scholarly journals Awkward Black girls and post-feminist possibilities: Representing millennial Black women on television in Chewing Gum and Insecure

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 435-450 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Sobande
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Black Feminism ◽  
Black Girls ◽  
Chewing Gum ◽  
Media Discourse ◽  
Black Feminist ◽  
Contemporary Context

Focusing on television depictions of ‘millennial’ Black women, this article explores how such on-screen identities are crafted through entwined issues concerning race, gender, sexuality and feminism. Theorising post-feminism in this contemporary context necessitates discussion of post-feminism’s (dis)connection to and from Black feminism and the politics of intersectionality. Thus, this article examines how Black feminist and post-feminist media sentiments push against each other in ways that may indicate a form of Black post-feminist television. It considers how ‘millennial’ Black women are depicted in Chewing Gum (2015–2017) and Insecure (2016–present) and analyses how feminist media discourse is implicated in these representations.

scholarly journals An Ode to Black British Girls

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (20) ◽  
pp. 34
Author(s):  
Jeanelle Kevina Hope
Keyword(s):  
Black Feminism ◽  
Chewing Gum ◽  
Media Discourse ◽  
Black Feminist ◽  
Black Girl ◽  
African Immigrant ◽  
Black Womanhood ◽  
Black British ◽  
Women’S Sexuality ◽  
Dark Comedy

This article delves into Michaela Coel’s Chewing Gum, examining how the cultural text builds upon Black feminist media discourse, and intimately grapples with the nuances of Black women’s sexuality while explicitly challenging misogynoir. This work illustrates how Coel is helping develop a Black British cultural aesthetic that centers Black women’s liberation, specifically from an African immigrant perspective, by using satire, all the beauty, pain, and struggles that come with #blackgirlmagic, eccentric adornments, and ‘awkward’ ostentatious characters that at times play into racist images and tropes of Black womanhood to expose the absurdity of life in an anti-Black, sexist, and xenophobic society. In sum, this article understands Coel’s work in Chewing Gum to be Black girl surrealism – the intersection of Afro-surrealism, British dark comedy, and Black feminism.

scholarly journals Black feminist intersectionality is vital to group analysis: Can group analysis allow outsider ideas in?

2021 ◽  
pp. 053331642199776
Author(s):  
Suryia Nayak
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Black People ◽  
Black Feminism ◽  
Group Analysis ◽  
Black Feminist ◽  
Online Platform ◽  
Large Group ◽  
Diversity And Inclusion ◽  
Analytical Structure ◽  
The Relationship

This is the transcript of a speech I gave at an Institute of Group Analysis (IGA) event on the 28th November 2020 about intersectionality and groups analysis. This was momentous for group analysis because it was the first IGA event to focus on black feminist intersectionality. Noteworthy, because it is so rare, the large group was convened by two black women, qualified members of the IGA—a deliberate intervention in keeping with my questioning of the relationship between group analysis and power, privilege, and position. This event took place during the Covid-19 pandemic via an online platform called ‘Zoom’. Whilst holding the event online had implications for the embodied visceral experience of the audience, it enabled an international attendance, including members of Group Analysis India. Invitation to the event: ‘Why the black feminist idea of intersectionality is vital to group analysis’ Using black feminist intersectionality, this workshop explores two interconnected issues: • Group analysis is about integration of parts, but how do we do this across difference in power, privilege, and position? • Can group analysis allow outsider ideas in? This question goes to the heart of who/ what we include in group analytic practice—what about black feminism? If there ‘cannot possibly be one single version of the truth so we need to hear as many different versions of it as we can’ (Blackwell, 2003: 462), we need to include as many different situated standpoints as possible. Here is where and why the black feminist idea of intersectionality is vital to group analysis. On equality, diversity and inclusion, intersectionality says that the ‘problems of exclusion cannot be solved simply by including black [people] within an already established analytical structure’ (Crenshaw, 1989: 140). Can group analysis allow the outsider idea of intersectionality in?

