Black Mens Studies. Serie McDougal III
Читать онлайн книгу.
standing up for their principles and respect, and engaging in continuous self-improvement, being independent and self-governing (Chaney, 2009; Hammond & Mattis, 2005; Hunter & Davis, 1992; Wade, 1996; Wood & Hilton, 2013). This sense of assertiveness is sometimes associate with leadership, advocating for their communities and demonstrating or modeling behavior for others (Hammond & Mattis, 2005). It may also involve possessing the ability to overcome hardship, and surviving and thriving despite obstacles (Hammond & Mattis, 2005).
• Spirituality: Black men have been found to associate manhood with being spiritual/religious, having faith and hope, having a relationship with God, and/or allowing their faith to guide their thoughts and actions (Chaney, 2009; Hunter & Davis, 1992).
When Black men are afforded the opportunities to explain their conceptions of manhood with their own voices, the results are much fuller than the pathological models so often used in gender scholarship. Euro-American masculinity is defined in ways predicated on the denial of manhood to Black males (Akbar, 1991; Franklin, 1994b). Therefore, Black male assertions of manhood are a declaration of war in a society shaped by White definitions of manhood (Akbar, 1991). For example, Rosette and Livingston (2012) investigated whether leaders defined as having more than one “subordinate” identity (i.e., Black women) experience more negative perceptions of their leadership than do leaders with “single-subordinate” identities (i.e., Black men and White women). They found that Black women who experienced failure or exhibited poor performance within an organizational setting were evaluated more harshly than Black males or White females. However, Rosette & Livingston also found that Black males who exhibited agentic forms of leadership such as dominance, assertiveness, and courageousness were evaluated more harshly than Black women. Clearly, this data contradicts the notion that Black males are dichotomously privileged by gender and oppressed by race.
Black males’ experience with their gender can only be understood in the context of power. Gender shapes how society is organized along lines of power, social positions, and resources. Gender stratification, or the unequal distribution of power and privilege between men and women, is based on meanings associated with sex or biological divisions. Lemelle (2010) understands gender as a form of ←69 | 70→power and Black masculinity as a specific power negotiation. Lemelle argues that two forms of gendered power strategies have been used by Whites to oppose Black masculinity. During enslavement, Black males were expected to perform hypermasculine gender roles while at the same time be feminized vis-à-vis White males. Western society viewed Black males as both hypermasculine (animalistic/hypersexual) and hyperfeminine (lacking structural power/privilege). Black males were seen as not quite males, having an other kind of gender compared to White males (Lemelle, 2010).
In historical and contemporary America, power and resources have been closely associated with manhood. As Franklin (2004) explains, masculine personal power and self-acceptance are both systematically undermined for Black males. Today and in the past, the ability to earn a living is considered a key feature of manhood among many men and women (Booker, 2000). For Lemelle (2010), contradictory expectations of Black males shape how they are positioned in the social hierarchy of the U.S. In addition to gender stratification, Black male realities must be understood in the context of a gender and race hierarchy, i.e., “a set of rules and interlocking relations that reproduce advantages and disadvantages for racial subjects” (Lemelle, 2010, p. 79).
Patriarchal Hegemony
Patriarchy, like matriarchy, is not inherently oppressive or hegemonic. Patriarchal hegemony is a form of male domination of females in a society’s structural organization. Sexism is the ideology that one sex is naturally superior to another. But patriarchal hegemony and sexism are not mere individual attitudes and beliefs; they are also institutionalized into the daily operation of societies. Hegemonic manhood involves gender-related manhood ideals that support patriarchy, while hegemonic masculinity refers to behaviors and performances that reflect the ideals of patriarchal oppression (Dancy, 2012). Mutua (2006b) explains that hegemonic masculinity is the masculine model society reinforces by privileging and rewarding those who come closest to it and punishing those who stray from it. Important to note, however, is the fact that patriarchal oppression is not the exclusive domain of males, as many females embrace and pass on sexist and patriarchal hegemonic ideals. Both males and females, for example, can participate in punishing young Black males when they fail to assume hegemonic masculine characteristics such as hypermasculinity and hypersexuality. Moreover, Black lesbians who embody masculinity gain access to some levels of male privilege and power despite their marginalized status as gay in a heteronormative culture (Lane-Steele, 2015). For example, masculine-performing Black lesbians sometimes use oppressive patriarchal, misogynistic language to refer to their girlfriends, such as “my bitch” or “my ho,” and act like players or treat their partners as sexual objects (Lane-Steele, 2015). These and other forms of patriarchy are often justified by sexist beliefs. However, masculine lesbians may also suffer from the hostile social climate that exists for Black men in society (Moore, 2006). Due to patriarchy, Black lesbians may also be seen as still female and thus perceived as less threatening than heterosexual or same-gender-loving Black males (Lane-Steele, 2015; Moore, 2006).
Patriarchy, Egalitarianism, and Hegemony in Pre-Colonial African Cultures
Pre-colonial African societies cannot be generalized as patriarchal sites where women were oppressed. But they also were not romantically egalitarian and without inequality. Some scholars present Africa as a harshly patriarchal place where women were exploited by men (Hoppe, 2002). In certain cases, this belief is used to conclude that colonialism was beneficial to women, providing opportunities and liberating them from African men. Khapoya (1998) argues that in most African cultures, men monopolized all instruments of power and had exclusive rights over women. Ahanotu (2000) takes the position that such generalizations reduce African manhood and render invisible African women’s seats of power such as their positions of being queen mothers. Queen mothers were able to exercise political power in many African societies, including the Buganda, Mwenemutapa, Asante, Ankole, Shilluk (and the mother queens of ancient Kush). In other cases, African women assumed political leadership, such as the ←70 | 71→Candaces of Meroe, and those who ruled in the absence of a male heir including Nitokris, Sebeknefru, Hatshepsut, and Tanosre, all Kemetic (Egyptian) Pharaohs (Ahanotu, 2000).
There are many other examples of African female leadership spanning the African continent in varying degrees based on religion, culture, and geography. For example, North African people embraced Islam in different ways ranging from strict orthodoxy (limiting African women’s political autonomy) to forms that heavily incorporated indigenous forms of worship. However, among the Hausa there were strong female political figures such as Queen Amina of Zaria. Traditionally, African women had a strong presence in the marketplace, in the domestic sphere, in agriculture, and as healers (Steady, 1992). Similar to Khapoya (1998), Clarke-Hine and Jenkins (1999) assert that for the most part, all major positions of authority were reserved for and occupied by African men, while the roles that women played in family life, the marketplace, and spirituality were minimal. Some African feminists challenge both the assumption of universal male patriarchy and the dominant frameworks of Western feminism. These see African women as passively oppressed, with male-female relations viewed primarily through the cultural lens of dichotomy, hierarchy, competition, and domination—while ignoring African cultural assumptions such as gender complementarity, spirituality, cooperation, and parallel autonomy (Steady, 1992). Mekgwe (2003) explains that African feminism “takes care to delineate those concerns that are particular to the African situation. It also questions features of traditional African cultures without denigrating them, understanding that these might be viewed differently by the different classes of women” (p. 7). The African feminist perspective critiques White supremacy and African male forms of complicity with oppression which result in the subjugation of African women. However, African feminism approaches the subject in cultural and historical context. Pre-colonial African women’s roles as healers, agricultural workers, and African women’s roles in domestic life have been sites of power and places from which women have negotiated power. Too often, Western feminist frames have presumed these roles out of context as sites of oppression. African people, however, did not construct