Myth of the Angry Black Woman

Well, Heilbrun hits the ground running in the first chapter of Reinventing Womanhood. She begins with the supposition that “To be a feminist one had to have had an experience of being an outsider more extreme than merely being a woman.” According to Heilbrun, the isolating effect of feminism (often dividing women from their own gender)  causes women to capitulate to conventional society.

Heilbrun believes this is less likely if one already suffers from social isolation due to sexual orientation, ethnicity, religious affiliation, ect. There is less to lose by adopting feminist beliefs, expressing a feminist voice, or taking feminist action. Being a woman and a member of one of these groups places a double burden on one’s identity.

She uses the African American woman as an example:

Black women are thus peculiarly vulnerable: they are objects both of racism and sexism. What has not perhaps been equally emphasized is the possibility that that very condition has enable them to succeed where black men have failed. The strength of women throughout the black experience has too often been distorted in order to illuminate the perils of black manhood rather the strengths of black womanhood.

I, myself, have often heard the Matriarchal strength of the African American woman attributed to the lack of a masculine presence. In other words, many claim African American woman became strong because they had to be. They lacked the luxury of a protective male pressence. So yet again, woman is defined by her relationship to man.

Heilbrun is arguing that since African American women are faced with the burden of racism they are less afraid to deal with the burden of sexism. They are not afraid to assert their own autonomy.

Heilbrun’s arguement challenges the idea that women become strong when left on their own and insists that quite often women find themselves alone because they are strong.