Georgia Southern University Digital Commons@Georgia Southern Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate Studies, Jack N. Averitt College of Spring 2018 I, Too, Am a Woman: an Emancipatory Text on the Intersections of Race, Gender, and Sexuality Michelle M. Allen Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd Part of the Adult and Continuing Education Commons, Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons, Curriculum and Social Inquiry Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, Gender Equity in Education Commons, Inequality and Stratification Commons, Liberal Studies Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Allen, Michelle M., "I, Too, Am a Woman: an Emancipatory Text on the Intersections of Race, Gender, and Sexuality" (2018). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1764. https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/1764 This dissertation (open access) is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies, Jack N. Averitt College of at Digital Commons@Georgia Southern. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons@Georgia Southern. For more information, please contact [email protected]. I, TOO, AM A WOMAN: AN EMANCIPATORY TEXT ON THE INTERSECTIONS OF RACE, GENDER, AND SEXUALITY by MICHELLE ALLEN (Under the Direction of Sabrina Ross) ABSTRACT This inquiry builds upon Black Feminism and Critical Race Feminist frameworks by exploring the juxtaposition between Black Women and Queer Black Women. It is also an exploration of the similarities between Queer Black Women and Black Women and how they interact with femininity and masculinity, patriarchy, and heteronormativity. Claiming digital space through podcasting, it honors the power of counter narratives by employing autoethnographical story telling. It examines the multivalent ways in which critical geographies, safe spaces, and homeplaces nurture or alienate Black Women on the basis of sexual orientation, gender performance, race, and social class. Employing tenets of Black Feminist Thought, Critical Race Feminism, Black Queer Studies, and Black Cultural Studies this work reveals that the gap between margins of Queer Black Womanhood and Black Womanhood is a critical geography ripe with the fertile soil necessary to nourish a reimagined Black Feminist Agenda that is complex, progressive, and inclusive. INDEX WORDS: Black feminist thought, Critical race feminism, Critical geography, Black queer studies, Cultural studies, Podcasts, Autoethnography I, TOO, AM A WOMAN: AN EMANCIPATORY TEXT ON THE INTERSECTIONS OF RACE, GENDER, AND SEXUALITY by MICHELLE M. ALLEN BBA, Savannah State University, 2008 M.Ed., Georgia Southern University, 2013 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Georgia Southern University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF EDUCATION STATESBORO, GEORGIA © 2018 MICHELLE ALLEN All Rights Reserved 1 I, TOO, AM A WOMAN: AN EMANCIPATORY TEXT ON THE INTERSECTIONS OF RACE, GENDER, AND SEXUALITY by MICHELLE ALLEN Major Professor: Sabrina Ross Committee: Ming Fang He Dan Chapman Consuela Ward Electronic Version Approved: May 2016 2 DEDICATION This work is dedicated primarily to my favorite little person, Jordyn Faith Allen. She is the embodiment of Black Girl joy, Black Girl magic, and Black Girl beauty. For me, she represents future of Black Womanhood. If this dissertation is half as magic is she is, then it will heal oppressive wounds, grant marginalized folks true and complete freedom, and amplify the voices of LGBTQIA communities, Black Communities, and racial and ethnic minority Women. It is also dedicated to my late grandmother, Georgia Mae Allen. Her undying love and support is the driving force behind the woman I am today. “Hey granny, you stopped school at 4th grade to tend the fields with your daddy, but your grandbaby is a Doctor.” 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS “Whenever I am asked to teach, speak, direct a movie…I bring everyone who has ever been kind to me with me. Black, white, Asian, Spanish speaking, Native American, Gay, straight, everybody. I say, ‘Come with me. I’m going on the stage. Come with me, I need you now.” Long dead. You see? So, I don’t ever feel I have no help. I’ve had RAINBOWS in my clouds.’”-Maya Angelou Thank you to all of my rainbows: Family, Friends, Linesisters, Sorors, Soul Ties, Colleagues, and Mentors…I sincerely thank you. To my committee: Thank you all for your time, patience, diligence, wisdom, and your vast and varied knowledges. To every Black Woman Doctor in every field of endeavor, thank you. Your presence, scholarship, and resistance against hegemony expanded the realms of possibility for me and my place in this world. “We are here because we are your daughters as surely as if you had conceived us, nurtured us, carried us in your wombs, and then sent us out into the world to make our mark and see what we see, and be what we be, but better, truer, deeper because of the shining example of your own incandescent lives.”-Pearl Cleage 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 3 CHAPTER ......................................................................................................................... 6 1 THE PREAMBLE: INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND .................................... 6 Personal and Social Relevance ............................................................................................ 6 Writing Context ................................................................................................................... 8 Research Context .............................................................................................................. 10 Theoretical Framework ..................................................................................................... 16 Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 17 Blogs, Vlogs, and Podcasts ............................................................................................... 23 Blogs. ....................................................................................................................... 23 Vlogs. ....................................................................................................................... 25 Podcasts. .................................................................................................................. 27 The Implementation and Analysis ............................................................................................ 31 Literature Review ...................................................................................................................... 32 Black Feminist Thought............................................................................................ 33 Critical Race Feminism and Intersectionality. .......................................................... 41 Black Sexual Politics and Black Queer Studies. ....................................................... 57 2 PRISONER IN MY OWN HOME: An Exploration of Homeplace and Belonging for Black Women and Queer Black Women .......................................................................... 61 Analysis ............................................................................................................................. 66 Homeplace ........................................................................................................................ 68 Sororities ........................................................................................................................... 69 Black Family ..................................................................................................................... 71 Black Church ..................................................................................................................... 74 3 BDSM: BI’S, DOM’S, STUDS, AND MARGINS: Black Women Sexualities ........... 78 Analysis ............................................................................................................................. 92 Bartering Sexuality for tact ............................................................................................... 94 The Queering of Black Female Sexuality ......................................................................... 99 4 “STRAIGHT” JACKETS AND WHITE ROOMS: Queering Gender and the Black Female Form ................................................................................................................... 106 Analysis ........................................................................................................................... 108 Gender Performativity ..................................................................................................... 109 Unwanted Roles and Stale Scripts .................................................................................. 113 Queering Womanhood .................................................................................................... 117 Regulatory Queerness ..................................................................................................... 118 Relationships ................................................................................................................... 120 Hetero-Femininity