A01=Kemeshia Randle Swanson
activism
Alice Walker
Author_Kemeshia Randle Swanson
Becoming Michelle Obama
Black feminism
Brittney Cooper
Category=DS
Category=JBCC1
Category=JBSF1
Category=JBSF11
Category=JBSL
divisionist history
Eloquent Rage
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
freedom
gender and sexuality
Getting to Happy
highbrow vs. lowbrow
intergenerational trauma
nonconformist
pleasure
racial progression
racism
Roxane Gay
self-actualization
Self-identity
sexism
sisterhood
Terry McMillan
The Coldest Winter Ever
The Color Purple
Their Eyes Were Watching God
womanhood
Product details
- ISBN 9781496850652
- Weight: 136g
- Dimensions: 140 x 216mm
- Publication Date: 26 Mar 2024
- Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Beginning with their forced introduction to American soil, Black women have relied on maverick-like characteristics to survive. And yet, these liberating characteristics have been repeatedly disparaged by the masses in favor of an elitist politics of respectability. In Maverick Feminist: To Be Female and Black in a Country Founded upon Violence and Respectability, scholar Kemeshia Randle Swanson examines the extent to which the politics of respectability diminish joy and increase sorrow throughout the lifespan of Black women. By rejecting this damaging standard in society, Black women can wholly and attentively assist in the obliteration of racist, sexist, classist, and ableist oppression. But first, they must work towards becoming self-identified, self-actualized, and self-sexualized.
Bridging the gap between women in both the streets and the academy, Maverick Feminist expands the traditional understandings of activism and enlarges discussions about Black female sexuality. Swanson emphasizes sexuality’s significance to the literary and sociopolitical success of Black women of the past and in this contemporary climate. Through close readings and critical analyses of fiction, nonfiction, and popular culture, Swanson argues that #blackgirlmagic and racial progression require rejecting respectability politics and developing an intimate appreciation of self. Maverick Feminist examines texts by and about bold Black women, including Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Sister Souljah’s The Coldest Winter Ever, Brittney Cooper’s Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower, Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, Sapphire’s PUSH, Roxane Gay’s Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body, Terry McMillan’s Getting to Happy, and Michelle Obama’s Becoming.
Maverick Feminist offers hope concerning the growing divide between scholars and the communities about which they theorize. The book celebrates centuries of agency and control that Black women have mustered and maintained in a world that seems to want nothing more than to see them prone and powerless. Ultimately, maverick feminism provides a freer means of living out, evaluating, understanding, and improving the lives of Black women.
Bridging the gap between women in both the streets and the academy, Maverick Feminist expands the traditional understandings of activism and enlarges discussions about Black female sexuality. Swanson emphasizes sexuality’s significance to the literary and sociopolitical success of Black women of the past and in this contemporary climate. Through close readings and critical analyses of fiction, nonfiction, and popular culture, Swanson argues that #blackgirlmagic and racial progression require rejecting respectability politics and developing an intimate appreciation of self. Maverick Feminist examines texts by and about bold Black women, including Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Sister Souljah’s The Coldest Winter Ever, Brittney Cooper’s Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower, Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, Sapphire’s PUSH, Roxane Gay’s Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body, Terry McMillan’s Getting to Happy, and Michelle Obama’s Becoming.
Maverick Feminist offers hope concerning the growing divide between scholars and the communities about which they theorize. The book celebrates centuries of agency and control that Black women have mustered and maintained in a world that seems to want nothing more than to see them prone and powerless. Ultimately, maverick feminism provides a freer means of living out, evaluating, understanding, and improving the lives of Black women.
Kemeshia Randle Swanson is associate professor of English at Garner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, North Carolina. Her work focuses on American literature, African American literature, Black feminisms, and popular literature and culture. She has published in edited collections such as Words, Beats, and Life: The Global Journal of Hip Hop Culture; Like One of the Family: Domestic Workers, Race, and In/Visibility in "The Help"; and Street Lit: Representing the Urban Landscape.
