Restoring Vision, Restoring Love: Finding Sanctuary in Sisterhood

• In Event: (Re)Imagining Education for Girls of Color

Abstract

This paper examines how an 8th grade literature study group responds to depictions of obesity in adolescent literature and media to provide insights on how adolescent texts can be utilized to analyze societal constructs which may potentially deny particular aspects of adolescent identity. In ways rarely seen in studies of adolescents, this research broadens notions of what counts as text that can be read critically and thereby provide models for ways that adolescents can be supported in tackling school and community issues (Morrell, 2008). Informed by Black Feminist Theory and Critical Race Theory, the paper analyzes the intersections of race, gender, and body image to note how intersectionalities may permit or prohibit access into society. Data collection came from 24 book club meetings, two semi-structured interviews, 15 journal entries, and 20 literacy study artifacts. A post-modern data collection method was utilized as it allows for data to be presented in a variety of ways such poem, prayer, musical piece, fiction, and performance texts (Denzin and Lincoln, 2001). In short, the data moves beyond the printed text to become an enacted performance.

At first glance, examining the Black female form would seem an easy task, but the body is never a simple matter, as it must be contextualized within the frames of race, gender, and size. These intersectionalities create compounding jeopardies which cannot be fully explained by examining each identity in isolation (Lorde, 2007). This suffering and marginalization of women of Color as they internalize negative representations has been a cornerstone of Black Feminist Thought (Collins, 2000; hooks, 2005). Using this lens, the body can be viewed as a text which can be read and a text to which society can add meaning. Media, film, music and social media all reinforce white supremacy with the ultimate goal being the annihilation of black female subjectivity (hooks, 2005). Furthermore since many Black girls have not critically confronted these images they have no way to acknowledge, name, and speak their pain (Collins, 2000; hooks, 2005) thereby prohibiting healing.

Findings discuss how examining the body as a textual artifact, and provides spaces for members to holistically examine and critique racism, sexism, and sizeism to help make visible oppressive constructs and create alternative pathways for African-American adolescent girls to rename and reclaim their future selves (Muhammad and Haddix, 2016).. To resist racist representations Black girls must confront the colonizing ideology by developing a critical consciousness (Collins, 2000; hooks, 1994). This requires Black females to critique representations for falsehoods and creating new forms of representations which uplift the Black body. By participating in this sister circle, Black adolescent females will build a critical conscious and create places of sanctuary against white domination and hegemonic forces. Classrooms are then transformed into spaces to “engage in critical dialogue without fear of emotional collapse,” a space to “hear and know one another in difference and complexities of experience (hooks, 1994, p. 110).

Author

• Dywanna Smith, Claflin University