Blaxploitation action narratives as well as politically radical films likeSweet Sweetback''s Baadasssss Songtypically portrayed black women as trifling 'bitches' compared to the supermacho black male heroes. But starting in 1973, the emergence of 'baad bitches' and 'sassy supermamas' reversed the trend as self-assured, empowered, and tough black women took the lead in the filmsCleopatra Jones, Coffy,andFoxy Brown.
Stephane Dunn unpacks the intersecting racial, sexual, and gender politics underlying the representations of racialized bodies, masculinities, and femininities in early 1970s black action films, with particular focus on the representation of black femininity. Recognizing a distinct moment in the history of African American representation in popular cinema, Dunn analyzes how it emerged from a radical political era influenced by the Black Power movement and feminism. Dunn also engages blaxploitation''s legacy in contemporary hip-hop culture, a
Trade Review
"Intellectually stimulating and immediately accessible."--Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Using a variety of informal polls, surveys, and friend-girl networks, Dunn reconstitutes the very nature of the female gaze for postmodern Black women.”--Multicultural Review
"An irreverent and well-intentioned appeal to rethink how we talk about black women in popular culture as capable of being both sexy blues women and erudite thinkers."--Journal of American Ethnic History
"With insightful perspectives and sharp analysis,
"Baad Bitches" & Sassy Supermamas offers a critical reexamination of sexualized film representations of African American women, and sheds much-needed light on historical constructions of masculinity, femininity, and sexuality."--
Journal of African American History"An essential companion to the black film studies genre. Recommended."--
Library Journal"With trenchant intellect and sassiness that is only matched by the larger-than-life characters she examines throughout
"Baad Bitches" and Sassy Supermamas: Black Power Action Films, Stephane Dunn provides a fresh perspective on intersections of gender and sexuality within blaxploitation-era black film. This is a very important addition to scholarship in African American cultural studies, gender and sexuality studies, and American studies."--Mark Anthony Neal, author of
New Black Man: Rethinking Black MasculinityTable of ContentsPreface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Race, Gender, and Black Action Fantasy
1. The Pleasure of Looking: Black Female Spectatorship and the Supermama Heroine
2. Black Power and the New Baad Cinema
3. What's Sex and Women Got to Do with It? Sexual Politics and Revolution in
Sweetback and
The Spook 4. Race, Gender, and Sexual Power in
Cleopatra Jones 5. Sexing the Supermama: Racial and Gender Power in
Coffy and
Foxy Brown Afterword: Superbaad for the Twenty-First-Century Screen
Notes
Works Cited
Index
