Description
Book SynopsisGrounded in Black feminist thought, Julia S. Jordan-Zachery looks at the functioning of scripts ascribed to Black women’s bodies in the framing of HIV/AIDS, domestic abuse, and mental illness and how such functioning renders some black female bodies invisible in Black politics in general and Black women’s politics specifically.
Trade Review"
Shadow Bodies engages the work of Hurston and Morrison, Beyonce and Rihanna, in a theoretically nuanced examination of the scripts of Black Women’s bodies in popular and political culture. It highlights the material consequences of silence and rhetoric, and is an extraordinarily good example of interdisciplinary, intersectional, engaged political science."
-- Renee Ann Cramer * author of Pregnant with the Stars: Watching and Wanting the Celebrity Baby Bump *
“Shadow Bodies takes the reader on a sobering journey through aspects of black womanhood that are usually divorced from social scientific inquiry: how personal experiences with and public discourses about domestic violence, HIV/AIDS, and mental illness shape black women’s political socialization. Embracing classic formulations in black feminist thought, the author bravely exposes and deconstructs the forced silences that black women must break as we move ever more fully into American public life.”
-- Zenzele Isoke * author of Urban Black Women and the Politics of Resistance *
Table of ContentsPreface vii
Introduction 1
1 Different Streams of Knowledge: Theoretically Situating This Study 19
2 Inscribing and the Black (Female) Body Politic 30
3 Uncovering Talk across Time and Space: Black Women Elected Officials, Essence and Ebony, and Black Female Bloggers 52
4 “Safe, Soulful Sex”: HIV/AIDS Talk 76
5 Killing Me Softly: Narratives on Domestic Violence and Black Womanhood 101
6 “Why So Many Sisters Are Mad and Sad”: Talking about Black Women with Mental Illnesses 124
7 Sister Speak: Using Intersectionality in Our Political and Policy Strategizing 140
Appendix 157
Acknowledgments 163
Notes 165
References 169
Index 195