Pushed to Teach: Pedagogies and Policies for a Black Women Educator Pipeline

2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Conra D. Gist ◽  
Terrenda White ◽  
Margarita Bianco
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
Educational Equity ◽  
Black Girls ◽  
Collective Learning ◽  
Social Emotional ◽  
Black Feminist ◽  
12Th Grade ◽  
Educational Spaces ◽  
Feminist Theories

This research study examines the learning experiences of 11th- and 12th-grade Black girls participating in a precollegiate program committed to increasing the number of Teachers of Color entering the profession by viewing a teaching career as an act of social justice committed to educational equity. The pipeline functions as an education reform structure to disrupt pedagogies and policies that push Black girls out of educational spaces at disproportionate rates by instead pushing Black girls to teach. Critical race and Black feminist theories are utilized to analyze interviews from Black girls over a 5-year period of the program and composite characters are developed to spotlight key findings that allow us to (a) better understand and amplify the collective learning and social-emotional experiences of Black girls in the program, (b) highlight and critique the challenges and possibilities for positively pushing Black girls’ intellectual identities as students and future teachers via pedagogies and supports, (c) identify spaces and structures in schools that can resist and combat the marginalization of Black girls’ agency and genius, and (d) consider implications for the development of Black Women Educator pipelines.

Replaying Video Game History as a Mixtape of Black Feminist Thought

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-118
Author(s):  
TreaAndrea M. Russworm ◽  
Samantha Blackmon
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Black Feminism ◽  
Women Performers ◽  
Women's Labor ◽  
Black Feminist ◽  
Combahee River Collective ◽  
Game Industry

This article, a Black feminist mixtape, blends music, interviews, and critical analysis in order to demonstrate some of the ways in which Black women have impactfully engaged with the video game industry. Organized as musical “tracks,” it uses lyrics by Black women performers as a critical and cultural frame for understanding some of the work Black women have done with video games. In prioritizing the personal as not only political but also instructive for how we might think about digital media histories and feminism, each mixtape track focuses on Black women's lived experiences with games. As it argues throughout, Black feminism as defined and experienced by the Combahee River Collective of the 1970s has been an active and meaningful part of Black women's labor and play practices with video games.

Incorporating intersectional musicality within the classroom: Black feminism through Nina Simone and Janelle Monáe

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 311-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jasmine Hines
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Black Girls ◽  
Black Feminist ◽  
Social Justice Advocacy ◽  
Black Feminists ◽  
Dominant Society ◽  
History Of ◽  
Education And Society ◽  
Nina Simone

In an age of social justice advocacy within education, the work of Black women continues to be excluded from the hegemonic educational canon despite the long history of Black feminists advocating for the eradication of systemic oppressive systems in education. By examining the livelihoods and music created by Black feminist musicians, music educators may begin to reflect on how Black women’s positionality within society has had a direct influence on the music they created within a White culturally dominant society. The purpose of this article is to conceptualize how the intersectional musicality of Nina Simone and Janelle Monáe – informed by the conceptual framework of Black Feminist Thought – can speak to the experiences that Black girls and women face within music education and society.

scholarly journals Black feminist methods of activism are the tool for global social justice and peace

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 234-257
Author(s):  
Chris Sheehy ◽  
Suryia Nayak
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Global Justice ◽  
Black Feminism ◽  
Social Injustice ◽  
Black Feminist ◽  
Political Warfare ◽  
Feminist Methods ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

We use the method of conversation as a tool of living activist struggles to end social injustice. We draw on Black feminism to create an intersectionality of diverse activist voices across time and space. We insist on an intersectional acuity to analyse Global alienation, subjugation and exploitation. We use examples from activist contexts such as the Trade Union and Rape Crisis movements. Our conversation speaks of the tensions and risks of solidarity and organizing across difference. We use Gramsci’s idea of the ‘interregnum’ to look at the in-between space of protest and transformation. We argue that the ‘interregnum’ is an opportunity to build solidarity for Global justice. In the context of intersectional racism, we ask, can the racial grief of Black women speak? We like Lorde’s idea that ‘Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare’ (Lorde, 1988: 332). We argue that the relationship of Black feminism to oppression, constitutes its revolutionary potential, and this distinguishes Black feminist activist methodologies from other methodologies as the tool for Global social justice and peace.

