Description
Book SynopsisPleasure refers to the freedom to pursue a desire, deliberately sought in order to satisfy the self. Putting pleasure first is liberating. During their extraordinary lives, Lena Horne, Moms Mabley, Yolande DuBois, and Memphis Minnie enjoyed pleasure as they gave pleasure to both those in their lives and to the public at large. They were Black women who, despite their public profiles, whether through Black society or through the world of entertainment, discovered ways to enjoy pleasure.They left home, undertook careers they loved, and did what they wanted, despite perhaps not meeting the standards for respectability in the interwar era.
See Me Naked looks at these women as representative of other Black women of the time, who were watched, criticized, and judged by their families, peers, and, in some cases, the government, yet still managed to enjoy themselves. Among the voyeurs of Black women was Langston Hughes, whose novel
Not Without Laughter was clearly a work of fiction inspired by women he observed in public and knew personally, including Black clubwomen, blues performers, and his mother. How did these complicated women wrest loose from the voyeurs to define their own sense of themselves? At very young ages, they found and celebrated aspects of themselves. Using examples from these women’s lives, Green explores their challenges and achievements.
Trade Review"Whatever you think you know about the project of 'respectability politics' in Black life, letters and history will be upended in
See Me Naked. A bold feminist examination of pleasure in the Interwar Period through some of our most enduring feminist legends – Ma Rainey and Moms Mabley among others – Green’s astute and captivating assessment here will open doors for new imaginings of blackness."
-- Sharon P. Holland * author of The Erotic Life of Racism *
"In her careful engagement with Nina Yolande Du Bois Williams, Lena Horne, Moms Mabley and Memphis Minnie, Tara T. Green’s
See Me Naked offers a groundbreaking exploration of black women’s pursuit of pleasure during the interwar years. Her careful exploration of pleasure’s fundamental relationship to black women’s self-making offers a necessary intervention into the fields of black studies, feminist studies, and sexuality studies." -- Jennifer C. Nash * author of Birthing Black Mothers *
Tara T. Green in The Black Writer's Studio * The Black Writer's Studio *
"Whatever you think you know about the project of 'respectability politics' in Black life, letters and history will be upended in
See Me Naked. A bold feminist examination of pleasure in the Interwar Period through some of our most enduring feminist legends – Ma Rainey and Moms Mabley among others – Green’s astute and captivating assessment here will open doors for new imaginings of blackness."
-- Sharon P. Holland * author of The Erotic Life of Racism *
"In her careful engagement with Nina Yolande Du Bois Williams, Lena Horne, Moms Mabley and Memphis Minnie, Tara T. Green’s
See Me Naked offers a groundbreaking exploration of black women’s pursuit of pleasure during the interwar years. Her careful exploration of pleasure’s fundamental relationship to black women’s self-making offers a necessary intervention into the fields of black studies, feminist studies, and sexuality studies." -- Jennifer C. Nash * author of Birthing Black Mothers *
Tara T. Green in The Black Writer's Studio * The Black Writer's Studio *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Pleasure Is All Mine
1. Finding Yolande Du Bois’s Pleasure
2. Lena Horne and Respectable Pleasure
3. Moms Mabley and the Art of Pleasure
4. Memphis Minnie and Songs of Pleasure
5. Pleasurable Resistance in Langston Hughes’s Not Without Laughter
Conclusion: Black Feminist Musings from Nature, The Context of Pleasure in 2020
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Index
