Paper Title
Ain’t I An Athlete: Black Feminist Fitness In The Age of (Michelle) Obama
Location
Room 222, DiGiorgio Campus Center (DiGs)
Start Date
April 2016
End Date
April 2016
Abstract
The image of the “strong Black woman” lives in popular culture, but how does this image morph when we talk about physical fitness? From Sojourner Truth’s famous demand in her “Ain’t I A Woman?” speech that her audience look at her muscled arm to our cultural obsession with First Lady Michelle Obama’s and tennis star Serena Williams’s arms, black women’s supposed superhuman strength has often been used to dehumanize and differentiate them from the fragility and weakness of traditional womanhood. As a result, black female bodies’ ability to endure has been used to justify everything from horrific working conditions to rampant sexual abuse to substandard medical care. Meanwhile, fitness has been racialized and classed as something that “black girls don’t do.” Using images of Michelle Obama and Serena Williams, I trace the contradictory meanings of black female muscle in American culture, locating them within matrices of oppression and traditions of resistance. I end the paper by defining “Black feminist fitness,” the concept which animates my work.
Ain’t I An Athlete: Black Feminist Fitness In The Age of (Michelle) Obama
Room 222, DiGiorgio Campus Center (DiGs)
The image of the “strong Black woman” lives in popular culture, but how does this image morph when we talk about physical fitness? From Sojourner Truth’s famous demand in her “Ain’t I A Woman?” speech that her audience look at her muscled arm to our cultural obsession with First Lady Michelle Obama’s and tennis star Serena Williams’s arms, black women’s supposed superhuman strength has often been used to dehumanize and differentiate them from the fragility and weakness of traditional womanhood. As a result, black female bodies’ ability to endure has been used to justify everything from horrific working conditions to rampant sexual abuse to substandard medical care. Meanwhile, fitness has been racialized and classed as something that “black girls don’t do.” Using images of Michelle Obama and Serena Williams, I trace the contradictory meanings of black female muscle in American culture, locating them within matrices of oppression and traditions of resistance. I end the paper by defining “Black feminist fitness,” the concept which animates my work.
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Courtney Marshall
Founder, “Wrong Is Not My Name: Black Feminist Fitness” (www.blackfeministfitness.com)
Assistant Professor, English and Women’s Studies, UNH
Courtney is a powerlifter, CrossFitter, obstacle course racer, hooper, rope jumper, pole dancer, bikram yogi, triathlete, and lover of all things dance fitness related. She is also the founder of “Wrong Is Not My Name,” a Black feminist fitness program that provides free fitness services and education to underserved populations, specifically body-positive fitness coaching, diversity training for fitness professionals, and free group exercise and personal training sessions. She serves on the boards of several organizations devoted to body positivity and inclusive models of fitness.