The cult of true womanhood demoralized enslaved women and enabled manipulation

Evidence

The “cult of true womanhood” that emerged during the 19th century had an intense demoralizing impact on enslaved black females. They were not proud of their ability to labor alongside men in the fields and wanted more than anything for their lot to be the same as that of white women. White male slaveowners and overseers found that slave women could best be manipulated by promises of a new dress, a hair ribbon, or a parasol—anything that emphasized their femininity. So great was the slave woman’s desire to appear feminine and ladylike that many chose to wear dresses to work in the fields rather than don trousers that, though more practical, were seen as masculine attire. Originally displaced African women attached no stigma to female labor in the fields but as they assimilated white American values they accepted the notion that it was debasing and degrading for women to work in the fields. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 157

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to white feminist scholarship on the cult of domesticity (Cott, Welter) but extends it to enslaved women. — connects to: Bribery framing absolved slaveowners while making female submission appear consensual — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 73; Enslaved people also absorbed the view of women as temptresses — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 112; Enslaved women’s unpaid labor did not produce feminist consciousness but resentment at denied womanhood — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 161 (+8 more)

Related

• Enslaved women’s unpaid labor did not produce feminist consciousness but resentment at denied womanhood (similarity 0.88)
• Enslaved women were no more sexually liberated than white women. (similarity 0.87)
• Black slave gender roles replicated white patriarchal divisions of labor (similarity 0.86)
• Devaluation of black womanhood licensed exploitation and prostitution (similarity 0.86)
• Enslaved people also absorbed the view of women as temptresses (similarity 0.86)
• Black women’s exploitation is better described as masculinization than black men’s de-masculinization. (similarity 0.85)
• Slave labor displaced woman’s economic role and diverted the master’s tyranny onto her (similarity 0.85)
• Enslaved black women withheld the respect they granted white men from white mistresses (similarity 0.85)
• Sexual exploitation dehumanized black women more than labor exploitation did (similarity 0.85)
• Black women bore the brunt of slave-ship terror because they could not retaliate (similarity 0.85)
• Enslaved women absorbed anti-woman violence that white women otherwise faced (similarity 0.84)
• Black men asserted dominance over women to compensate for losing to white men (similarity 0.84)
• Sexism and racism were twin oppressive forces in black women’s slave experience (similarity 0.84)
• Devaluation of black women was a deliberate method of social control (similarity 0.84)
• Sexism made the black female slave’s lot harsher than the male’s (similarity 0.84)

Broader Connections

• Enslaved women’s unpaid labor did not produce feminist consciousness but resentment at denied womanhood #corroborates (0.70) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 161
• Sexism and racism were twin oppressive forces in black women’s slave experience #expands (0.70)
• Devaluation of black womanhood licensed exploitation and prostitution #expands (0.70) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 195
• Black women under slavery were doubly enslaved by race and sex #expands (0.60) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 26
• Enslaved black people internalized their owners’ patriarchal sex roles #expands (0.60) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 154
• Enslaved black women shared racial status with men but faced sexist subordination #expands (0.60) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 150
• Black slave women were both accomplices in and victims of patriarchy #complicates (0.50)
• Black slave gender roles replicated white patriarchal divisions of labor #expands (0.50) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 144