REVIEWS | EXCERPT | CONTENTS | AUTHOR BIO | SUBJECT CATEGORIES
Explores the restrictive myth of the strong black woman through interviews, revealing the emotional and physical toll this "performance" can have
Behind the Mask of the Strong Black Woman
Voice and the Embodiment of a Costly Performance
Search the full text of this book
Tamara Beauboeuf-Lafontant
"Behind the Mask of the Strong Black Woman makes an important contribution to the literature. No other work systematically studies the ways black women internalize and resist strong black woman discourse. Beauboeuf-Lafontant convincingly argues that investment in the strong black woman myth injures black women and strengthens the racist divisions between women."
—Maxine Craig, author of Ain’t I a Beauty Queen?: Black Women, Beauty, and the Politics of Race
The defining quality of Black womanhood is strength, states Tamara Beauboeuf-Lafontant in Behind the Mask of the Strong Black Woman. But, she argues, the idea of strength undermines its real function: to defend and maintain a stratified social order by obscuring Black women's experiences of suffering, acts of desperation, and anger.
Interviews with 58 Black women explore the restrictive myth of the "Strong Black Woman." In particular, Beauboeuf-Lafontant highlights the physical and emotional toll of this performance of invulnerability, which leaves many Black women suffering from eating disorders and depression.
Drawing on Black feminist scholarship, cultural studies, and voice-centered research, Behind the Mask of the Strong Black Woman traces the historical and social influences on normative Black femininity. This provocative book lays bare the common perception that strength is an exemplary quality of "authentic" Black womanhood, maintaining that the expectation of strength creates a distraction from broader forces of discrimination and imbalances of power.
Excerpt
Reviews
"[Beauboeuf-Lafontant] foregrounds the intersection of race and gender with fresh and thought-provoking insight.... [O]ne hopes her message will trickle out."
—Publishers Weekly
Also available in e-book
Contents
Introduction: A Half-Told Tale of Black Womanhood
1. More Than “the Historical, the Monolithic Me”: Deconstructing Strong Black Womanhood
2. Living the Lies: Embodying “Good” Womanhood
3. Keeping up Appearances: The Performance of Strength
4. Lies Make Us Sick: Embodied Distress Among Strong Black Women
5. Coming to Voice: Transcending Strength
Epilogue: Mules No More, Just “Levelly Human”: A Societal Challenge
Acknowledgments
Appendix: Table of Participants
About the Author(s)
 | Tamara Beauboeuf-Lafontant is Associate Professor of Sociology and Education Studies at DePauw University. She is co-editor of Facing Racism in Education, 2nd edition. |