Josephine Baker
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Women in the 20th Century Josephine Baker 1 By Alexa Brews 1 Interpress, Joséphine Baker débarque à Paris dans les années folles, in , , 1925, <https://www.sudouest.fr/2015/04/12/en-images-il-y-a-40-ans-disparaissait-josephine-baker-1888885- 5138.php> [accessed 27 April 2020]. Table of Contents Josephine Baker 3 Paris 7 Return to America 15 The War 19 A New Josephine 22 The Rainbow Tribe 29 Final Years 34 Legacy 40 2 Josephine Baker What it means to be a “woman” has a very different understanding to what it has in the past, and undoubtedly what it will in the future. The ideas of masculinity and femininity have categorized, shaped and influenced the process of history from as far back as the very first era that historians have studied. During the 20th Century, this role of femininity began to be challenged. Refusing to let her background, gender or “race” define her, this change in society can be shown by perfect example through the life of Josephine Baker, a girl who came from less than nothing, and became the most famous woman in the world. 2 Because her family did not have much money, the amount of Images available of Josephine as a child are very limited. This rare portrait of her as a baby is one of the only images of her as a baby that were ever made available to the public. Freda Josephine McDonald was born in St. Louis in 19063. Unlike the joys of early upbringing that are usually associated with childhood, Baker’s life as a child was far from easy. The system of ‘Jim Crow Laws’ dominated the lives of African-American people, resulting in Baker being brought up in a deeply segregated society where violence and white supremacy were enshrined4. Having been abandoned by her 2 Unknown, Josephine Baker as a baby, in , , 1906, <https://medium.com/@joshuashawnmichaelhehe/the-herstory-of-josephine-baker-17532f7cb673> [accessed 27 April 2020]. 3 "Josephine Baker". in , , 2020, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephine_Baker> [accessed 25 April 2020]. 4 JosephineBakerTube, Joséphine Baker: The 1st Black Superstar, in , , 2011, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggb_wGTvZoU> [accessed 25 April 2020]. 3 father, and her mother, Carrie, earning very little income, she was forced to leave school very early on into her education5. At just eight years old, Baker began working for white families as a live-in maid, where she was often subject to abuse and torment for discretions as little as using too much soap in the laundry6. After having run away from home at age thirteen, she found work as a waitress at the ‘Old Chauffeur's Club’, where she met her first husband Willie Wells, whom she divorced just weeks later7. Growing up in a society that taught her that the mere colour of her skin prohibited her from ever amounting to anything, Baker found salvation in the passion that would one day save her life: dance. Street-corner dancing became her new means for survival. Working with a performance group known as the ‘Jones Family Band’, Baker used her high energy and high spirit to set her apart from the other dancers, and was able to conquer the grueling black Vaudeville Circuit8. But, despite her new-found success, Baker’s unhealthy relationship with her mother continued to hold her back. Constant reprimanding from her mother over her choice to be a dancer, as well as criticism to adopt a more “wifely” role from her second husband Willie Baker, still confronted her9 . However, the flame of her opportunistic and determined nature refused to be extinguished. In 1923, with her new performance group, the “Dixie Steppers”, Baker was able to dance her way out of St. Louis and into New York10. A creative revolution was breaking out across the city, and in the eruption of newfound black talent and ambition that would later be defined as the Harlem Renaissance, she was determined to make her mark. 5 "Josephine Baker", in Biography, , 2020, <https://www.biography.com/performer/josephine-baker> [accessed 23 April 2020]. 6 "Josephine Baker", in En.wikipedia.org, , 2020, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephine_Baker> [accessed 25 April 2020]. 7 "Josephine Baker | French entertainer". in , , 2020, <https://www.britannica.com/biography/Josephine-Baker> [accessed 23 April 2020]. 8 JosephineBakerTube, Joséphine Baker: The 1st Black Superstar, in , , 2011, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggb_wGTvZoU> [accessed 25 April 2020]. 9 Josephine Baker | French entertainer", in Encyclopedia Britannica, , 2020, <https://www.britannica.com/biography/Josephine-Baker> [accessed 23 April 2020]. 10 A Cheng, Second skin, in , 1st ed., Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2011. 