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Essay Available:
Pages:
4 pages/≈1100 words
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Style:
MLA
Subject:
Religion & Theology
Type:
Coursework
Language:
English (U.S.)
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Date:
Total cost:
$ 19.01
Topic:

Black Feminist Religious Studies

Coursework Instructions:

Read:
1. POD: Tamura Lomax, “Jezebel Unhinged: Loosing the Black Female Body in Religion and Culture” (Duke UP, 2018). New Books in Religion (https://podcasts(dot)apple(dot)com/gb/podcast/tamura-lomax-jezebel-unhinged-loosing-black-female/id426502373?i=1000495246137 ) (listen until 46.23, then 1:00-end).
2. Read: Patricia Hill Collins. “Controlling Images and Black Women’s Oppression,” in Black Feminist Thought, 266-273 (https://nelsonssociology101(dot)weebly(dot)com/uploads/2/6/1/6/26165328/controlling.pdf ).
3. VID: Janelle Monáe. Pynk (https://www(dot)youtube(dot)com/watch?v=PaYvlVR_BEc )
.
4. Read: Meg Matthias. “Gender Definition and Expressions of Sexuality in Janelle Monáe’s ‘Pynk,’” RhetTech (2018): 40-44 (https://www(dot)jmu(dot)edu/wrtc/_files/rhettech-vol-1/GenderDefinitionExpression.pdf ).
5. VID: Janelle Monáe. Make Me Feel. (https://www(dot)vulture(dot)com/2018/02/janelle-mone-and-tessa-thompson-made-a-bisexual-anthem.html )
6. Read: Pavithra Mohan. “Janelle Monáe’s Secret to Success is Saying ‘No,’” Queer 50, 5/28/20 (https://www(dot)fastcompany(dot)com/90475385/queer-50-janelle-monae ).
7. VID: Lizzo Takes You to Church in Her Video for ‘Scuse Me (https://diymag(dot)com/2017/01/28/lizzo-video-scuse-me )’ (Read and watch 3.4 mins) (Also REC VIDs: Juice, Fitness, Tempo, Good as Hell Worship Me)
8. Read: Ashlie D Stevens “Churches are preaching the Gospel of Lizzo now” (https://www(dot)salon(dot)com/2019/09/27/the-gospel-of-lizzo-how-churches-are-preaching-the-good-as-hell-word/ ) Salon (Sep. 2019)
9. Stephen Daw “Lizzo on Her Gender & Sexual Identity: ‘I personally don’t just Ascribe to one thing’” (https://www(dot)billboard(dot)com/articles/news/pride/8461216/lizzo-gender-sexual-identity-teen-vogue-interview ) Billboard (June 2018)
10. VID: Lizzo - Taking Her Fans to Church with a Twerk & “Cuz I Love You” (https://www(dot)youtube(dot)com/watch?v=UAbL0S4trLU )
The Daily Show w Trevor Noah (8.35 mins).
11. REC: Biblegateway.com passages (you can keyword search for Jezebel, Ahab and/or Elijah (or Elisha in 2 Kings), and read to understand the context pertaining to her. From whose perspective is the story told?): 1 Kings 16-22 (https://www(dot)biblegateway(dot)com/passage/?search=1+Kings+16-22&version=NRSV );
2 Kings 9 (https://www(dot)biblegateway(dot)com/passage/?search=2+Kings+9&version=NRSV);
Revelation 2:20-29 (Links to an external site.)
(https://www(dot)biblegateway(dot)com/passage/?search=Revelation+2&version=NIV )
12. REC: Whembley Sewell “Janelle Monae: Living Out Loud” (https://www(dot)them(dot)us/story/janelle-monae-living-out-loud )Them. (April 2019).
13. REC: Vid & Read: Jeff Guo “ The Real Reason the U.S. Became Less Racist Towards Asian Americans” (https://www(dot)washingtonpost(dot)com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/29/the-real-reason-americans-stopped-spitting-on-asian-americans-and-started-praising-them/ ) (Interview with Ellen Wu) Washington Post (Nov. 2016).
To Do:
1. Briefly summarize the Jezebel biblical story (3-4 sentences)
2. How does Prof. Tamura Lomax (https://aaas(dot)msu(dot)edu/tamura-lomax/ ), author of Jezebel Unhinged Loosing the Black Female Body in Religion and Culture (https://www(dot)dukeupress(dot)edu/jezebel-unhinged) (2018), argue that this story has been misinterpreted by most churches? (2-3 sentences)
3. How has it been used in Black church spaces? (2-3 sentences)
4. What are the effects in Black women’s daily lives? (2-3 sentences)
5. What is Lomax’s argument in her book? (What does she say IS NOT an adequate response to these Jezebellian stereotypes/narratives? What does she name as adequate responses?) (3-4 sentences)
6. What are the controlling images that P.H. Collins discusses? Provide a brief summary and example of each. How are they interconnected? How do they function in society? (5-6 sentences)
7. Womanist and Black feminist religionists argue that there needs to be new discourses and images of Black women, especially in relation to their sexuality. How do musical artists, such as Janelle Monáe and Lizzo, create new cultural iterations of Black women’s/queer sexuality? (Questions to consider, but not necessary to respond to everyone: How are Black female bodies, pleasures, desires, and sexualities depicted? How is Black religious imagery and/or spirituality incorporated, re-imagined, and/or re-claimed? In what ways are these music videos liberatory? Are they also problematic in certain ways? For example, do they reinforce some harmful cultural norms/stereotypes? If so, how so?) (5-6 sentences)
8. What more needs to be done to combat pernicious controlling images in U.S. white supremacist culture? (2-3 sentences)
9. What surprised you/did you learn? (1-2 sentences per person; can use bullet points)

