The relatively few normal and thriving AA women that exist (that I refer to as “sojourners”) can immediately tell that these Rwanda Zone conversations are crazy, but don’t understand the warped thinking that underlies these discussions. Here’s a quick guide for perplexed sojourners.
Asexual Mammy Is Just As Deviant As Hip-Hop Video Vixen; She’s Just At The Opposite End of the Promiscuity Scale
Nobody in their right mind admires Asexual Mammy. No matter how much women who identify with Asexual Mammy complain about the fact that nobody admires (or even really values) Asexual Mammy. Sane people who are in touch with human norms can recognize that Asexual Mammy is just as deviant as Hip-Hop Video Vixen. She's simply at the opposite end of the promiscuity spectrum. Neither image reflects or projects healthy, attractive womanhood.
If Viola Davis has any sense at all, she’ll stop playing Asexual Mammy roles. If she has a piece of a clue, she’ll use her current buzz to get herself cast as an alluring, desirable woman. She's not getting any younger. If she’s really smart, she’ll form her own production company and cast herself in lead roles as a desirable, alluring woman. Her shelf-life for being relatively young enough to be cast as a desirable woman (as opposed to being cast as the desirable woman's mother) is ticking down. She should look at what happened to Angela Bassett (who took too long to wake up, and wasted her prime female leading actress years).
If AA female slaves had any sense, they would stop celebrating Asexual Mammy. And stop lifting her up as an example for young AA girls. That’s crazy, Rwanda Zone thinking. That’s deathstyle thinking, and it’s totally out of touch with human norms.
Those women who are in touch with human norms understand that it’s a competitive world. Sensible women have no problem with caring about the so-called “male gaze” because attracting a quality, loving husband is a preliminary building block to marriage and wholesome family life. The relatively few normal and thriving AA women who exist understand that advertising matters. Images matter, whether or not the images are consciously intended to serve as advertising. “Brands” matter. Personal brands matter.
Sojourners know that sensible people aren’t careless or negligent about projecting an attractive image for their collective “brand.” That’s why, as other bloggers have noted, White lesbians such as Ellen DeGeneres and Rachel Maddow were required to soften and feminize their images in order to have their own tv shows. That’s why White lesbian actresses (such as Amber Heard and Portia de Rossi) who want to be employed have the common sense to conform to feminine norms in terms of their self-presentation. Sensible women know what time it is. For those who don’t, an education is a terrible thing to waste.
I Don’t Want Any Biopics About Closeted, Asexual Mammies—I Want Biopics About Desirable Black Women Who Openly Lived Well
I don’t want a biopic about Barbara Jordan. Here’s why. While following the links from the Wikipedia entry about her, I ran across this passage:
"On page one and throughout the rest of his slim, fawning biography, Barbara Jordan: The Biography (which ought to be called Barbara Jordan: The Panegyric), Teutsch refers to Jordan as a lesbian. Page one states in part that "[Jordan] stood up for the underdog, constantly opposed prejudice against race, religion or sexual orientation, which was commendable considering the fact that Barbara was gay and her lifetime companion was a white woman, Nancy Earl." Nancy Earl shows up in Rogers' biography, too -- she shares a house with Jordan and is one of two people allowed by Jordan to know the full extent of her tragic illnesses -- but she comes off more like a friend, a particularly close one."
http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/vol18/issue24/books.VSBR.html
It’s a competitive world. I can see how this would likely play out in any movie: the WW partner would be portrayed as conventionally attractive and feminine, while Ms. Jordan would be portrayed as an asexual mammy at best. Or as a "butch"-looking lesbian at worst. Thereby continuing to lift up WW’s collective “brand” while tossing BW’s collective “brand” under the bus. I don’t want to see some mess about Closeted, Asexual Mammy.
For me it’s not about homophobia. It’s about AA women’s collective “brand.” If there’s going to be a biopic about a closeted, civil rights era AA lesbian who dated White women, I’d rather see one made about Lorraine Hansberry, who carried herself with feminine grace and glamour.
