Zora's Daughters

Today we're answering the question What makes this anthropology?, discussing the politics of respectability and its iterations for African-Americans vs. Jamaican immigrants, we celebrate Black women’s bodies and Jamaican dancehall with Carolyn Cooper's essay "Lady Saw Cuts Loose: Female Fertility Rituals in the Dancehall", and we bring it to popular culture with Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion's new banger WAP and Kamala Harris' historic nomination as the Democratic candidate for VP to think about the tax Black women must pay when they're in positions of power.

Discussed this week:

"The Emergence of Modern Blackness in Jamaica" (Deborah Thomas, 2007)

"Lady Saw Cuts Loose: Female Fertility Rituals in the Dancehall" (Carolyn Cooper, 2004)

"You Want Me To Watch The Kids While You Go Out With Another Guy?" (Where Should We Begin? with Esther Perel, 2020)

"Bullshit Jobs: A Theory" (David Graeber, 2018)

"Dude, You're a Fag": Masculinity and Sexuality in High School (C.J. Pascoe, 2011)

Transcript will be available on our website: https://bit.ly/ZDTranscript3

Be sure to check out the Zora's Daughters 100 syllabus for the First Semester of the podcast: http://zorasdaughters.com/zoras-daughters-100/

Follow us @zorasdaughters on Instagram and @zoras_daughters on Twitter!

In this episode, we're talking about archetypes of Black women - the Mammy, the Jezebel, the Sapphire - and the ways they continue to be used against Black women, we fangirl over Hortense Spillers, and Alyssa struggles with pronunciation (#DecolonizeLanguage!). We dig into the repercussions of the Moynihan report, ungendering, and Tory Lanez's alleged assault of Megan Thee Stallion. This episode ends with our commitment to #ProtectALLBlackWomen and uplifting the names of recently murdered Black transwomen Alejandra Monocuco, Tiffany Harris / Dior H Ova, and Queasha Hardy.

Content Warning: This episode discusses U.S. slavery, rape and rape culture, and intimate partner violence. If you would like to skip over the latter section, it's from 1:02:00 - 1:24:35.

Discussed this week:

Reparations for Aunt Jemima! (Still Processing, 2020)

Ain’t I a Woman? (Sojourner Truth, 1851)

Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe: An American Grammar Book (Hortense Spillers, 1987)

Sapphire as Praxis: Toward a Methodology of Anger (Bettina Judd, 2019)

Thank you everyone for your support of our GoFundMe! We are fully funded and have hired two Black women transcriptionists. We are incredibly heartened! 

Justice for Alejandra: https://www.change.org/p/superintendencia-de-salud-colombia-justice-for-alejandra

Justice for Queasha: https://www.change.org/p/baton-rouge-police-department-justice-for-queasha-hardy

Transcript is available NOW on our brand NEW website: bit.ly/ZDTranscript2

Be sure to check out the Zora's Daughters 100 syllabus for the First Semester of the podcast: http://zorasdaughters.com/zoras-daughters-100/

Follow us @zorasdaughters on Instagram and @zoras_daughters on Twitter!

It's OUR FIRST FULL EPISODE! We're talking about misogynoir: our experiences, transmisogynoir, the erasure of Zora Neale Hurston and her rediscovery thanks to Alice Walker, Essence Magazine drama, how gatekeeping benefits Black men, Brendane's viral Twitter thread, and we ask WHY, Academia? WHY?!

Discussed this week:

On misogynoir: citation, erasure, and plagiarism (Moya Bailey and Trudy, 2018)

Looking for Zora (Alice Walker, 1975)

A Society of One: Zora Neale Hurston, American Contrarian (The New Yorker, Claudia Roth Pierpoint, 1997)

Thick: And Other Essays (Tressie McMillan Cottom, 2019) (Support Black-owned: The Lit. Bar)

Follow us @zorasdaughters on Instagram and @zoras_daughters on Twitter!

Transcript available at http://bit.ly/ZDTranscript1

An introduction to Zora's Daughters: a biweekly podcast where Alyssa and Brendane take a close look at some of the things we encounter in our everyday lives with the  goal of spreading love and affirmation, and demonstrating how thinking like a Black feminist anthropologist can contribute to understanding and changing the world around us.

Follow us on Twitter @Zoras_Daughters and on Instagram @ZorasDaughters.

Transcript available here: bitly.com/ZDTranscript0