scholarly journals Growing up with black hair in the GTA: three women share their stories

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Bagirakandi
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Black Girls ◽  
Black Hair ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Story Telling ◽  
Black Feminist ◽  
Canadian Context ◽  
The Future ◽  
Hair Styling

The literature demonstrates that Black hair affects the identity of Black women. However, there is little research on how Black hair affects the identity of Canadian Black girls. For the purpose of this study, Black hair will refer to coiled textured hair, often referred to as “kinky”. The goal of the present study was to understand the effects of Black hair on the identity of Black girls between the ages of 5 and 12. Three Black women between the ages of 20 and 35 were asked to recall their experiences growing up in Canada with Black hair. Following a Black feminist approach, data was collected through story telling in an open-ended interview and four themes were identified : caring for Black hair, hair altering, the future of Black hair, and influences on Black hair styling. The women in the study have a hopeful vision for the future of Black hair. Keywords: Black hair, identity, Canadian context, childhood

scholarly journals Growing up with black hair in the GTA: three women share their stories

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Bagirakandi
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Black Girls ◽  
Black Hair ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Story Telling ◽  
Black Feminist ◽  
Canadian Context ◽  
The Future ◽  
Hair Styling

The literature demonstrates that Black hair affects the identity of Black women. However, there is little research on how Black hair affects the identity of Canadian Black girls. For the purpose of this study, Black hair will refer to coiled textured hair, often referred to as “kinky”. The goal of the present study was to understand the effects of Black hair on the identity of Black girls between the ages of 5 and 12. Three Black women between the ages of 20 and 35 were asked to recall their experiences growing up in Canada with Black hair. Following a Black feminist approach, data was collected through story telling in an open-ended interview and four themes were identified : caring for Black hair, hair altering, the future of Black hair, and influences on Black hair styling. The women in the study have a hopeful vision for the future of Black hair. Keywords: Black hair, identity, Canadian context, childhood

City Girls, hot girls and the re-imagining of Black women in hip hop and digital spaces

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyesha Jennings
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Female Sexuality ◽  
Black Feminism ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Black Girls ◽  
Black Female ◽  
Gender Performance ◽  
Participatory Culture ◽  
Digital Spaces

Through a hip hop feminist lens, how are we to interpret black girls’ and women’s self-identification in digital spaces that visibly resonate with new/remixed images? And more importantly, what happens when black female rap artists and their fan base disrupt, subvert or challenge dominant gender scripts in hip hop in order to navigate broader discourses on black female sexuality? Drawing on the work of Joan Morgan and hip hop feminist scholarship in general, this essay aims to offer a critical reading of ‘hot girl summer’. Inspired by Houston rapper Megan Thee Stallion’s lyrics on ‘Cash Shit’, where she raps about ‘real hot girl shit’, the phrase has morphed into a larger-than-life persona not only for Megan’s rap superstar profile, but also for a number of black girls. According to Megan, a hot girl summer is ‘about women and men being unapologetically them[selves] […] having a good-ass time, hyping up their friends, doing [them]’. What does ‘hot girl summer’ tell us about significant changes in the ways that black women cultivate community in digital spaces, how they construct their identities within systems of controlling images and grapple with respectability politics? In order to address these questions with a critical lens, using an interdisciplinary approach grounded in black feminism and hip hop feminism, this essay offers a theoretical approach to a digital hip hop feminist sensibility (DHHFS). Too little has been said about black women’s representation in digital spaces where they imagine alternative gender performance, disrupt hegemonic tropes and engage in participatory culture.

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