Black Performance and Cultural Criticism Valerie Lee and E. Patrick Johnson, Series Editors Stallings_final.indb 1 5/17/2007 5:14:41 PM Stallings_final.indb 2 5/17/2007 5:14:41 PM Mutha ’ is half a word Intersections of Folklore, Vernacular, Myth, and Queerness in Black Female Culture L. H. Stallings The Ohio State University Press Columbus Stallings_final.indb 3 5/17/2007 5:14:42 PM Copyright © 2007 by The Ohio State University. All rights reserved. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Horton-Stallings, LaMonda. Mutha’ is half a word : intersections of folklore, vernacular, myth, and queerness in black female culture / L.H. Stallings. p. cm.—(Black performance and cultural criticism) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-8142-1056-7 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-8142-1056-2 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-0-8142-9135-1 (cd-rom) ISBN-10: 0-8142-9135-X (cd-rom) 1. American literature—African American authors—History and criticism. 2. American literature—women authors—History and criticism. 3. African American women in literature. 4. Lesbianism in literature. 5. Gender identity in literature. 6. African American women— Race identity. 7. African American women—Intellectual life. 8. African American women— Folklore. I. Title. II. Series PS153.N5H68 2007 810.9'353—dc22 2006037239 Cover design by Jennifer Shoffey Forsythe. Cover illustration by Michel Isola from shutterstock.com. Text design and typesetting by Jennifer Shoffey Forsythe in Adobe Garamond. Printed by Thomson-Shore, Inc. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. ANSI Z39.48–1992. 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Stallings_final.indb 4 5/17/2007 5:14:42 PM for VanessaMattieRaMondaLatashaJasmineOctaviaEthelPat VictoriaJudyLizPauletteBridgettAngelaGwenFlorence Stallings_final.indb 5 5/17/2007 5:14:42 PM Stallings_final.indb 6 5/17/2007 5:14:42 PM Contents Acknowledgments ix A Preface on Behalf of Sex Itself (Written by Herself) xii Introduction 1 1. The Black Woman and the Trickster Trope of Unnaming 33 2. The Erotics of a Healing Subjectivity: Sexual Desire, the Spirit, and the Divine Nature of Trickster 82 3. “Mutha’ Is Half a Word!”: Tar Baby Trope and Blue Material in Black Female Comedy 113 4. Badd-Nasty: Tricking the Tropes of the Bad Man/Nigga and Queen B(?) 150 5. The Black and White of Queen B(?)’s Play 184 6. Queen B(?)’s Queering of Neo-Soul Desire 221 7. Representin’ for the Bitches: Queen B(?) in Hip-Hop Culture 256 Conclusion Trickster’s Gift: A Language of Sexual Rights through Polymorphous Erotics and Voluptuous Black Women’s Sexualities 281 Notes 295 Works Cited 311 Index 329 Stallings_final.indb 7 5/17/2007 5:14:43 PM Stallings_final.indb 8 5/17/2007 5:14:43 PM Acknowledgments I’d like to thank my mother-father, Vanessa Horton, for sustaining me from wild child to unnamable being that I am. My accomplishments are a mere fraction of the sacrifices and love given so unconditionally from her. I thank my grandmother Mattie Walker for sticking with me long after she departed this world. I am grateful for the love and support of my two sisters, RaMonda and Latasha. As we grew up, “poor, black, and female” in inner-city Durham, we helped each other redefine that subjectivity so that we could survive and succeed where we were meant not to (in this world). I also appreciate the time I get to spend with my nieces and nephews, Jasmine, R.J., Eli, and Octavia. Together, they continue to remind me of the importance of radical Black female subjectivity for Black women and men of the future. I also acknowl- edge my aunts: Paulette, Liz, Ethel Mae, Pat, Judy, and Victoria. My first examples of radical Black women were you, and each year I realize my good fortune in having been schooled by you. Thank you, Adrienne Israel at Guilford College, for critically and enthu- siastically encouraging me to pursue graduate studies. I give thanks to the Appalachian State University crew (Bruce Dick, Georgia Rhoades, Edelma Huntley, T. J. Arant, and Thomas McLaughlin), who helped lay the founda- tion for my early development as a scholar-teacher. The four years that I spent at Michigan State University provided me with fruitful experiences and valuable friendships. Phyllis Burns, Tammy Wahpeconiah, and Dolores Sisco, thank you for all the laughter, as well as your creative intellect, friendship, and lasting love. Without the rigor- ous guidance of my dissertation committee and readers, Kenneth Harrow, Geneva Smitherman (Dr. G.), Greg Thomas, Theresa Melendez, Scott Michaelsen, Bill Lawson, and Issac Kalumbu, Mutha’ would not exist. I’d like to thank Kenneth Harrow for providing me with invaluable suggestions and advice that motivated me to challenge the boundaries of critical