“Dancing Around Objectification,” by Victoria Merlino, Refract
The essay “Dancing around Objectification,” explain intersectionality in the form of being an African-American woman in the setting of a Harlem performance. Women who were performing The Harlem Dancer and the Invisible Man were both objectified, and their purpose was to appeal to men. McKay’s Harlem dancer has been deprived of her wonderful act compromised with singing and forced into a position of an idealized object. Additionally, she is black and cannot retaliate to what her audience thought of her. This was also because she had a low social status for being a black person during a time period where black people did not have equal rights.
“Intersectionality 101”
The thread “Intersectionality 101” explains to us what intersectionality is and how it is applied in our world. The author of this post describes intersectionality as ways that parts of our identity are bound together and related to cultural patterns of oppression. In other words, our identity is made up of small categories that can be used to define us and depending on what identity we take on, we can be discriminated for those small things that make us who we are. Like the example given, black women shows intersectionality being used because during times of segregation in America, women did not have as many rights as men, and black people were treated with disdainful treatment.
“The Urgency of Intersectionality” Kimberle Crenshaw
In this talk, Crenshaw uses the word, intersectionality to describe the situation that black women are facing. She explains that we do not perceive this as an active issue because we simply do not have a “frame” to help us see them. Crenshaw gives an example, Emma, a black woman who disputes that a local car manufacturing plant did not hire her because she was a black woman. When Emma filed a complaint to the judge, the judge sees that the manufacturing plant hired people of race and people of gender. However, the judge failed to see was that all the African-Americans that were hired were men and those who were female were white. The reason the judge failed to see the dilemma Emma was in was because of intersectionality, which was the crossing of between two types of discrimination.
“Bechdel test”
The Bechdel test is a method to evaluate the representation of women in fiction. The requirements for a work to pass the Bechdel test is if the work features at least two female characters and that they are named. Even though this is a simple requirement to pass, only half of the works of fictions we see meet these requirements. The purpose of this test is to raise awareness of gender inequality in fiction work. It was also brought to my attention when I realized most movies I watch do not pass the Bechdel test as well.
Connection and Response
The situation of McKay’s Harlem dancer reminds me of the book, Their Eyes Were Watching God because of the constant theme of “black women are mules of the world” and it is being shown in this scenario. It posed a struggle for such people because of the discriminatory factors that we possess, and we cannot simply change it to please others. This relates to some of the social issues we face in the world discussed in class with the Nike ad showing their support for Kaepernick’s silent protest against police brutality.