4 11 Baker as a teenager in New York in 1923, before she had adopted her signature, smoothed down hairstyle. However, leaving behind her old life in St. Louis did not mean leaving behind the hardships imposed on her. Despite New York’s comparatively modern views on racial impositions and discrimation, the lives of black performers were still ruled by the laws of a white-dominated society. At the time, if black performers wanted to play in mixed theatres, they were made to “black up”, a term used to describe the forced use of black-face so that the audience assumed that they were simply white actors taking on a black role. Paradoxically, these black performers were also told on occasion that they needed to “lighten up”12. These conditions made the fact that Baker, at such a young age, with little experience or training, being able to surpass this even more remarkable. Baker was not seen to be particularly attractive. She was smaller and darker than the rest of the other chorus girls, making it almost impossible for her to fit into the role of looking “white”13. Multiple circumstances, from her disadvantaged background, even to her seemingly non-ideal body type, should typically have resulted in a very average career. However, Baker broke these odds. She did not gain her success by relying on the crutch of beauty or sexuality- she earned it. 11 Unknown, Teenage Josephine, in , , 1923, <https://medium.com/@joshuashawnmichaelhehe/the-herstory-of-josephine-baker-17532f7cb673> [accessed 27 April 2020]. 12 JosephineBakerTube, Joséphine Baker: The 1st Black Superstar, in , , 2011, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggb_wGTvZoU> [accessed 25 April 2020]. 13 B Jules-Rosette, Josephine Baker in art and life, in , 1st ed., Urbana, IL, University of Illinois Press, 2007. 5 Baker committed entirely to every role given to her, despite their at times, demoralising or ridiculing connotations. Having been labeled as the dedicated “comedy chorus girl” of the group, she was given the job of amusing the white audience before her14. She was purposefully out of step with the rest of the dancers, made silly faces, and outrageously hyperbolic gestures15. In a sense, one could view her acceptance of this rather degrading role as a kind of compliance. It is, however, critical to remember that as a black, female performer, this level of compliance was a way of survival. Although it may have been comparatively progressive, 1920s New York still operated under a white, male-dominated society, and - for the time being- she was still a very small piece of a much larger struggle. After years with the show, Baker began to have her own individual billing16. In reviews, critics pointed her out commenting that “whoever she is, this is the woman whose legs have no bones.”17 She transformed her career from being “that one chorus girl”, to being the highest paid chorus girl in the world18. Yet, regardless of the attention that she was starting to receive, Baker was still living in a country which discriminated against her, and knew that despite her success that she had progressed as far as a black woman could in America. Because of this, when Baker was offered the opportunity to join an all-black revue show, La Revue Nègre, opening in Paris, she jumped at the chance. Thus, at just 19 years old, her journey to Europe began19. “A frightened girl, who had left St. Louis, to come to Europe to find freedom.” - Josephine Baker20 14 "Josephine Baker", in Biography, , 2020, <https://www.biography.com/performer/josephine-baker> [accessed 23 April 2020]. 15 JosephineBakerTube, Joséphine Baker: The 1st Black Superstar, in , , 2011, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggb_wGTvZoU> [accessed 25 April 2020]. 16 A R. Norwood, "Josephine Baker", in National Women's History Museum, , 2020, <https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/josephine-baker> [accessed 23 April 2020]. 17 JosephineBakerTube, Joséphine Baker: The 1st Black Superstar, in , , 2011, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggb_wGTvZoU> [accessed 25 April 2020]. 18 A Gueye, "JOSEPHINE BAKER: QUEER, RADICAL, ARTIST & ACTIVIST | AFROPUNK", in AFROPUNK, , 2020, <https://afropunk.com/2019/06/josephine-baker/> [accessed 23 April 2020]. 19 "The enigmatic Josephine Baker - interview: archive, 26 August 1974", in the Guardian, , 2020, <https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/aug/26/josephine-baker-interview-1974> [accessed 23 April 2020]. 20 JosephineBakerTube, Joséphine Baker: The 1st Black Superstar, in , , 2011, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggb_wGTvZoU> [accessed 25 April 2020]. 6 Paris La Revue Nègre turned 1925 Paris on its head. Baker arrived in a completely different society to what she had come from. Here, in Paris, as opposed to being persecuted for the color of her skin, she was celebrated for it. She, along with the other African-American performers whom she had traveled with, were able to stay in a normal hotel, go to any restaurant that they wanted and exist in society as could anyone else21. There were no ‘Jim Crow Laws’ to dictate their existence and rather than being prejudiced, they were seen as exotic and beautiful.