SUPERMAMA: BLACK MOTHERHOOD, EMOTION, AND STRESS “People will be people good or bad, and if you say you love them then you have to love them through it all”, says Pearl Brewer eighty year old widow and mother of twelve. By looking at Pearl you can see that she has lived a full yet hard life. She is a mother, a wife, and daughter. She has migrated from rural Oklahoma to the Midwestern factory town of Peoria, Illinois where she has experienced a successful career at one of the town’s most booming factories: Caterpillar. Focusing on Mrs. Brewer was sparked by my interest in her story upon meeting her at a family gathering. She is neighbor and close friend to my grandmother. Full of smiles and stories, we connected over a fondness of soap operas and my fascination with Southern Black and Native American cultures, particularly Black and Native American educators of her time. Purpose of the Study This paper primarily looks to focus on Mrs. Brewer’s private life as a mother and the emotional work she underwent within the home. Additionally, this paper will discuss how the emotional work of Pearl was the cause of the physical wear and tear on her body, or the embodiment of stress. First, I will present a descriptive profile of Pearl Brewer. Next, I will provide a brief methodological section. Then, I will discuss motherhood as a private aspect of life and source of stress for women. In this section, I will discuss how Pearl’s roles as mother, sole breadwinner, and wife combine within this aspect of private life to fit within the stereotypical description of the Strong Black Woman/Superwoman myth, and how, more importantly, emotional work required to uphold the role of superwoman has contributed to the “weathering” of Pearl’s physical b... ... middle of paper ... ...findings from research on the health disparities among Black women. Focusing on factors of the superwoman schema or myth such as the need to help others or ignoring one’s own health may inform our knowledge about Black women’s delay in physical, emotional, and psychological health-seeking behaviors (Woods-Giscombe, 2010). Furthermore, future research might be focused on strategies that can help women combat the superwoman schema in order to better their experiences with and memories of motherhood. Also it is reasonable to suggest that scholars study and compare the experiences of other mothers of color who fit into the superwoman role and those who do not endorse the superwoman schema. This will allow for greater understanding of histories and greater applicability of instruments made to measure or counteract this role of strong Black woman/superwomen.
The black women’s interaction with her oppressive environment during Revolutionary period or the antebellum America was the only way of her survival. Playing her role, and being part of her community that is not always pleasant takes a lot of courage, and optimism for better tomorrow. The autonomy of a slave women still existed even if most of her natural rights were taken. As opposed to her counterparts
No matter what actions or words a mother chooses, to a child his or her mother is on the highest pedestal. A mother is very important to a child because of the nourishing and love the child receives from his or her mother but not every child experiences the mother’s love or even having a mother. Bragg’s mother was something out of the ordinary because of all that she did for her children growing up, but no one is perfect in this world. Bragg’s mother’s flaw was always taking back her drunken husband and thinking that he could have changed since the last time he...
In the article “Wonder Woman” Gloria Steinem expresses that the making of female super-heroes empowers females by reducing the fixed theme of a Caucasian male saving an inferior female. She displays this by showing how inferior women were before in male super-hero comic books, compares what it was like personally reading female super-hero comics to male super-hero comics as a child, the fight with other women to have the original Wonder Woman published in Ms. Magazine and how even males were changed by the making of Wonder Woman.
... mold of a traditional woman throughout her entire life. She set new standards for women regarding relationships. She dared to get divorces, to leave an abusive man, to leave a cheating man, to have a lover, even to marry a much younger man, but more importantly she dared to write about these controversial topics. Readers may get a sense of Granny's bitterness toward men, but they cannot ignore her strength and independence. Porter was a part of the "era of exuberance" because she played her role in the evolution of women. The answer to the question posed at the beginning of this paper is the same question women of the early twentieth century began asking themselves. This question became a choice for them. Porter chose to be strong because of her ability to move on, and by the time she became Granny Weatherall she knew she had achieved what she had set out to do.
On Being Young-A Woman-and Colored an essay by Marita Bonner addresses what it means to be black women in a world of white privilege. Bonner reflects about a time when she was younger, how simple her life was, but as she grows older she is forced to work hard to live a life better than those around her. Ultimately, she is a woman living with the roles that women of all colors have been constrained to. Critics, within the last 20 years, believe that Marita Bonners’ essay primarily focuses on the double consciousness ; while others believe that she is focusing on gender , class , “economic hardships, and discrimination” . I argue that Bonner is writing her essay about the historical context of oppression forcing women into intersectional oppression by explaining the naturality of racial discrimination between black and white, how time and money equate to the American Dream, and lastly how gender discrimination silences women, specifically black women.
