| dc.description.abstract | Black Tomboys intervenes in scholarship that prioritizes a general (white) reading of the cultural significance of tomboyism in constructions of womanhood. In this project, I historically trace and place the Black tomboy within the Black radical tradition as a source of resistance and empowerment. I argue that through their gender nonconformity and heightened visibility, Black tomboys in popular culture challenge hegemonic femininity. The framework of this examination maps the shifts in the social perceptions of the Black tomboy through stages of maturation, from childhood to adulthood. The intersection of their age, geographical location, and socio-temporal context nuances the ways in which these figures, both fictional and real, defy and reconfigure feminine paradigms. Hushpuppy, the protagonist in the film Beasts of the Southern Wild and Esch, the protagonist in Jesmyn Ward’s novel Salvage the Bones, represent tomboyism in Black girlhood, specifically in the contemporary American South. Their narratives demonstrate how tomboyism, or the skewing of gender norms, can be a source of self-consciousness and judgement but is also an asset. Further, I argue that the personal lives and careers of performers Gladys Bentley, Stormé DeLarverié, and Queen Latifah signify the social repercussions of sustaining tomboyism into adulthood. Through their self-expression both on and off stage, they queer the gender binary and are exemplary of the resistive power of self-making, especially given the adversity they encountered. Their location in the Harlem Renaissance, the drag world, and hip-hop are explored as sites of queer potentiality and vehicles for their social disruption. Lastly, an exploration of Queen Latifah’s career as an actress in the early 1990s to present-day unravels the ways she challenges notions of desirability and romantic partnership as a tomboy in Hollywood. Rupturing the limits placed on representations of Black women in television and film, Queen Latifah effectively unsettles stereotypes in media that contribute to negative perceptions of Black women’s femininity. Ultimately, through an excavation of the quotidian and extraordinary modes of being that these Black tomboys embody, a more complex and liberatory vision of Black womanhood and girlhood is forged. | |
