Ain't I a Woman

by bell hooks

  In white society, respect is to a large degree institutionalized. You must respect a man because he is a judge or a professor or a corporate executive. In the ghetto without the institutionalization of respect, a man must earn respect by his own personal qualities, including the ability to defend himself physically.

  It is true that white men have institutionalized respect, but their success as men in power is measured by their ability to use technological force to do violence to others, or their ability to exploit others for capitalist ends. So in that sense, their way of acquiring respect for their masculine status is not that different from that of black men. While white men demonstrate their “masculine power” by organizing and implementing the slaughter of Japanese people or Vietnamese people, black men kill

  one another, or black women. One of the leading causes of death among young black men is black-on-black homicide. Black psychiatrist Alvin Pouissant argues that these black men are “victims of their own self-hatred.” While insecure feelings about their selfhood may motivate black men to commit violent acts, in a culture that condones violence in men as a positive expression of masculinity, the ability to use force against another person—i.e., oppress them—may be less an expression of self-hatred than a rewarding, fulfilling act.

  In many black communities, young men coming of age feel that they must show their male peers that they are fearless— that they are not afraid of violent acts. Carrying a gun and being prepared to use it are the ways they publicly assert their “masculine” strength. In an imperialist racist patriarchal society that supports and condones oppression, it is not surprising that men and women judge their worth, their personal power, by their ability to oppress others. Recently, a white male journalist for a leading California newspaper reported with shock and outrage that black youths in Cleveland cheered when the slain body of an FBI agent who was murdered by a young black male was brought from a tenement building. Yet in a culture where the cult of violence dominates media (television, films, comic books), it is perfectly understandable that young men and women glorify violence. And in the case of young black males who learn from this same media that they are the automatic targets for white male aggression, it is not surprising that they should feel satisfaction when they see a symbol of white law enforcement murdered by a peer. After all, sexist socialization has been encouraging them all their lives to feel they are “unmanned” if they cannot commit violent acts.

  It is often forgotten that the very same Moynihan report that promoted the idea that black men had been “unmanned” by black women urged black men to enter military service. Moynihan called war an “utterly masculine world,” and it was in this world of killing that he imagined black men would develop personal confidence and pride. Like other white male patriarchs he endorsed violence as a positive expression of male strength. He argued:

  Given the strains of the disorganized and matrifocal family life in which so many Negro youths come of age, the armed forces are a dramatic and desperately needed change: a world away from woman, a world run by strong men of unquestioned authority.

  Sexism fosters, condones, and supports male violence against women, as well as encouraging violence between males. In patriarchal society, men are encouraged to channel frustrated aggression in the direction of those without power—women and children. And white men and black men alike abuse women. While the interests of this book motivate me to be more concerned with black male misogyny, I do not intend to imply that black males epitomize sexist oppression in our society. There has always been greater emphasis on the violent acts of black men in American society, as it diverts attention away from white male violence. Male violence against women has increased in America in the last twenty years. Anti-feminists argue that changing sex role patterns have threatened males so that they are demonstrating their anger by domestic brutality. As supporters of male dominance they assert that violent acts against women will continue until society returns to the good old-fashioned days of sharply delineated sex roles.

  While feminist supporters like to think that feminism has been the motivating force behind changes in woman’s role, in actuality changes in the American capitalist economy have had the greatest impact on the status of women. More women than ever before are in America’s work force not because of feminism but because families can no longer rely on the income of the father. Feminism has been used as a psychological tool to make women think that work they might otherwise see as boring, tedious, and time consuming is liberating. For whether feminism exists or not, women must work. Overt misogynist attacks on women occured long before the feminist movement, and most women who bear the brunt of male aggression and brutality today are not feminists. Much of the violence against women in this culture is promoted by the capitalist patriarchy that encourages men to see themselves as privileged while daily stripping them of their humanity in de-humanizing work, and as a consequence men use violence against women to restore their lost sense of power and masculinity. Media brainwashing encourages men to use violence as a way to subjugate women. In effect, modern patriarchy restructured to meet the needs of advanced capitalism eradicated earlier romanticized versions of the male hero role as a strong knight, protecting and providing for the damsel in distress, and replaced it by worship of the rapist, the macho man, the brute who uses force to get his demands met.

  In the 60s, black men disassociated themselves from chivalrous codes of manhood that at one time taught males to

  deplore the use of violence against women, and idolized those men who exploited and brutalized women. Amiri Baraka dramatized his acceptance of violence as a way to subjugate women in his play Madheart. In a scene where a black woman is urging the black man to leave white women alone and come to her, the black male “hero” of the play demonstrates his power to use force to subdue her:

  BLACK MAN: I’ll get you back. If I need to.

  WOMAN (laughs): You need to, baby... just look around you. You better get me back, if you know what’s good for you... you better.

  BLACK MAN (looking around at her squarely, he advances): I better?... (a soft laugh) Yes. Now is where we always are... that now... (he wheels and suddenly slaps her crosswise, back and forth across the face.)