In our society of today, there are many images that are portrayed through media and through personal experience that speak to the issues of black motherhood, marriage and the black family. Wherever one turns, there is the image of the black woman in the projects and very rarely the image of successful black women. Even when these positive images are portrayed, it is almost in a manner that speaks to the supposed inferiority of black women. Women, black women in particular, are placed into a society that marginalizes and controls many of the aspects of a black woman’s life. As a result, many black women do not see a source of opportunity, a way to escape the drudgery of their everyday existence. For example, if we were to ask black mother’s if they would change their situation if it became possible for them to do so, many would change, but others would say that it is not possible; This answer would be the result of living in a society that has conditioned black women to accept their lots in lives instead of fighting against the system of white and male dominated supremacy. In Ann Petry’s The Street, we are given a view of a black mother who is struggling to escape what the street symbolizes. In the end though, she becomes captive to the very thing she wishes to escape. Petry presents black motherhood, marriage and the black family as things that are marginalized according to the society in which they take place.
Collins, Patricia Hill. "Mammies, Matriarchs, and Other Controlling Images." Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. New York: Routledge, 2000. 89. Print.
In Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, the author subjects the reader to a dystopian slave narrative based on a true story of a woman’s struggle for self-identity, self-preservation and freedom. This non-fictional personal account chronicles the journey of Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897) life of servitude and degradation in the state of North Carolina to the shackle-free promise land of liberty in the North. The reoccurring theme throughout that I strive to exploit is how the women’s sphere, known as the Cult of True Womanhood (Domesticity), is a corrupt concept that is full of white bias and privilege that has been compromised by the harsh oppression of slavery’s racial barrier. Women and the female race are falling for man’s
From the earlier forms of fetishizing over Saartjie Baartman in Europe, the dehumanization of black women as “mammies,” to Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s controversial Moynihan Report in 1965, African and African American female identity has been under the direct possession of white people. White Americans have continued to define the black female’s position within society by creating her narrative based on inequitable economic and societal conditions as well as gender norms that have outlined what it means to be a “true” black woman. Her behavior and body has been examined [and understood] through her direct contrast to white women, her role in supporting the white race
...could relate to the daily struggles of completing chores to please their husbands and children and understood how Minnie Wright could develop feelings of desolation due to the lack of variety in daily activities. When the men found the unwashed towels by the sink and the burst jars of fruit in the cupboard, they quickly took a tone of disgust and disappointment that Mrs. Wright fell short of her “womanly duty” of picking up daily messes. Women in the early 20th century often were not rewarded for completing difficult tasks amongst the homestead on a daily basis, but could be punished and mistreated for not completing the tasks in a timely manner. Glaspell’s work “offers a sympathetic portrait of an abused wife, a woman who is mistreated economically, psychologically, emotionally, and perhaps physically… [her actions] supporting battered woman syndrome” (Keetley).
Pearl Cleage’s powerful historical play, Flyin’ West, resonates along contemporary lines addressing such themes as economic autonomy in the African American community, spousal abuse, and women controlling their own lives. Faced with the ugly reality of unabating domestic violence, the women of Flyin’ West find solutions and sustenance in their collective strength.( 14 KATHY A.PERKINS AND ROBERTA UNO, Contemporary Plays by
“The image of herself as a college student appealed to her- independent, intelligent, a young woman full of potential- but it was more than that..” (page 1), is the first emotion that I felt connect Brewer and I; both strong for wanting
Set in Depression-era St. Louis, the overbearing Southern ex-charmer, Amanda Wingfield is the de facto head of the household. A former Southern belle, Amanda is a single mother who behaves as though she still is the high school beauty queen. Williams' still-resonant study reveals her desperate struggle with the forces of fate against her dysfunctional relationship that looms and grows among her adult children. (Gist)
As women, those of us who identify as feminists have rebelled against the status quo and redefined what it means to be a strong and powerful woman. But at what cost do these advances come with?... ... middle of paper ... ... Retrieved April 12, 2014, from http://www.feminist.com/resources/artspeech/genwom/whatisfem.htm Bidgood, J. 2014, April 8 -.
These women demonstrate the extent to which black women have the liberty to ascertain their selfhood within the restrictions imposed by a racist and sexist society, and also divulge how these issues influence and shape the lives of black women. In “Source”, the last story of this collection, one character says to another, “your dilemma is obvious”. The scar was seen by her not as an imperfection or flaw, but as a “world”. A new realization dawned on Walker.