theory. ix Stallings_final.indb 9 5/17/2007 5:14:43 PM x Acknowledgments I am especially thankful to Dr. G., Greg, and Dr. Gloria Randle for showing me the type of teacher-scholar I could be. A shout-out to Greg for recogniz- ing the value of my trickster implications for female hip-hop when not too many other people did. Big ups to Dr. G. for mentoring country when, and only when, country needed mentoring. I’d also like to thank Trudier Harris, Deborah McDowell, Carole Boyce Davies, Hortense Spillers, and Patricia Williams for doing an atypical seminar class in spring 2000 at MSU. That seminar helped me formulate what questions and concerns I had about Black women’s culture, and those concerns form the foundation of this text’s pur- pose. My first three years at the University of Florida have proven to be delight- fully challenging and rewarding. I am grateful for the support of my depart- ment chair, John Leavey. I’d like to thank Mark Reid, Kenneth Kidd, Pamela Gilbert, Malini Schueller, and Marsha Bryant for making sure that a sista was always all right. Holla, holla at the young-gifted-and-Black, and their light-light-skinned counterparts, for keeping me sharp on Black literary and cultural theory as I made my revisions to the manuscript. Marlon Moore, Marlo David, Craig Smith, Maryam El-Shall, Angelique Nixon, and Daniel Holder: I know that your work and voices will contribute a great deal to your chosen fields. Thank you, Amy Ongiri and Barbara Mennel, for countless dinners and a stopover spot that helped me balance out work and play. You are wonderful scholars, devoted teachers, and thoughtful friends. Thank you, Greg, Keith Byerman, Joyce Petis, Valerie Lee, and Kevin Quashie, for reading early drafts of this manuscript. Your input was heard, appreciated, and used to improve. Chapter 2 is a heavily modified version of “From Mules and Turtle and Unicorn Women: The Gender-Folk Revolution and the Legacy of the Obeah” published by Peter Lang Press in After the Pain: Critical Essays on Gayl Jones, the only book-length collection of critical essays on Gayl Jones. North Carolina State University published a portion of chap- ter 3, which was an essay entitled “Re-Reading Ann Allen Shockley through the Queen B’s Queering” in Obsidian III vol. 4, no.1 (Fall/Winter 2002– 2003). I gratefully acknowledge both presses. Thank you Sandy Crooms and Eugene O’Connor, my hard-working and generous editor, for all of your efforts in making this a good book. The research ofMutha’ was made possible due to institutional support from the University of Florida, and especially the Schomburg Research Institute for Black Culture. The Schomburg Center allowed me time and access to invaluable files for this project and my next. To William and Kifu, I am eternally grateful for the way you each wel- come me into your hearts and life. I thank Kifu for love and support that rejuvenated my personal beliefs and academic theories of radical Black female subjectivities. I am grateful to William—partner for life—for coming into my Stallings_final.indb 10 5/17/2007 5:14:43 PM Acknowledgments xi life, staying in my life, and loving the not-so-nice girl I was and the unwife- able woman I’ve become. The last eighteen years have been a wonderfully amazing journey. I feel very fortunate to have found two people who contrib- ute to my evolution as a radical Black female subject. Thanks for accepting trickster into your lives, despite the chaos and disorder. Thank you both for loving trickster ’cause trickster shoul’ loves you! Stallings_final.indb 11 5/17/2007 5:14:43 PM A Preface on Behalf of Sex Itself 1 (Written by Herself) As this is a work dedicated to the tradition and techniques of Black female oral culture, I’d like to begin the way all good folktales begin, by telling a story within a story. Though this book has been a project in process for some time, recent practical experiences from my own classroom have humor- ously validated its theoretical tasks and arguments time and again. During one spring, I learned from one of my Black female students that one of my advertised courses for the fall semester had been designated the “pussy class.” The student, whom I’d previously taught in three classes, told me, “Dr. Hor- ton-Stallings, a few of us registered for your pussy class next semester.” That was not the title of my course. “My what?” I asked. I could feel a slow smile creeping onto my face. Could it be that all my hopes and dreams were realized? Was I the pussy teacher of the pussy class? My student replied, “Yeah, yeah, that’s what we’re calling it since you got all those books on pussy.” My student was exaggerat- ing, but clitoris, vagina, cunt, and pussy were in some of the text titles ten- tatively listed in the course description and reading list.