  WOMAN: Wha??? What... oh love... please... don’t hit me. (he hits her, slaps her again.)

  BLACK MAN: I want you woman, as a woman. Go down. (He slaps her again) Go down, submit, submit... to love... and to man, now forever.

  WOMAN (weeping, turning her head from side to side): Please don’t hit me. please... (She bends.) The years are so long, without you, man, I’ve waited... waited for you...

  BLACK MAN: And I’ve waited.

  WOMAN: I’ve seen you humbled, black man, seen you crawl for dogs and devils.

  BLACK MAN: And I’ve seen you raped by savages and beasts, and bear bleach-shit children of apes.

  WOMAN: You permitted it... you could... do nothing.

  BLACK MAN: But now I can (he slaps her. drags her to him, kissing her deeply on the lips.) That shit is ended, woman, you with me, and the world is mine.

  Baraka did not celebrate this male violence against women in isolation. His plays were performed before audiences of women and men who were not shocked, disgusted, and outraged by what they saw. While Baraka in the 60s used drama to act out scenes of male oppression of women, in the 70s a black woman was actually murdered on stage by a black male playwright. Black woman poet Audre Lorde refers to this murder in a short essay, “The Great American Disease” in which she comments on black male woman-hating. She recalls the case of Pat Cowan:

  She was a young black actress in Detroit, 22 years old and a mother. She answered an ad last spring for a black actress to audition in a play called “Hammer.” As she acted out an argument scene, watched by the playwright’s brother and her son, the black male playwright picked up a sledgehammer and bludgeoned her to death from behind.

  Most men in patriarchal society, though fanatically committed to male dominance, like to th
ink that they will not use brutality to oppress women. Yet at very young ages male children are socialized to regard females as their enemy and as a threat to their masculine status and power—a threat, however, they can conquer through violence. As they grow older they learn that aggression toward women lessens their anxiety and fear that their masculine power will be usurped. In his essay on misogyny, Schien concludes:

  We must understand that our anger (and hatred) is something that comes from within us. It is not womans fault. It is the attitude that patriarchal society has encouraged us to feel toward all women. When finally confronted with the reality of feminism, which threatens our power and privileges, our defenses cannot hide our true anger and we turn to incredible violence.

  We have to accept that this anger belongs to us and stems from our hatred of women. I know men say that they really do not hate women, they have just treated them unfairly because of socialization (“Those other men are rapists, not me.”). This can be a cop-out and untruth. All men do hate women, and until we take responsibility for our personal hatred, we will not be able to seriously explore our emotionality nor treat women as equal human beings.

  Black women are one of the most devalued female groups in American society, and thus they have been the recipients of a male abuse and cruelty that has known no bounds or limits. Since the black woman has been stereotyped by both white and black men as the “bad” woman, she has not been able to ally herself with men from either group to get protection from the other. Neither group feels that she deserves protection. A sociological study of low income black male-female relationships showed that most young black men see their female companions solely as objects to be exploited. Most boys in the study referred to black women as “that bitch” or “that whore.” Their perception of the black female as a degraded sexual object is similar to white male perceptions of the black female. Often in black communities the male who overtly reveals his hatred and contempt of women is admired. The contemporary glorification of male violence against women has caused the pimp, once a despised figure in communities, to be elevated to the status of hero. The pimp’s misogynist treatment of women was romanticized in movies like Sweet Sweetback or Cool Worlds and in books like Iceberg Slim that glorified his exploits. Much of Malcolm X’s very fine autobiography is devoted to a re-telling of his days as a pimp. He tells readers that he felt comfortable in the role of pimp because he saw women as the enemies of masculinity who must be triumphed over through exploitation. While he repudiated the role of pimp after he became a Muslim, it is presented simply as a distorted expression of his quest for “manhood.”

  In 1972 Christina and Richard Milner published a book entitled Black Players in which they romanticize and glorify the lives of pimps. One section of the book is called “Male Dominance—Men Have to Control” which emphasizes to the reader that the pimp impresses others by his subjugation of the female. The Milners contend:

  First and foremost, the pimp must be in complete control of his women; this control is made conspicuous to others by a series of little rituals which express symbolically his woman’s attitude. When in the company of others she must take special pains to treat him with absolute deference and respect. She must light his cigarettes, respond to his every whim immediately and never, never, contradict him. In fact, a ho’s strictly not supposed to speak in the company of pimps unless spoken to.

  The role pimps expected women to play is merely an imitation of the role patriarchs expect their wives and daughters to play. The passive subordinate demeanor expected of the prostitute is not unlike that demanded of all women in patriarchal society.

  Black men who joined the Black Muslim groups in the sixties and seventies were committed to sexist role patterns. In his first-hand report of the Black Muslim movement Black Nationalism, published in 1962, E.U. Essien-Udom noted that the black men who joined the Muslims were those who accepted the “feminine ideal” as woman’s natural role. Essien-Udom observed:

  Muslim women appear to accept their men as ‘first among equals,’ and in theory, at least, regard the man as the breadwinner and the head of the family. The Muslim women address the men as ‘sir.’ Wives address husbands similarly.

