Elizabeth V. Spelman - ‘Gender and Race: The Ampersand Problem in Feminist Thought’

Before I answer this assignment’s questions, I feel the need to bring up the fact that while reading this piece, my mind kept going back to Betty Friedan’s influential book ‘The Feminine Mystique.’ In it, she explores the role of housewife while bringing to light the lack of fulfillment that many of these women were feeling, which was usually kept hidden. While this book was groundbreaking for its time and is credited for once again igniting the women’s movement, Friedan only wrote of white, middle-class, heterosexual, educated women. I have to wonder what Spelman’s opinion of Friedan’s findings would be.

Limiting my focus on racial stereotypes, there are indeed a lot of them. One in particular that has been floating around in society points to black women being loud and violent. This stereotype partially coincides with the classic Mammy archetype, which is a caricature that portrays an overweight and loud black servant reminiscent of Aunt Jemima. The primary difference between these 2 stereotypes lies in the fact that the Mammy is generally good-natured, whereas the negative depiction of the modern black woman is vulgar and brutal.
I read a very interesting article discussing the book ‘The Black Image in the White Mind.’ The following statistics are brought to light:

*Black female movie characters shown using profanity: 89%
*White female movie characters shown using vulgar profanity: 17%
*Black female movie characters shown being physically violent: 56%
*White female movie characters shown being physically violent: 11%
*Black female movie characters shown being restrained: 55%
*White female movie characters shown being restrained: 6%
These numbers, while 13 years old, seem to support the idea that this stereotype is alive and well is the US.

I do believe that despite our differences, women today can find enough common experiences to fuel an anti-sexist, feminist movement. However, this can only happen when we are ready to acknowledge what Spelman says to be true. The experiences of one woman may differ greatly from the experiences of another, and we have to be willing to humble ourselves to the position of sitting quietly and listening while one woman tells us of the struggle she’s endured due to both her gender and her economic background/ level of education/race/sexual orientation/physical abilities/age/etc.

‘The Black Image in the White Mind’ statistics taken from: http://racerelations.about.com/od/stereotypesmentalmodels/a/blackimage.htm