What I’d really like to see are some biopics about AA women like Lena Horne and Gloria Ray Karlmark (one of the Little Rock Nine who moved to Europe, married a European man, and has lived very well). I want to see biopics of AA women who lived well in the outer world.
Sensible women know what time it is. For those who don’t, an education is a terrible thing to waste.
Educated Tunnel Vision: The Outer World Of Normal Human Lifestyles Is Invisible To Indoctrinated AA Women
One often hears the strangest comments from many AA women. Strange, convoluted statements that have equally strange underlying assumptions. It’s as if they have no idea that women who live outside AA Rwanda Zones and away from AA social circles are enjoying normal lives. Educated and indoctrinated AA women don’t understand or see that:
WW don’t live with deadly, literally life-threatening street harassment.
WW don’t live like that because WM protect and provide for them.
WW don’t have to give up the benefits of 21st century freedoms in order to be protected and provided for by WM as a collective.
WW and White girls don’t suffer like so many AA women and girls because WM protect and provide for WW and White girls.
AA women and girls—who live in Black residential areas—live under deadly, literally life-threatening street harassment.
AA women and girls live under deadly street harassment—in Black residential areas—because BM refuse to protect and provide for them.
BM refuse to protect and provide for AA women and girls because Black males don’t care about AA women and girls.
As a collective, BM will never protect and provide for AA women and girls. No matter how much AA women whine about it.
Nonblack residential areas don’t have Rwanda-style, life-threatening street harassment of women because WM won’t tolerate it.
Any AA woman who wants to live in safety needs to flee Black residential areas, and live in an area that WM keep safe for women and children.
Sensible women know what time it is. For those who don’t, an education is a terrible thing to waste.
Sojourners need to understand that, at this point in time, most educated AAs with advanced degrees are just as out of touch with human norms as the Black underclass. So, despite their sophisticated-sounding theories and vocabularies, it's usually a waste of time trying to communicate with them.
It's a strange thing because, unlike the Black underclass, educated and professional AAs are in contact with the normal outer world everyday when they go to work. However, their minds are stuck in "Rwanda" because of their indoctrination-based mental filters and blinders. It's best to simply step over and around them as you enjoy normal human life in the outer world.
ADDENDUM
Ahh, I see that I've hit a nerve with this post. Good. Hopefully, more AA women will question these "okey-doke" snares that are celebrated among AA slaves and among nobody else. This celebration of Asexual Mammy images is something that more AA women need to question.
Some of the hysterical, shrill responses to this post reveal that a lot of AA women have been groomed from waaaay back to be Asexual Mammies. It's an AA-cultural-dsyfunction "okey doke" trap for so-called "good girls" who are also smart. Especially a trap for "church girls." Consider how out of touch this is with human norms:
Throughout the ages, girls from around the world are encouraged to daydream of being clever AND pretty---like the lead female characters in almost all of the Disney cartoons. Growing up to be a princess of some sort who's smart AND pretty AND loved/married by a good man is a universal (heterosexual) human girl's daydream. Normal and healthy girls don't daydream about growing up to be (or look like) an Asexual Mammy. Normal and healthy adults don't encourage the girls in their orbit to emulate Asexual Mammy.
Those of you who were groomed since girlhood to celebrate, emulate and identify with Asexual Mammy are perfectly free to continue doing so. That's your free and voluntary (and dysfunctional) choice to sabotage yourself and your own interests. But no matter how much you scream and howl and shriek, sensible Black women are not going to join you in your various suicide-martyrdom missions. Including the suicide-bomber mission of encouraging AA girls to celebrate and emulate Asexual Mammy images.
Women from other ethnic and racial groups who are looking to eliminate all potential competition will encourage you to sabotage yourselves. But they're not going to join you in that. Neither will those AA women who know better than that. Those of us who know better are also not going to spend much time debating with you about your various suicide-martyrdom missions. Let the dead bury the dead.
