An Analysis of Daughters of the Dust and The Color Purple using Black Feminist Theory

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Belinda Clarke                                                                    Student No: 9505215

An Analysis of Daughters of the Dust and The Color Purple using Black Feminist Theory

Over the last three decades traditional feminism has been attacked by black feminist theorists who say they have been racially oppressed in the Woman’s Movement and sexually oppressed by men in the Black Liberation Movement. Black feminists have accused the latter of representing only black men and have accused white feminist women of concentrating on oppression in terms of gender whilst ignoring other forms of oppression like race, class and sexuality. In an effort to resist this marginalisation, new black feminist and womanist theories have been produced to represent the needs of and account for the differing historical experiences of black women. Film makers have also begun to address the misrepresentations and exclusions of black women in white aesthetics.

During this essay I will use black feminist theory to analyse the films Daughters of the Dust and The Color Purple. Firstly, a brief explanation of the black feminist theory that is relevant to this essay will be given, using the work of a number of theorists. This will be a very condensed outline and will in no way encompass the full richness of black feminist thought.  Then an analysis of the above two films will ensue in order to investigate if and in what ways these films present a challenge to traditional feminism and whether they support an oppositional stance to that taken by most mainstream films with regard to the representation of black women. Finally, a summary of the arguments will be given.

Upon forming a movement of their own, black women needed to define the objectives of the Black Feminist Movement. Several authors have put forth definitions, among the most notable are Angela Davis, The Combahee River Collective and Alice Walker, whose works will be discussed below.

Angela Davis’s experiences of black sexism within the Black Liberation Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, along with white racism in the Women’s Movement and society at large, has prompted her body of black feminist work. Her 1982 book Women, Race and Class sets about exposing the previously overlooked assumptions of American feminism by revealing the racism and classism of white feminists, while stressing the strategic interdependences of gender, race and class.

In this book she problematises the white feminist concept that sees all women as a homogenous group, and sets about correcting previous histories of slavery illustrating how black women have always been actively involved in resistance struggle. She also depicts how the priorities of white feminists are vastly different from black feminists, because of their differing histories, and offers a more accurate historical account of black women’s roles during slavery. To this end, Davis deconstructs the stereotypical representations of women slaves previously offered by white male historians. Her main recounting of history tells how the majority of women did not in fact work in the house as cooks, maids and mammies, as white historians would have us believe, but alongside male slaves in the fields. This she argues gave slave women some status because their masters owned them equally with slave men and thought them equal in physical strength. Thus, she argues that white feminists have misread the history of slavery applying their white middle class objectives to black women, especially with regard to domesticity and reproduction, which far from being oppressive actually freed black women and gave them a sense of community. She contends that, although mainstream feminists have viewed domesticity and reproduction as patriarchal tools of oppression (stemming from the 19th century ideology of the “myth of femininity”), it is not necessarily the same for black women. She maintains that black women have always worked in the public realm stemming back to their compulsory labour as slaves. Therefore, both in times of slavery and today, many found sanctuary in domesticity and family away from the harsh realities of working life.

She argues further that male and female relationships in slavery did not conform to the ideological patterns of patriarchy from western feminism.  There were no gender divisions in domestic roles at this time; men and women shared the domestic duties equally. She illustrates how the cooking and sharing of food was an important and pleasurable way of maintaining family circles, enabling community bonding and keeping traditions and rituals alive. Consequently, she contests that many black women do not share the view that white feminists hold, that mothering and domestic duty is not as significant as work in the public realm. She says that in the times of slavery mothering was deemed a very important job, an example being mother–daughter advice in which black mothers passed on wisdom for survival in a white world, in the black community and with men. Female slave narratives, folk tales and black poetry and prose reflect this tradition. Mothers were the keepers of memories and often developed mnemonic systems to remember the children that were taken away from them and sold as slaves. Mothers recorded family history, their oral traditions keeping memories alive and serving to pass on the history and spirituality that bonded the community. This oral tradition is still alive and important today in black feminism, where it is understood to be as meaningful as written documentation.  

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Further contributors to black feminism were The Combahee River Collective founded in 1974.

This group issued a paper in 1977 entitled The Combahee River Collective: A Black Feminist Statement, which set forth their specific, political definition. The main objectives of this group, like those of Angela Davis, were to voice a disillusionment with the women’s movement and to revitalise a history of black women that had been either undocumented or misrepresented in previous black and white histories. They were also instrumental in furthering the perspective now held by many black feminists that everyday phenomena are important. In their ...

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