{"id":317,"date":"2014-12-02T06:00:27","date_gmt":"2014-12-02T06:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/?p=317"},"modified":"2014-11-24T22:04:08","modified_gmt":"2014-11-24T22:04:08","slug":"the-unfeminine-mystique","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/2014\/12\/02\/the-unfeminine-mystique\/","title":{"rendered":"The UNFEMININE Mystique: Stereotypes about African-American Women"},"content":{"rendered":"

The gendered mystique that still poses barriers to African-American women in their personal and public lives is perhaps best described as an \u201cunfeminine mystique\u201d \u2013 the idea that they have characteristics and embrace lifestyles that are outside the boundaries of \u201creal\u201d womanhood. This \u201cunfeminine mystique\u201d has plagued African-American women for more than 200 years.<\/p>\n

In the early 19th<\/sup> century, a new definition of femininity was applied to white woman. In sharp contrast to the colonial idea of women as helpmates and fellow providers for their family, the Victorian ideal of \u201ctrue womanhood\u201d emphasized women\u2019s seclusion from the public world of work and social interactions. The True (White) Woman was depicted as sexually innocent, innately submissive, and incapable of making her way through life without a man to protect her.\u00a0 Black women, by contrast, were seen as indelicate because of their work and social activities outside the home. They were depicted as sexually profligate and dominant over men. They abandoned their children to engage in paid labor. And they often raised children without a man in the home.<\/p>\n

The idea that African-American women were \u201cunfeminine\u201d masked the fact that they most of them simply had little control over their sexuality, childbearing, or work experiences. But it justified denying them the privileges and respect supposedly accorded to those who conformed to the stereotype of \u201cthe weaker sex.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a>
Image from Black History Album via Flickr Creative Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/div> In the 20th century the “unfeminine mystique” was modernized into the image of the \u201cblack matriarch.\u201d\u00a0 African \u2013American women were described as domineering figures who transgressed mainstream gender restrictions by heading their own families and usurping the power of African-American men. Despite many scholarly refutations of the \u201cblack matriarch\u201d thesis, it still powerfully shapes the images, expectations, and experiences of black women. Black women are constantly told that the strength and self-sufficiency they have had to acquire is an affront to black manhood, and is at the root of the gender trouble between black men and women. Some African-American men seek to\u00a0reclaim their power\u00a0through exploitative or even violent relationships with women. Others, buying into the myth that\u00a0African-American women are\u00a0able to fend\u00a0for themselves,\u00a0often feel justified letting them do just that.<\/p>\n

Rather than investigate the external economic and social pressures that put extra strain on relationships in many African-American communities, many observers — including some black leaders and churches — castigate black women for failing to create male-headed families that are seen as vital to the success of black people. Employers assume African-American women are all single-mothers and unreliable workers.\u00a0 Policymakers stereotype African-American women as sexually irresponsible, blame them for the economic and social challenges facing black children, and use those claims to justify denying social assistance to struggling families.\u00a0 And, sadly, African-American women often buy into\u00a0“unfeminine mystique,” blaming themselves for not being\u00a0able to form successful intimate relationships while at the same time experiencing frustration for not being as strong and independent as they are assumed to be.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0What is needed are truly liberating images\u00a0of African-American women — images that portray them as fully human with all the vulnerabilities and strengths that entails.<\/p>\n

\n

Shirley Hill<\/span> is in the department of sociology at the University of Kansas. She is the author of\u00a0Black Intimacies: A Gender Perspective on Families and Relationships.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The gendered mystique that still poses barriers to African-American women in their personal and public lives is perhaps best described as an \u201cunfeminine mystique\u201d \u2013 the idea that they have characteristics and embrace lifestyles that are outside the boundaries of \u201creal\u201d womanhood. This \u201cunfeminine mystique\u201d has plagued African-American women for more than 200 years. Shirley […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2005,"featured_media":319,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[131,55,13,14,3540],"class_list":["post-317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-economy","tag-gender","tag-inequality","tag-race","tag-stereotype"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/files\/2014\/11\/6759134269_5d55137630_z.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2005"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":322,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317\/revisions\/322"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}