Nappy Headed Black Child

The aftermath of the Tyler Perry/Boondocks thing really got me thinking about black masculinity and homosexuality. Particularly b/c my issue w/ Tyler Perry initially begins with his crossdressing in light of the media’s penchant for emasculating black men. As evidenced in men on film from w/ in living color, to wong foo thanks for everything, Martin Lawrence’s portrayal of shenaynay and his on screen mother, wanda by jamie foxx, Geraldine by flip wilson. These portrayals upset me because they are visual representations of how black men are kept from being men. Whether it is a result of overprotective mothers stifling male growth for fear of their safety, absentee fatherhood, mass targeting by police for incarceration which has economic consequences prevent the ability to provide or receive the education necessary to be economically competitive.

Now this brings three distinct thoughts to my mind.

Obviously being separated from our home cultures and mixed into the american mess. The black communities ideas of Manhood have been heavily informed by whiteness which is heavily patriarchal in comparison with traditional african societies. And frankly if i wanted to divide a group people for the purposes of keeping them subservient what better way than to create a model of gender roles that is nearly impossible to maintain for the oppressed group. Take the idea of the male provider for example, that says the best man provides for all the needs of the household is something that is critical to what is considered masculine (particularly as that informs male power) however in these economic times and in the age of women becoming increasingly empowered this mode of thought is outdated yet fiercely held onto. It is especially damaging for the black community where many men have been for a variety of reasons prevented and excluded from economic participation by design of the system and yet there are many sisters who exclude men from their dating pool based soley on this premise and then call themselves feminists/womanists and huge contradiction.

then there is the social reality that being called gay when u are straight is an attack on a man’s masculinity. Which begs the question can a gay man still be masculine. It seems that it is the idea of some people that this is impossible. Now i personally know that who one is intimate with has nothing to do with whether a person is a man or not. Biologically speaking a penis and testicles is all it takes. But again we are talking social realities and it is inconsistent to suggest that a man is made a man by who he fucks and yet lesbians and bi sexual women can still considered feminine when they engage in same sex relations (as often female/female relationships are often depicted for strictly male consumption and lets be frank i’ve never seen butch lesbian porn although quantum porn physics would deliniate that by my mere mention of it, it now exists with a fiercely loyal following.) Thus as far as i am concerned a man’s masculinity is not informed by who he intimate with and i dont know one woman who thinks its attractive for a man to define himself through his sexual conquests because it turns women into trophies instead of divine people. Not to mention the rate of stds.

Another thing that i found interesting is that my analysis of Tyler Perry, Martin Lawrence, David Alan Grier, Damon Wayans, Flip Wilson, and Wesley Snipes’ feminine portrayals is through my lens as a straight black male. I wonder how these roles are perceived by Gay black Men. Where i may see a black man in a dress and bothered by that due to parallels that can be drawn to stifling of black masculinity they might see just an ugly woman. Or for example in to wong foo a role model in terms of expressing their sexuality (as gender is considered much more of a fluid concept in LBGTQ communities some cultures even makes provisions for a third gender i.e Hawai’i). I find this to be a conversation worth having.

These lines of thought bringing me to the conclusion that the way we gender roles and gender in general have to be seriously examine in terms of the relationships that people get involved with as well as these things mean in terms of the survival of the black community. Although we are not nor have ever been a monolithic community we are still connected and will have to depend one another for our progression as a people in this nation. Such a thing cannot be done unless we are willing to delve into understanding not only ourselves but also each other.

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