Ok this is the last excerpt from an undergrad paper that I am going to share. This was also from one of my top five classes at Emory, Black Feminist Theories. I took it "for fun;" basically I decided to take a class that I thought would be interesting, and it didn't fulfill any requirements and I was glad it wasn't a science class...My sister's bf, gave me a book that break "When I Where I Enter" by Paula Giddings (she is my soror), but the book really made me interested in the social position of black women and it made me more interested in taking the class.
Anyways it seriously was life changing and I learned so much. My professor was absolutely amazing! There was only 3 people in the class (INCLUDING me). So it really was a family. Anyways...my final paper was on the myth of the Superwoman in the black community. So these are a few paragraphs taken from a 12 paper. Let me know if you are interested in the reading the complete thing (I even critique the Alicia Key's Superwoman song and how that perpetuates the myth) I can send you the whole paper. Oh and this wasn't the final draft...one of my revisions, so excuse the mistakes. Kinda lengthy even though it is just an excerpt, but worth it. Oh and I just want to reiterate that it was EXTREMELY hard choosing just a few paragraphs to share. The paper really flowed together...but just wanted you to get the gist of it.Hope it gives you an additional perspective to a complex phenomenon.
What images come to mind when the word “superwoman” is uttered? Do you think of a female with a red cape, red boots, emblazoned with an S on her chest or is it a female who must juggle the responsibilities of being a mother, wife, and having a career? Concurrent with the second image of an all powerful woman that can be described as strong, powerful, and resilient the myth of the black superwoman is born. So how is the superwoman ideal actually perpetrated in the context of African American females? It can be loosely defined as the ability of women to manage numerous obligations simultaneously while mastering the skills at hand and remaining emotionally intact.
In Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman (1978), Wallace gives an excellent synopsis of what the superwoman myth perpetuates, “It is of a woman of inordinate strength, with an ability for tolerating an unusual amount of misery and heavy, distasteful work. This woman does not have the same fears, weaknesses, and insecurities as other women, but believes herself to be and is, in fact, stronger emotionally than most men (p. 107).” Although the myth of the superwoman may at times be uplifting and reinforced through many societal means it becomes problematic because of the health and social implications that it poses for the black female and community. Therefore when black women buy into the myth and believe that it is indeed a fact, this can potentially be debilitating.
In order for the myth of the superwoman to adequately be understood, the idea of the matriarch must be explored. Huey and Lynch describes the matriarch as being a “strong black woman that rules her family with an iron fist and ‘castrated her man” rejected womanly role within the traditional gender and family structure (130).” In addition, the matriarch is said to have an aggressive and overbearing nature that chased away men. The Negro Family: The Case for National Action, also known as the Moynihan Report was written by Daniel Patrick Moynihan in March of 1965 and was arranged through the Office of Policy Planning and Research. It was compiled with the purposes of exploring the crisis in the black community; unfortunately, it actually popularized and enabled the idea of the matriarch.
So through what means did the term superwoman actually arise? Michelle Wallace discusses in Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman that it began as a positive affirmation for African American women when they were able to prevail through difficult situations. Subsequently, it may also have been a means to help these women overcome and endure hardships that may be facing them. With so many other oppressive images of African Americans such as the Mammie, Jezebel, and Sapphire, it is easy to understand why such a term could be more empowering than others.
With taking all of this responsibility upon herself, continuing this balancing act is harmful to African American females due to stress. This stress could possibly come from a combination of events such as being the head of the household, a single mother, or also the need The Black Women’s Health Book: Speaking for Ourselves contained a collection of essays that were written about black women and their health, physically, emotionally, and psychologically. There are such noted contributors as Toni Morrison, bell hooks, Angela Davis, Marian Wright Edelman, and Zora Neale Hurston. In one particular essay, Rocking in the Sun Light: Stress and Black Women, Adisa eloquently describes how stress can affect black women.
Stress leads Black women to madness, so much that they have become experts at camouflaging their anguish. They bite their tongues until blood bubbles and silence swells big in their mouths; all because of stress. Stress that is hemmed into their dresses, pressed into their hair, mixed into their perfume and painted on their fingers. Stress from deferred dreams, the dreams not voiced; stress from broken promises, the blatant lies, stress from always being at the bottom, from never being thought beautiful, from always being taken for granted, taken advantage of; stress from being a Black woman in White America. Black women are stressed out (p.12).
This poignant and uniquely image provoking quote describes variables things that can be operating against women. As the quote implies, the unrealistic expectation for a woman to cope with many different roles flawlessly can lead to stress. In addition, there is a sort of “camouflaging” act that must occur for the individual to remain calm and not be outwardly overwhelmed. Gender roles are operating throughout this quote in several ways. The first is the silence that is often ingrained into young black girls in what bell hooks powerfully described in her book Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black. Female children’s opinions often go unheard and unshared, as hooks says, “…talking back meant speaking as an equal to an authority figure. It meant daring to disagree and sometimes it just meant having an opinion (p.5).” If this is the environment that many girls grow up in then it is much harder to speak up and easier to remain stifled. Adisa’s founding also noted that black women in all socioeconomic ranges are affected by an infinite amount of stressors, which again shows that this superwoman myth is salient across income levels.
As noted above, the superwoman myth is salient in popular culture whether it is it supporting or rejecting it, but are there others ways that it is transmitted. Some may argue that this superwoman ideal is also passed on through observations of female adolescent on the behaviors and lifestyles of other women around them. For example, a young girl’s examination of her mother’s ability to handle several different roles flawlessly may lead this girl to have the same expectations for herself later on in life. This could also be applied to other relationships outside that of the mother and daughter, for instance the watchful scrutiny of aunts, female siblings, or even friends could be a model for unhealthy behavioral patterns.
However, Wallace notes that there is a paradigm shift that has started to occur, which is “some women are starting to be honest with themselves and viewing themselves more as victims than superwoman (p. 174).” Although it is not necessarily useful or even liberating to consider oneself a victim, it is important to be cognizant of oppressive behaviors that could potentially further persecute the individual. Once this is acknowledged hopefully the next step is to be freed from the constraints that are keeping black women from being as healthy as possible.
The consequences and widespread popular culture references illustrate that this is an operating principle in the African American community whether consciously or not. On the surface, being labeled or considering oneself a superwoman can be liberating but upon further examination, there is the potential to create other stressors in order to reach this unattainable ideal. In fact, do any stereotypes have the ability to uplift any group or they all oppressive in nature?
Until Next Time...
