African American Intergender Relationships a Theoretical Exploration of Roles, Patriarchy, and Love

Abstract

Current expectations of men andwomen in society have undergone tremendous changes concerning roles and the expression of intimacy within intergender relationships. African American intergender relationships have not escaped these changes. Three theoretical perspectives are offered to enrich the discussion on African American intergender relationships: patriarchy, role, and love. This article posits that African American intergender relationships are defined within some particular significant parameters like patriarchy, gender roles, love, and a history of enslavement and discrimination. Current discussions of such relationships miss their complexity when they omit these conceptual perspectives and the unique historical and present-day experiences of African Americans. The Million Woman and Million Man Marches have made healing, nurturing, atonement, love, and acceptance national priorities for African Americans. This article promotes the incorporation of the perspectives—patriarchy, role, and love—as avenues of contributing to an enriched debate that will be beneficial to such national priorities.

When Does Race Matter? Race, Sex, and Dating at an Elite University

“…Whereas all groups demonstrated some degree of gender difference, Black students were the only racial group in which women expressed significantly greater agreement with the statement ''I wish there were more opportunities for going on dates'' and men expressed significantly greater agreement with the statement ''Any kind of sexual activity is okay as long as both persons freely agree to it'' (results not shown). The conflicting attitudes of Black women and men may be reflective of a larger crisis within Black American gender relations (Hooks et al, 1995;Lawrence-Webb, Littlefield, & Okundaye, 2004;Patterson, 1993). In addition, prior research has indicated that Black women oppose interracial dating in part because they perceive Black men to have more opportunities for interracial dating: Interracial dating is seen as reducing the availability of partners for Black women (Childs, 2005), and quantitative data indicate that Black men's greater propensity for interracial marriage does in fact reduce the availability of (same-race) partners for Black women, especially among the highly educated (Crowder & Tolnay, 2000).…”

Attitudes That Affect the Ability of African American Preadolescent Girls and Their Mothers to Talk Openly About Sex

“…The independent nature of these women may cause feelings of male inadequacy in the provider role, and create stress for men that could lead them to withdraw emotionally (Hill, 2001). These behaviors represent an unintentional gender role modeling for the younger generation (Lawrence-Webb, Littlefield, & Okundaye, 2004).…”

Gender Role Attitude Malleability in the Context of Divorce and Remarriage: A Longitudinal Growth Curve Perspective

“…Education, race (1 = European American), age, years married, and parental status were included as control variables on the intercept and slope based on the previous literature (e.g., Etaugh and Spandikow 1981;Fan and Marini 2000;Lawrence-Webb et al 2004). All controls variables were time invariant and measured in 1980.…”