Dancing Black Sexual Politics: (Un)doing Gender and Sexuality in Chicago’s West African Dance Communities

• In Event: 390 - Section on Race, Gender and Class Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 06. Race, Gender, and Class: Media and Controlling Images

Abstract

“Doing Gender” (West and Zimmerman 1987) and “Undoing Gender” (Deutsch 2007) have become important sociological frameworks for understanding the reproduction and dismantling of gender norms and gender inequality. In this paper, I bring these frameworks together with Patricia Hill Collins’ (2005) work on “black gender ideologies” to examine the construction of gender and sexuality within West African dance and drum communities in Chicago. Specifically, I look at how practitioners through their actions and interactions in community dance classes and performances both reinforce and challenge racialized norms around gender and sexuality. I argue, ultimately, that West African dance and drum practices are important tools that practitioners in these communities use to engage in a struggle towards a “progressive Black sexual politics” (Collins 2005) that aims to empower both men and women and counter persistent negative gendered representations of black sexuality circulating in the U.S.

Author

• Queen Meccasia Zabriskie, New College of Florida