Deconstructing the Myth

of the Strong Black

Woman
AS/HUMA 1300
Faculty of Arts
1. Black women’s strength

2. Black female sexuality

3. Saartjie Baartman and the

Sexualization of the Black Female Body

4. Understanding contemporary
constructions of black women’s
strength and sexuality

Challenging the Myth of the Strong

Black Woman
Physical Differences Sexual Differences

Strength Innate Sexuality

- Justified their exploitation - Justified their exploitation

as labourers as sexual objects

- Denied black women’s - Marked them as traitors to

beauty and femininity black men

Constructions of Black Women in

Slavery
1. Report argues that black families in the US are
matriarchal based on high rates of male desertion,
illegitimate births and female-headed households;

2. Matriarchy “seriously retards the progress of

blacks” because “it is so out of line with the rest of
American society.”

3. Even though black women are the most

economically powerless in US society, they are a
culturally dominant force that hinders the progress
of black men.

Moynihan Report
 “That’s why, all way down through
history, he has propped her up
economically above you and me, to
strengthen her hand against us.”

Eldridge Cleaver
 Black Female Body in
“The Hottentot Venus” Pop Culture

Saartjie Baartman and the

Sexualization of the Black Female Body
 “As a group, black women are in an unusual place
in this society, for not only are we collectively at
the bottom of the occupational ladder, but our
overall social status is lower than that of any
other group. Occupying such a position, we bear
the brunt of sexist, racist, and classist
oppression. At the same time, we are the group
that has not been socialized to assume the role
of exploiter/oppressor in that we are allowed no
institutionalized “other” that we can exploit or
oppress” (Black Women 144)

bell hooks
1. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for
black women in the U.S.
2. In 2005, AIDS diagnoses for black women was nearly 23
times the rate for white women. (The rate of AIDS diagnoses
for black men was 8 times the rate for white men)
3. African-American women have an 85% higher rate
of ambulatory medical care visits for high blood pressure
than Caucasian women.
4. African-American women have the highest death rate from
breast cancer and are more likely to be diagnosed with a
later stage of breast cancer than white women.

Black Women’s Health