nobody that i know of, with the exception of the ladies at crunk feminist collective, has mentioned that queer (by queer i mean lesbians, bisexual, pan/omnisexual, trans, intersex) self-identified black women aren’t considered in this conversation. again: we are not a monolith. you can’t have this conversation without considering the fact that the women being discussed are hetero, cisgender (not trans women — trans ppl are invisible in virtually every conversation about marriage, and just about everything else), & at the very least hold bachelor’s degrees. because ppl who don’t finish college don’t matter in this conversation, no matter what they’re doing w/ themselves, unless it’s to count them as undesirables. further, who’s to say that marriage is everyone’s goal or ideal? it could be argued that “we aren’t talking about those people,” but if that’s the case then it must be stated so from the onset of each conversation regarding unmarried black women of certain income levels and sexual orientations. period. know your audience.
...and that's just the third paragraph.
read on, beloveds!.
2 comments:
sparkle is speaking the truth. i think it also speaks to the fact that they (mainstream media) are approaching this from a marketing perspective too...they are aiming to reach the college-educated, heterosexual community because that's who they think has the money to spend on the books, classes and other bullshit that this whole movement is ultimately trying to sell. i feel like that's who they assume has money and purchasing power. and over-consumption is often based on low self-esteem which they are fostering with all of this "black love crisis" content. look at all of the commercials now geared toward black women. See McDonalds, Zales, cleaning products companies, all those massive corporations. But it's only black families like the Obamas that now register to the mainstream media OR this single hetero women demographic. I'd be curious to see what commercials aired and ran during Nightline and these other discussions.
wow...thanks for that perspective. it certainly makes sense.
often i forget that "they" (i.e., mainstream media, etc) only become "concerned" when there's a demographic involved...and how that can wind up tying into a "sale", etc.
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