Policing Black Women's Bodies in the 21st Century

Faculty Lecture Series -- Food for Thought

Professor Ingrid Banks
"Video Ho's, Female Rap Artists, and Serena Williams' Cat Suit: Policing Black Women's Bodies in the 21st Century"

Black women's bodies continue to be highly contested sites where political meanings of race and gender are constantly negotiated. Consider the constructions of what many term "Video Ho's" and black female rap artists such as Lil' Kim and Trina. The Video Ho is criticized for shamelessly preying on innocent and unsuspecting rap artists for financial gain, while artists such as Lil' Kim and Trina are lambasted for outward expressions of assertive female sexuality. Not unlike the policing of black women's bodies under enslavement and the historical construction of "true womanhood," contemporary proscriptions placed on black women's bodies merely reinforce racial, gender, and sexual stereotypes. Just ask Serena Williams in the aftermath of the debut of the "infamous" Cat Suit at the 2002 U.S. Open Women's Tennis Tournament.
This paper explores contemporary issues by tracing historical roots in an effort to consider alternative ways of thinking about black women's body politics.