Policing Women of Color

      Focusing on policing of black women bodies, while society is policing all women bodies they seem to be making greater emphasis on women of color. Women of color are referred by the way their bodies are sharped and the way they carry themselves, societal dynamics are starting to make women of color body as the norm; but 100 of years of ago a women of color body was considered an abnormality or seen as negative, whereas, today every women is trying to get that perfect body. What is considered the perfect body you may ask? I ask this question, because we are going to pick apart what policing is and why women of color are policed more so then or counterpart Caucasian women.

     The imagery that is portrayed to be a perfect body by the media is narrow eyebrows, full lips, larger size breast (D and better), small waist, big booties and when women stand they are required to have a slight gap between their legs. Look at the Hip Hop culture and you would find these types women in their videos, the artist and/or the women on the artist arm have this view of the “perfect body.” In prior years Urban and/or Hip Hop culture was frowned upon for the way they portrayed women in mass media, but now they have made the women that was once frowned upon as now being the norm. https://youtu.be/frC2gf8BAD4 Go figure, from abnormal to what everyone wants.

     In “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack,” they pointed out several ways that white people uses their privilege to get what they want or abstain from any form of negative connotation. Society ascribed negativity and different forms of rules on women of color bodies, but when their

counterpart white women wear the same thing or used plastic surgery to get that “perfect” body they are deemed sexy, nothing negative is ascribed on their bodies. As I look back, women police woman bodies more than men do. 

     Women have this way of giving another women this glance or look of sham when they see other women in an inappropriate attire or behavior that is deem sexually provoking, just like in “The Oppositional Gaze.” In that reading it referred to imagery or the lack thereof, women of color under represented and the anger that was felt among the community because of the representation in media. This anger was not only to the corporations that were developing and produced the imagery, but to the actors and actress that was posing as people of color in the images, commercial and especially the movies; when you look closely in any from of imagery that depict colored people the character is not in a sexual manner as to when they cast an authentic black person seems to always be overly sexualized. 

     Policing imposes its will, morals and values on someone else, but what if your views and standers is not the perfect fit for everyone, do you continue to ridicule people because they don’t agree? When women of color assert themselves they are deemed an angry black women, but why must they be deemed anything if what they are doing is asserting themselves, men do it everyday when they are trying to get their point across. Just like children when you tell them no they push the envelop to see how much they can getaway with, this is not to say that women are children but to say women want to police themselves without the backlash that will follow them for doing so; “The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism” speaks of the way anger is used, when non-black women demand to be recognized in black anger.

 How could someone recognize a struggle they never experienced, when imagery is shown of non-blacks it is deemed artistic and again sexy, but when women of color are viewed several choosy words are used, like slut and whore to say the least. When can women make choices to stand a certain way or walk a certain way be no longer a societal decision and a decision of the individual?

https://youtu.be/lHy9D2TmBHQ Recently, I heard that Beyoncé was getting some backlash for either her song/video Formication and her response was epic, she responded by say “if someone has an issue about a song/video that I put out in February to honor Black History month, their issues were there long before the song/video.” This is so very true, people are ascribing to her race by policing her, but all she did was showcase what the news media showed everyday for weeks on end, what was the difference?

     Please understand that I’m not a Beyoncé fan, but that video was Great, takeaway the words and it’s a powerful statement and a warranted one at that, this was another way that society is trying to police people of color even through music. Audre Lorde is one of those activists that encourages women to no longer stand on the sidelines and expect change, but for women to be their own change agent. In “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action,” she promoted action and not silences, she address her life experiences and taught that silence will get you know where. I believed that Beyoncé took what was negative in the media and gave it back to people of color as strength to push forward.

      Beyoncé did exactly what Audre Lorde required from women not just of color, but all women. While society was saying “oh what a shame, they brought it on themselves,” she was saying, “this is not a color line issue, but a peoples issue,” you have to find that something is profound in that type of statement even in imagery. When I looked up policing of women, a vary of things came up from it is that a women wears, to how they dress, to how they walk, the look they must portray and this certain form of expectation whatever that maybe. Policing is everywhere around us, there is no way of getting away from it, but as long as women stay true to themselves and whatever it is they believe (not cultural) policing becomes something that is experienced around them, but never changing who they truly are 

Work Cited:

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack, by Peggy McIntosh,

The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators, bell hooks

The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism, Audre Lorde

The Transformation of Silencing into Language and Action, Audre Lorde