  It was understood in the Muslim love relationship that the woman would defer to the man on all occasions. Many black women were eager to join the Muslims because they wanted black men to act in a dominant role. Like other black liberation groups, the Black Muslims glorified manhood and at the same time relegated women to the status of a subordinate.

  Malcolm X was the Black Muslim leader that many people saw as an exemplary figure of black manhood, but it is impossible to read his autobiography without becoming aware of the hatred and contempt he felt toward women for much of his life. Toward the middle of the book Malcolm writes of the black woman he has married:

  I guess by now I will say I love Betty. She’s the only woman I ever even thought about loving. And she’s one of the very few—four women—whom I have ever trusted. The thing is, Betty’s a good Muslim woman and wife...

  Betty... understands me. I would even say I don’t imagine many other women might put up with the way I am. Awakening this brainwashed black man and telling this arrogant, devilish white man the truth about himself, Betty understands, is a full-time job. If I have work to do when I am home, the little time I am at home, she lets me have the quiet I need to work in. I’m rarely at home more than half of any week; I have been away as much as five months. I never get much chance to take her anywhere and I know she likes being with her husband. She is used to my calling her from airports anywhere from Boston to San Francisco, or Miami to Seattle, or, here lately, cabling her from Cairo, Accra, or the Holy City of Mecca.

  While Malcolm extolled the virtues of his wife, his general attitude toward women was extremely negative.

  An important aspect of the Black Muslim movement for many of its members was its puritanical emphasis on purifying and cleansing black people, in particular black women, of their unclean sexuality. In American patriarchy, all women are believed to embody sexual evil. Sexual racism has caused black women to bear the brunt of society’s need to degrade and devalue women. While white women have been placed on a symbolic pedestal, black women are seen as fallen women. In the black community the fair-skinned black woman who most nearly resembled white women was seen as the “lady” and placed on a pedestal while darker-skinned black women were seen as bitches and whores. Black men have shown the same obsessive lust and contempt for female sexuality that is encouraged throughout our society. Because they, like white men, see black women as inherently more sexual and morally depraved than other groups of women, they have felt the greatest contempt toward her. Within the Muslim movement, the black man who had once looked upon black women as devalued property could suddenly see her as elevated to the status of respected wife and mother, that is, after she wrapped her head in cloth and covered her body in long skirts and dresses.

  Essein-Udom reported that most black women were motivated to join the Muslim movement by the promise that they would be respected by black men. He calls this section “The Negro Women: Journey from Shame” and comments:

  One of the principal motives which lead Negro women to join the Nation is their desire to escape from their position as women in Negro subculture... Womanly virtues are respected in the Nation. The Muslim male’s attitude toward, and treatment of, Negro women contrasts sharply with the disrespect and indifference with which lower-class Negroes treat them. Muhammad’s semireligious demand that his followers must respect the black woman has an appeal for black women seeking to escape from their lowly and humiliating position in Negro society and from the predatory sex ethos of the lower-class. A refuge from these abuses is found in the Nation of Islam, and freedom from sex exploitation. It is a journey from shame to dignity.

  Black women entering the Nation of Islam were treated with greater respect than they were accustomed to prior to their conversion, but this better treatment did not happen because Mus
lim black men had changed their basic negative attitudes toward women. It happened because their male leader Elijah Muhammad decided that it would be in the movement’s interest to develop a strong patriarchal base in which women were given protection and consideration in exchange for submission. In many cases, Black Muslim men, who treated black women within the movement with respect, continued to abuse and exploit non-Muslim women. Like white men, their labeling of one group of women as “good” necessitated the labeling of another group as “bad.” The black male’s move to idealize black womanhood was not unlike white male idealization of white women during the 19th century. Whereas white men elevated white female status by labeling black women sluts and whores, 20th century black Muslim men elevated black females by labeling white women she-devils and whores. In both cases neither group of men could surrender their belief that women are inherently evil. They maintained their contemptuous attitudes toward women but simply channeled them in a specific direction.

  A number of non-Muslim black men who regarded black women as devalued property sought white female companions. Black men’s idealization of white womanhood is as rooted in sexist woman-hating as is their devaluation of black womanhood. In both cases, women are still being reduced to the level of objects. The idealized woman becomes property, symbol, and ornament; she is stripped of her essential human qualities. The

  devalued woman becomes a different kind of object; she is the spittoon in which men release their negative anti-woman feelings. Those black men who believe deeply in the American dream, which is in essence a masculine dream of dominance and success at the expense of others, are most likely to express negative feelings about black women and positive feelings about white women. It is not surprising that the black male who finds self-affirmation on the terms set forth by white men would desire a white woman. Because he is living every moment of his life in competition with white men, he must also compete for the woman the white male has decided best represents “Miss America.”