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Morgan Chapter 1

In Jennifer Morgan’s Male Travelers, Female bodies, and Racial Ideology , we see how the appearance of the female body is used to justify racism, and how it intensifies the damage done by racism. Because some of the African women had a different body type than some of the European women, the Europeans wanted to find a way to make sense of all of their differences by stating that the black race was inferior. They tried to prove it through religion by depicting devils as women with sagging breast. They did it through literature that described black women as being unwomanly and even animalistic. The culture of people who were foreign to the Europeans were seen through the women of that particular region. African women holding their babies on their backs were believed to be the reason that black people have wider noses than Europeans, so they were blamed for making the black race inferior. Everyone comes from a woman so the way to target an entire race is through the women. People felt that they were able to justify racism by finding ways to connect the women and their bodies to monstrous creatures, and therefore her offspring would be less than human. The appearance of the female body was used to intensify the damage done by racism because by trying to scientifically prove superiority, and because literature , art and even religion was used show superiority, racism became more than just hatred. It is a belief system and a way of life. It alters the way Africans are viewed and how they view themselves. We see the results of this even now where many people feel that superiority can be scientifically proven. We even see it in how we currently have a European standard of beauty. When Ligon described some of the beautiful black women he made sure to note that they were an exception because they didn’t have typical African features. Women’s bodies were used to add another layer to racism.

Question: Why were the women the only ones viewed as being responsible for the inferiority of a race when it takes a man and a woman to create a child?