motherhood, the Mammy figure.
Why has white society gone to such lengths to invent such a trope? And why is it still instantly recognisable today? Perhaps because Motherhood is “an area where a number of practices meet, such as education, health care, psychology, labour market.” Angela Davis (2012)
So by belittling and caricaturing Black motherhood, Black education, healthcare, psychology and welfare comes under attack. Without education, we become vulnerable to indoctrination, compromising healthcare leads to reduced productivity, growth and economic development. So by attacking Black mothers, white supremacy is able to poison the foundation upon which our society stands.
To break this down, and really see how insidious this seemingly innocent Mammy trope is, let’s start with the mythological aspect. The excessively overweight, bandanna wearing Mammy figure that subsumes much of pop culture’s representation of Black women, (a.k.a. Eddy Murphy’s Norbit, Tyler Perry’s Madea) is ultimately a white invention. The 1939 epic Hollywood romance, Gone with the Wind is one of the key moments in cultural history where the Mammy propaganda really took off and the happy to serve the white master, but ultimately asexual overweight Black woman was seen as fact not fiction.
Black Communities do not have a large proportion of nannies/mammies as we are led to believe. As bell hooks (2015) points out there is little evidence that the Nanny ever really existed. During slavery, bell hooks (2015) asserts, “the Black female nanny in the white household was usually a young Black woman with few if any attachments of her own.” We are led to the false notion that the Nanny is loved, and adored by the white mainstream, and therefore is a figure Black women should aspire to.
Black women are supposed to aspire towards the asexual Mammy stereotype to reduce their supposed high sexual potency and avoid being labelled as a “bad” Black woman. The reality is, the Mammy figure is given as much grace as real-life Mammy Hattie Mcdaniel, who played the Nanny in Gone with the Wind, who although given an Oscar in 1940 was segregated from cast members and forced to sit on a table far away.
I use asexual very deliberately,I would also like to add that the Mammy figure is supposed to be seen as unappealing and unattractive, for all men. bell hooks (2015), writes that “white people deliberately perpetuate myths about Black female bestial sexuality so as to discourage white men from seeing Black women as suitable marriage partners. The images of Black women that are seen as positive usually are those that depict the Black woman as a longsuffering, religious, maternal figure, whose most endearing characteristic is her self-sacrificing, self-denial for those she loves.”
But let’s return to bell hooks’ unpacking of the Black maternal myth, In Ain’t I a Woman (2015). I find hooks’ phrase “bestial sexuality” especially fascinating. Especially at a time when Black young women in the UK, specifically dark skinned women are labelled as “UK beasts” by their own community. Unfortunately, the myth of the beastial Black women has penetrated our community so deeply that the Black men who perpetuate it, fail to recognise that, “Freedom for Blacks does not mean absorbing white disease of sexism” (Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider, 1984).
Black Feminists were keen on dismantling the Mammy trope as it is a stereotype that exploits black women and benefits white capitalism. A trip to Tescos, or your local Paks, will quickly inform you of how beneficial this figure has been to capitalism. I encourage you to critically examine white owned products with the “Auntie” moniker to see how beneficial this is for white people, who profit off a stereotype forced upon us.
By deconstructing the mammy trope we are also able to more clearly recognise other false Black woman stereotypes fashioned by white society to oppress us, such as the angry Black woman and the jezebel, stereotypes that were fashioned alongside this one and help to define each other. In order for a Black woman to be seen as angry, or a sexually promiscuous Jezebel, we must also recognize what a “good” Black woman looks like. Therefore, we are told that being the agreeable and homely Mammy is the only antidote to other negative Black female stereotypes. Black Feminism powerfully asserts that all Black female stereotypes have roots in white supremacy and capitalism and offer no benefit to Black women and men (and non-binary people) alike.
References:
Davis, Angela (2012) Modern Motherhood Women AND Family in England c.1945-2000. Manchester: Manchester University Press
Lorde, Audre (1984) Sister Outsider Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde. New York: Crossing Press Berkeley
hooks, bell (2015) ain’t i a woman? Black Women and Feminism New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group
BLAM UK CIC 