Biomythographies: The Watermelon Woman By Audre Lorde

Alicia Serrano Professor Ellison GWS 210G 17 April, 2024 Biomythographies as a Mode of Expressing Queer Narratives Art, films, and all forms of creative media are ever changing yet permanently contain the ability to share stories, emotions, and personal opinions in a variety of ways. Many queer artists and filmmakers exemplify this quality within media by using narratives to draw a connection between the personal and the political. One example of how this can be achieved is the use of biomythography, a concept created by the poet and essayist Audre Lorde detailing a combination of history and fiction while also incorporating a biography into a specific work. An excellent example of biomythographies and how they can be used as a method of sharing

Cheryl states, “I’m gonna find out what her real name is, who she was and is, everything I can find out about her. Because, something in her face.. Something in the way she looks and moves is interesting, and I’m gonna just tell you all about her” (Dunye 00:07:04). By incorporating Cheryl’s research and providing the narrative of Fae Richards within the film, Dunye reminds the audience that “The Watermelon Woman” was a person with a developed life, allowing for a deeper understanding of what it means to be removed from history and emphasizing the depth of these experiences. This is an example of one of the ways biomythography possesses the ability to share queer and trans narratives in new ways. Further into the film, Cheryl endlessly searches library databases and a lesbian research archive hoping to find organized information on queer women of color in the 1930’s. Instead, she is met with a series of unorganized files and a failure to carefully document any information on the lives and histories of black

someday we’re gonna have a great system where people are gonna donate materials and then they’re gonna be logged, they’re gonna be categories, they’re gonna be sorted, they’re gonna be stored, right now they’re just in boxes” (00:58:26). This visual on how difficult it is for queer women of color to find any information on their history emphasizes the importance of Dunye’s film and why there is a need to share the narratives on queer women of color. By incorporating these scenes into the narratives of each character, Dunye directly emphasizes the specific ways women of color are erased from history and allows for her personal and political narratives to be understood more accurately. It is my belief that this impact could not have been achieved without the use of biomythography. Dunye continues to expand on the ways intersectionality influences queer women of color as she utilizes the narratives of Fae Richards and Cheryl to display her experiences and the experiences many black lesbians face of being reduced to a single simple