Disruptions in Respectability: A Roundtable Discussion

No Disrespect: A Womanist Critique of Respectability Discourses in Extracurricular Programming for Black Girls

“…Emotions or affects “do things,” (Ahmed, 2004), and Black women intellectuals have theorized the uses of anger for the project of social change (e.g., Lorde, 1984; hooks, 1995). Audre Lorde (1984), for instance, asserts that anger “can become a powerful source of energy serving progress and change” (p. 127) and emphasizes that, “[e]very woman has a well-stocked arsenal of anger potentially useful against those oppressions, personal and institutional, which brought that anger into being.” In addition, the Black woman can be the recipient and producer of corporeal and carnal pleasure (Collins-White et al, 2016; Miller-Young, 2014; Nash, 2014). Hence, by (re)claiming her right to feel pleasure(d), the Black girl can puncture the dominant hetero-patriarchal and misogynoiristic narrative of her body as abject (Ohito & Khoja-Moolji, 2018).…”

“…In addition, the Black woman can be the recipient and producer of corporeal and carnal pleasure (Collins-White et al, 2016;Miller-Young, 2014;Nash, 2014). Hence, by (re)claiming her right to feel pleasure(d), the Black girl can puncture the dominant hetero-patriarchal and misogynoiristic narrative of her body as abject (Ohito & Khoja-Moolji, 2018).…”