I decided to write this post on an issue regarding a Black female lesbian feminist. I do not neccessarily agree with her viewpoints and such. This woman's name is Babarra Smith. She faced a world of literature and harsh realities of being a female critic, Black female, and a Black lesbian. I found out about this particular woman in my Modern Critical Theory Class. I had to read an essay that she wrote entitled Toward a Black Feminist Criticism. A few students in my class strongly believed that this woman was being offensive with forcing others to believe how she believed. In my opinion she simply was passionate about her viewpoints and wanted to make a statement that would make a huge STATEMENT.
I feel that when people are passionate about certain viewpoints and or issues then sometimes when trying to get out what they want to say may seem a little offensive or even harsh to some. In reality, one may just be very adamant about what he or she is passionate about that it comes off in a way that is offensive, but meant to be portrayed in another way that makes a huge statement. Babarra Smith wrote her essay in efforts to educate people about the life style of a Black woman, Black feminist, and a Black lesbian.
I agree with her about how others need to acknoledge and address the issue of such rather than be ignorant of it. It is just common sense and common courtesy to give place to what is reality regarding being a Black woman, Black feminist, and a Black lesbian. Barbarra Smith's criticism in her essay is good because it allows people to express themselves, come together and to support open-mindness. In the words of Susan L. Taylor: You don't know what you dont know. To know more is the key to understanding things and people better. If you would like to read more on Barbarra Smith then go to
://www.mountsaintvincent.edu/628.htm
://www.mountsaintvincent.edu/628.htm
I enjoyed the discussion in MTC regarding Barbara Smith. I personally did not know anything about her life before our class talk, and in her article, she speaks about the exact same thing: black women not knowing the literary history of black woman writers. Crazy huh...
ReplyDeleteWe as black women need to speak about our experiences more so we may learn from them. And yes, we also should be acknowledged by other people, (white, male, white women) and our works of any type should be respected.
yes so true. A lot of people need to be more open minded about women and literature. Thank you for commenting.
ReplyDeleteI also enjoyed our discussion of Barbara Smith and Black Lesbianism because it truly was a new perspective for me in critical theory and it opened my eyes more so to what has always been there. I thought it was amazing to discuss a lesbian interpretation in texts.
ReplyDeleteI was already aware of the Black women's literary tradition from previous African-American literature classes and before I came to HT sadly I was unaware of the many important black female writers/authors. I do believe more light and attention needs to be placed on black female authors and Latina female authors in the academia world.
Also, I believe Smith needed to be blunt in order to acknowledged or even heard, because before they view was shunned, ignored, and thought as oppositional.