Blog Post: Reading Response 1 (Girl, Woman, Other & Goblin Market)

A particular selection within Chapter Five of Girl, Woman, Other that was of interest to me is on pages 418-419. The passage is:

“it was so odd seeing a stage full of black women tonight all of them as dark or darker than her, a first, although rather than feel validated, she felt slightly embarrassed if only the play was about the first black woman prime minister of Britain…instead of lesbian warriors strutting around and falling for each other..during the interval at the bar she noticed a few members of the white audience looking at her differently from when they’d arrived…much more friendly, as if she was somehow reflected in the play they were watching and because they approved of the play, they approved of her…she kept getting the black sisterhood nod, as if the play somehow connected them together” (418-419)

I found this section intriguing in terms of what it commentates on Carole and the larger societal systems at play within this text. Carole feels very uncomfortable seeing a stage full of black warrior women and states that she would be able to understand and feel more comfortable with the play if it were to have been about a black woman achieving a position that is historically known to have been filled by a white person. The discomfort Carole feels while watching this play gives commentary on the larger societal structures at play within this novel. Because Carole lives in a society that has historically been dominated by white people and because she has had little education about the setting of this play (Nigeria) it is more comfortable to frame the play in terms of societal structures that white people have put in place. Those structures are familiar to Carole, whereas black women warriors are not.

Along with that, there is interest in looking at how the other audience members treat each other. The white audience members look at Carole as through she is reflected in the play and show that they approve of her being there. This is a form of implicit racism that Carole, and many of the other characters, have faced. The text doesn’t share what the intention is from the white audience members to give this look. Regardless of the reason behind it, they display how deeply rooted internalized racism is that white people feel the need to ‘approve’ of black people and black people’s unique experiences. Along with that, it is interesting how Carole feels she is being treated by the black audience members. She feels that they are assuming she is part of the “black sisterhood”. It could be that the black audience members assume she should be part of their community or, there is a possibility that Carole’s assumption displays the deep effects of racial stereotypes on her. She has gone through her life being forced to be a part of a group culture in a way that white people are not expected to. The pressure to join the “sisterhood” exposes how racial stereotypes have so deeply affected Carole to feel that she must share the same exact feelings of the group when she does not.

Current Media in this Section

On page 437 Dominique explains that if you are not a ‘pretty enough’ woman then you don’t get media coverage and that this seriously hinders the fight for women’s rights because if only white, ‘pretty’ women are given that big of a voice then that silences other people within the feminist movement. This made me think about this article I read about how societal issues are often ignored until they happen to white women and if the same situation happened to a woman of color, there would be victim-blaming. The article was about Renee Good, in particular, and how parts of her identity, including her sexuality, has been used as a way to blame her for a man murdering her. The article talks about how again and again parts of women’s identities are used as excuses for horrible things that men do to them, but that when something terrible happens to a woman, it is usually only the white women who the media gives the most attention to. The article also questions how the media would have treated Good if she was a woman of color and what it means for feminism that white women are more likely to get media coverage over women of color. I posted the article link below.