Coursework Sample Content Preview:
Black Feminist Religious Studies & Queer Black Musical Artist Approaches
Question One
The story of Jezebel is found in the Old Testament, in the books of Kings I and II. She was the King of Israel's wife. She represented the kingdom's evil by multiple acts of cruelty, which characterized her and her opposition to the religion and the God of Israel. She was very powerful in the kingdom because her husband, King Ahab, was passive, giving free rein to exercise his evil deeds. She suffered a tragic death that came across as retribution for her bad habits, which proved enough that the God of Israel was superior to the nature gods she worshipped.
Question Two
The history of Jezebel Unhinged Losing the Black Female Body in Religion and Culture has been misinterpreted since the author has been sexualized as well as the black women in her story. The existing conception of a black woman who deserves violence was so deep in churches’ conceptions, and daring to talk about sexuality in the churches would have difficulty being well received.
Question Three
In black churches, like in other churches, the book discovered the stereotypes about black women as 'using their sexual appearance to seduce,' focusing on the old conception of slavery of a woman incapable of making her decisions. The book served as a wake-up call to this situation of black women and a modern tool that should guide emancipation. The black woman was perceived as a seductive woman who only goes out at night in clubs, likes to dance, and, as said above, worthy of violence.
Question Four
The book's effect on the daily life of black women has been positive since being aware of the conception of white supremacists, which is symbolic violence, pushed them to act in the way of a change of mentality. He awakened feminist commitments to the cause of drowned women and a political engagement to positively influence their condition. Although described by its author as difficult to read, the book contributed as a trigger for a change in the mentality of black women.
Question Five
According to Tamura Lomax, the Jezebellian stereotype about black women will be fought by taking a space for human beings who don't need to be sexualized. Like Jezebel in the Bible, who was sexualized because of her power but knew she should appear as a queen, black women should appear proud and beautiful but aware of their symbolic violence and stand against it. She suggests the need for the introduction of Black Feminist Theology as one of the tools to constantly have a language against the symbolic violence of black women.
Question Six
The images of control that P.H. discusses reveal racism against black women and are described in his text as a combination of racism and sexism. All images are stereotypes that paint a bad picture of women of color and justify the racial, political, and sexual subordination to which they must be ...
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