Body (Im)Potent Culture, Capitalism, and the Afrodescendant’S Fight for Her Body
BODY (IM)POTENT CULTURE, CAPITALISM, AND THE AFRODESCENDANT’S FIGHT FOR HER BODY by Caril Sebastian A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Graduate Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto © Copyright by Caril Sebastian 2014 BODY (IM)POTENT CULTURE, CAPITALISM, AND THE AFRODESCENDANT’S FIGHT FOR HER BODY Master of Arts 2014 Caril Sebastian Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education University of Toronto Abstract In 2000, the United Nations emphasized a number of Millennium Development Goals, to include, ‘Promot[ing] gender equality and empower[ing] women.’ For women of African heritage residing in the region of Latin America and the Caribbean the promise of equity is belied by socio-political realities which propagate the marginalizing of Black women. ‘Body (Im)potent: Culture, Capitalism, and the Afrodescendant’s Fight for Her Body,’ considers the extent to which the trans-Atlantic slave trade located the Black woman’s body as a unit of work. Further, this thesis explores the ongoing disparities between the Black woman’s view of her own body, and pervading discourses which define that body according to the needs of a dominant class—a Marxist perspective which posits that the potential of human self-actualization is often sacrificed on the altar of capital. ‘Body (Im)potent’ highlights that the promise of empowerment and equality must also be considered from the standpoint of those unique West African-inspired cultural movements which informed Black resistance, and which continue to influence the self- image of the region’s Afrodescendants, maintaining a womanist view of the Black woman as a socio-political (and physical) agent.
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