Although the term had only started to be discussed in scholarly sociological circles in the early 70’s, the concept and ideas behind intersectionality, or how various categories of oppression work together, were around without a name for a very long time. In particular, it pervaded the work of black women writers from Zora Neale Hurston of the Harlem Renaissance to Nikki Giovanni and Carolyn Rodgers during the Black Nationalism and Black Arts Movements. Black women have the unique experience of being on the lower rungs of not one, but two categories of oppression: race and gender. It was within these intersections of race and gender as well as the Black Power Movement that birthed a concept called “New Black Womanhood”. Mostly used by revolutionary
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Militancy, violence and cussing are often perceived as masculine and play a role in the hyper masculinization of men as well as in establishing gender and socioeconomic roles. They often represent characteristics of valiant working class men who fight for their families and their place in society. They are also ideal characteristics of the strong black man who seeks to take down systematic white oppression. Thus, within the context of the Black Nationalist movement and New Black Womanhood, “the charge against the revolutionary female speaker is that she is a contradiction: if revolutionary aesthetics are aggressive and menacing, then simply by speaking, she is unwomanly. Her role in the revolution is to be soft and feminine” (Hokanson and Ford 437). The way the poets’ position their traditionally masculine habits and beliefs in the poems, ironically or retrospectively, sets up their distinction from the New Black Womanhood that they are supposed to be practicing. For Rodgers, her cussing is a poetic device often used in her poems that help to convey her revolutionary ideals. Her first lines, “they say,/ that i should not use the word/muthafuka anymo” introduces the ironic tone of the piece (1-3). It also gives context to the title. By “The Last M.F.” Rodgers is saying that this poem will be the last time that she uses the word because she is told by an unnamed “they” that cussing is not something that respectable women
Militancy, violence and cussing are often perceived as masculine and play a role in the hyper masculinization of men as well as in establishing gender and socioeconomic roles. They often represent characteristics of valiant working class men who fight for their families and their place in society. They are also ideal characteristics of the strong black man who seeks to take down systematic white oppression. Thus, within the context of the Black Nationalist movement and New Black Womanhood, “the charge against the revolutionary female speaker is that she is a contradiction: if revolutionary aesthetics are aggressive and menacing, then simply by speaking, she is unwomanly. Her role in the revolution is to be soft and feminine” (Hokanson and Ford 437). The way the poets’ position their traditionally masculine habits and beliefs in the poems, ironically or retrospectively, sets up their distinction from the New Black Womanhood that they are supposed to be practicing. For Rodgers, her cussing is a poetic device often used in her poems that help to convey her revolutionary ideals. Her first lines, “they say,/ that i should not use the word/muthafuka anymo” introduces the ironic tone of the piece (1-3). It also gives context to the title. By “The Last M.F.” Rodgers is saying that this poem will be the last time that she uses the word because she is told by an unnamed “they” that cussing is not something that respectable women