“Fearfully and wonderfully made”: Black Caribbean women and the decolonization of thick Black female bodies

Abstract

Black feminists promote decolonization as a strategy to recuperate Black women’s dignity and humanity from racist colonialist ideologies. In order to fully explore Black women’s emancipation, Black feminists have to explicitly consider how Black women break away from the ways in which thick Black female bodies have been defined by dominant white colonial cultures, and how Black women of different ethnicities engage in their own recovery of voluptuous Black female bodies. In this paper, I use a Black feminist intersectional lens to explore the ways in which Black Caribbean women recuperate thick Black female bodies from colonialist and racist ideologies. Specifically, using focus groups, I examine how these women participate in what I refer to as emancipatory thick body politics, discourses that challenge and resist the dehumanization of thick Black female bodies. Findings indicate that Black Caribbean women actively participate in decolonizing thick Black female bodies by forming sisterhood communities with other Black Caribbean women, re-defining womanhood, and engaging in transgressive interpretations of Christian doctrine.

Feminisms and decolonising psychology: Possibilities and challenges

“…If one accepts the premises of the coloniality of knowledge, power and being, then decolonisation requires the tasks of simultaneously exposing and resisting coloniality in these three forms. This is demonstrated in Gentles-Peart’s (2020, this issue) paper. In overcoming the coloniality of being concerning thick black womxn’s bodies, the participants in Gentles-Peart’s study engaged in the deconstruction of the coloniality of knowledge (“re-defining womanhood, and engaging in transgressive interpretations of Christian doctrine” (p. 306)) and of the coloniality of power (“forming sisterhood communities with other Black Caribbean women” (p. 306)).…”

“…Kamille Gentles-Peart’s (2020, this issue) article invokes bell hook’s concept of decolonisation as a way of disrupting colonial realities and seeking authentic representation of subjecthood within the experiences of formerly colonised peoples. She emphasises how black Caribbean womxn living in the US reclaim their voluptuous bodies from racist ideology as a form of “emancipatory thick body politics” (p. 306).…”

“…Joosub states, “both the Western and Islamist forms of hijabophobia colored my experiences of wearing hijab, made me feel excluded and different, and did not allow my own interpretation of my hijab to be privileged” (p. 372). Gentles-Peart (2020, this issue) demonstrates how the objectification and commodification of black womxn’s bodies transform them “into objects, often of ridicule or the sexual pleasure of others” (p. 310).…”

‘Mind Your Business and Leave My Rolls Alone’: A Case Study of Fat Black Women Runners’ Decolonial Resistance

“…Sanders goes so far as to argue that the political, cultural, and public health discourses that emphasize high rates of 'obesity' among Latina and African American women are a contemporary 'racial project' that serve to strengthen white normativity [41]. Gentles-Peart contends that the association of slimness with whiteness is still present in contemporary Eurocentric femininity [42]. This can be seen when the American news media associate anorexia with young, white women but 'obesity' with racial minorities [43].…”

“…Gentles-Peart notes that this European aesthetic is overvalued in mainstream culture, while Black female bodies have largely been devalued [42]. In the United States, features such as white skin, blue eyes, and blond hair are viewed as beautiful, while features more closely resembling the African aesthetic are viewed as undesirable or ugly [30].…”