Jasmyne's Blogpost

Black Bodies of Displacement, Discontent, and Desire by Jasmyne Watson

“The most disrespected woman in America, is the black woman” was spoken by Malcolm X in 1962. In 2024, this statement still reigns true. Black women have been on the receiving end of threats, jokes, and hatred while also being fetishized. Black women are ridiculed publicly, insulted, and assaulted. They are portrayed by very specific archetypes in media and literature. Society rejects the idea of black beauty while actively striving to obtain it. Black people are humanized a tad more when the have proximity to whiteness. For example, a darker skinned black woman is going to be treated differently (usually unjustly) because she had no proximity to whiteness. Whereas a lighter skinned black woman obtains a certain level of privilege due to her fair skin. Black women aren’t honored in churches, delivery rooms or political campaigns. The black body is always up for discussion but is always left out of the conversation.

Displacement

The definition of displacement through a psychological lens is “The redirection of an emotion or impulse from its original object to something more acceptable.” Throughout history, we’ve learned that Black women are a site of for the world to dump its displaced anger, at their feet. During slavery, Black women were despised by their white female slave owners, usually because of their husband’s (or any white man for that matter) physical attraction to them. Black women were seen as the brute. Because of this, they were regularly tortured, dismembered or even killed. Black women are often critiqued for their bodies, attitudes and are often used as scapegoats for many issues such as the dismantling of the black family or the emasculation of the black man. Not only were these women abused by their masters during slavery, but they were also abused by their husbands and partners in freedom. Mostly due to displaced anger and circumstances out of both of their control.

Pictured below are two domestic violence survivors, Rihanna and Janay Rice. Both women were assaulted by their famous partners who suffered little to no consequences for physically assaulting them. After the assault, Rihanna was quoted saying “You want the best for them, but if you remind them of their failures, or if you remind them of bad moments in their life, or even if you say I'm willing to put up with something, they think less of you - because they know you don't deserve what they're going to give.” This speaks directly to the idea of displacement as she speaks of her former partner, Chris Brown. Ray Rice was caught on video assaulting his then fiancé, Janay. Both women were villainized in the media and victim blamed. These men are grappling with insecurities and temperaments that the women in their lives bring into the forefront for them to conquer and unfortunately, the women get the brunt of it. Black women hold up a mirror to society for it to face its ugliness.

Discontent

Pictured above is Kamala Harris, the current Vice President of the United States of America. She is also the first woman to become Vice president. In July 2024, Kamala Harris entered the race to become the 47th president. The media was in a frenzy because she is one of eleven black women who have run for president. Black women came out by the millions in support of her, and many men critiqued her. A large topic of discussion was surrounding her race, and if she could do the job despite her serving in every branch of government and having multiple degrees. The critiques aimed at Kamala were often made by men who couldn’t achieve what she had, especially in the time frame she’d done it. The anger aimed toward Kamala was simply because of envy. Kamala quickly became the source of the country’s’ problems, and she was being questioned about how she could improve the peoples’ circumstances and why she couldn’t do it as Vice President. VP Harris became the sapphire and the slut through the media lens.  She was accused of not being a citizen, not being “black enough’ and using sex to get “rise to the top”. Society’s discontent with itself was thrust onto Kamala while they watched at home wondering how she did it. Unfortunately, she was defeated in the presidential race by an unqualified candidate.

Also pictured above are Celie and Mister from The Color Purple. Celie begins the story as a damsel, helpless and unaware, who eventually reclaims her power and finds herself. Celie was arranged to marry mister without autonomy over her body or her love life. Celie represents everything that Mister hates about his life, however he still uses her as a concubine to fulfill his sexual desires. Unfortunately, Celie is a reminder of all his failures and his discontent with his life. He releases this same discontent on Celie by physically and sexually assaulting her. To Mister, Celie is the embodiment of everything he could’ve been or achieved and doesn’t see his failures as his own, but as hers. Even when Celie is leaving him to make a life for herself, he still tries to entrap her and make her feel small for going off to do what he couldn’t.

Desire

It goes without saying how desirable the Black body is in current media and culture and historically. Black bodies have endured experimentation, rape, assault and even mutilation for the gaze of others. “Ebony” and “BBC” pornography is the most searched across the world while Black people are often not even considered human in many places. The gaze on the Black body began when ships landed on American soil and the black body became currency. The Black female body has been sought after since the dawn of time and is consistently trying to be duplicated with everything from lip implants and butt injections to box braids being in mainstream popular culture. Black women are criticized for being too shapely or not shapely enough and black men are often judged by their height and penis size. The “jezebel” and the “Black buck” are often the focal point of media. Black bodies are sexualized while simultaneously demonized for just being, black children’s bodies are seen this way as well. If a black woman embraces her sexuality, she is coined the jezebel, or the whore. If she shies away from her sexuality, she’s a prude. Black men are often emasculated and objectified.  

The objectification of the black body is so normalized that when black blood is spilled the world doesn’t stop nor mourn for the life lost, whether it be man, woman or child. Traditional black hairstyles aren’t deemed professional nor is speaking in your natural dialect. Little black girls are labeled as fast as soon as they develop the attention of the male gaze. Little black boys are also seen as men, once they are found attractive. In a black body, being attractive is the most damning thing you can be. Pictured below is singer Aaliyah on her album cover Age Ain’t Nothing but A Number. Aaliyah was 12 when she signed her first record deal and was married to R. Kelly at 1,5 and he was 27. The Age Ain’t Nothing but A Number album cover features her then partner, R. Kelly. Aaliyah had the attention of many musicians far older than she was and they were fully aware of her age. Also pictured below is singer D’Angelo, who rose to fame with his first Album Brown Sugar. When he released his single “How Does It Feel?” from his second album, he was immediately fetishized for his body due to the music video of him singing shirtless. (As pictured below). Megan Thee Stallion is depicted as a “jezebel” because she embraces her sexuality and the fact that she is the object of desire. So, she is often demonized for her sexual lyrics and curvaceous body. It’s not that she’s rapping about anything that the men aren’t already saying, it’s the fact that she looks the way that she does and that she’s a woman. Lastly, LeBron James is pictured. He would also  be considered a “Black buck” because he has the white male and female gaze. The white male desire to be  like LeBron is tied to their envy and awe of him. But, they are envious of him because he has the gaze of the white female who is also the object of their desire. The white female gaze objectifies LeBron and minimizes him to his reproductive organs and how it can help their lineage.