å September 2017

When dealing with Jennifer Morgan’s ideas in the first chapter of Laboring Women, I found it both incredibly jarring and enlightening to grapple with firsthand ideas of post-1300’s colonialism and racism. Studying the theoretical principles behind these ideas was one thing—especially when dealt with through the arguably “diluting” lens of political correctness that permeates contemporary American culture in addition to my own experiences as a cisgender Filipino American male who has lived in communities with others like myself for most of my life. But to deal with the startlingly raw and unabashed racism that is interwoven into these seemingly “benign” portraits of the “New World”1 gave me new insight into what it must be like to live as someone whose otherness is a more intrinsic aspect of their existence in today’s violently prejudiced world.

I found most startling was Morgan’s discussion on the “discursive place of black women” (14-15), in which she explains how black female bodies were at first exotified and capable of evoking desire then almost simultaneously vilified and used as proof that their respective peoples were uncivilized and monstrous. This incongruity highlights how essential the conception of “otherness” (as we understand it today) was essential to the construction of Western European supremacy (and what would inevitably become white supremacy). For it was in the creation of the savage that “civilized society” came into being, in the realization of the “monstrous” that their subjugation and enslavement became justifiable, in the vilification and dehumanization of the black body that anything associated with Western European culture, ideas, and mannerisms—or “whiteness” in general—became superior.

When considering these ideas and their contemporary anti-theses—the disproving of racial eugenics as pseudo-science, that humans are one of the most genetically similar species on the planet, and that whiteness should not persist as the be-all and end-all of anything associated with superiority—the question I would have liked to ask is by what logic and by what utter lack of sense are these ideas of racial superiority allowed to persist? Why and how are these relatively young ideas of racial hegemony so utterly ingrained into our collective psyches? And what can we do to unlearn and help others unlearn this vast colonization of our cultures and our minds?

Throughout history the black woman has been depicted as a strong able woman who could endure laborious hours as oppose to her white counterpart. This is portrayed in both Morgan’s and Federici’s works. Morgan describes European settlers traveling to Africa and describing the women with breasts hanging below their Navels  (Morgan, 1997:14). In the European’s perspective, the women’s hanging breasts predetermined them to a life of labor. This narrative was used to justify their enslavement, as they were seen as inferior and could only be used to benefit the white man’s growing authority in the capitalistic society. The black woman’s physical characteristics were used again and again to predispose them to labor. This ideology was later turned widespread as their beliefs were published in dozens of pieces of literature. Federici’s publication focuses more so on the troubles women faced due to limitations. Prior to land privatization women were able to fend for themselves alongside their male counterparts. After the creation of land enclosures women were not able to compare themselves to men. It limited women to domestic labors such as cooking, cleaning and caring for. Reproductive work was paid, for limited time, at low costs. Throughout the years reproductive labor was no longer compensated in capital but was expected and became a “natural vocation” (Federici, 2004:86). Although Federici focused her piece on the European woman of the sixteen hundreds the degradation resembled that of the African woman during the Exploration era. In Europe the men had control over women’s reproduction, they were able to regulate their capital and image. The woman was yet again diminished into a second class citizen, who was forced to settle with the limits put upon them. European women were not in control of their socioeconomic state in the growing capitalistic world. The African women was limited to image fixed upon them as they were seen as masculine meaning they could endure both manual labor and reproductive labor. Both the European and African women were seen as inferior to the white man and were exposed to labors that European men dictated.

Davis and Morgan both discuss the concept of motherhood in both of their works. During this time, black women were view as assets. They were objects and breeders who were of great financial value. Black women were only good for increasing the slave population during this time. Females were valued more than males because they were capable of bearing children and working in the fields simultaneously. In the works of Davis the concept of “motherhood” was mentioned on page 12, where the black mothers would still have to be working on the field while their babies would be on their backs. Black mothers would also go through the hardship of their own babies being sold off to slavery.  Black women could not be viewed as the weaker sex in the work force as while as black males couldn’t be considered the family provider since all men, women and children were considered to be provider for the slave owners. Black mothers would have to be very strong to be able to go through that much hardship and that is why in the works of Davis the concept of “motherhood” for black women was considered to be a very difficult struggle knowing the fact that your kids will be sold at any point in time. In Morgan’s work, she mentions how black women were depicted as animals due to their race. The concept of “motherhood” is discuss in Morgan’s work when she states that due to the race of black women their were only viewed as a form of income. Motherhood was a concept that was nonexistent for black women, they were forced into giving birth and their kids were sold in order to increase slave population and the slaves owners income. Whereas white women enjoyed the full affect of “motherhood” they gave birth to their kids and raised them without any fear of their kids being sold away. Morgan also talks about how in some culture women were shamed for having many kids and often their kids would be killed right after birth. Both Davis and Morgan’s work demonstrate the concept of motherhood and how black women were viewed as breeders instead of mothers and because of this the concept of “motherhood” was pretty much nonexistent to black women.

Jennifer Morgan’s “Laboring Women” and Angela Davis’ “Women, Race & Class” both represent concepts about labor that develops their central idea and assist in forming a better understanding of women’s roles in the course of history. Concepts of motherhood, monstrosity, and home all help develop the idea behind labor. In Morgans book black women and other indigenous women were seen as monsters and were considered inferior to European women. The appearance of their breasts and other physical features that made them indistinguishable from a male made them more suited as slaves. The degradation of women outside of Europe influenced many Europeans to use them for work. Labor was the main reason behind degrading women across the globe. In chapter one, she states they were compared to goats udders. This comparison to a domesticated animal shows the value the Europeans placed on women not native to Europe. So they can find a reason to enslave them due to the increasing need to cultivate land because of a rise in colonies. Labor was not mentioned very often in chapter one, but it was the main focus as to why the Europeans created a terrible image of indigenous women. Angela Davis uses labor to effectively explain the role of the housewife and the role of a black slave. Angela Davis uses two misconceived parallels occurring at the time to explain the actual connection and vital dependence they have. The pre and post civil war era and the women’s pre and post suffrage movement. Labor for slaves is being whipped and sexually assaulted on a major plantation. Labor for some white women at the time was the concept of being a housewife. Which consisted of tending to the kids, cooking, cleaning, taking care of the farm with their husband, etc. The mill Girls are also discussed in her book to explain the misconception of all women at the time. Poorer women worked at mills to support their families as well as the husband. In terrible conditions for terrible pay. Labor in her book is the common factor towards rebellion and revolution. Labor in Morgans book is used to understand the why. Why were African women and indigenous women degraded? Angela Davis investigates the the how. How did labor conditions and labor roles start a revolution?

The concept of a woman’s labor is brought up in both Federici’s and Morgan’s work and what their worth is. In Federici’s book he talks about the changes in the way land in handled led to a change in labor. Women suffered the most from the change because it was harder for them to become vagabonds and couldn’t support themselves. Federici states that as it became harder for women to find work they became limited to only reproduction labor. Not only were they limited to reproduction labor but they those who did work a wage job barely earned any money compared to men who worked the same job. This was purposely done to devalue a woman’s labor during a time of escalating misogyny. (Federici 83,84) In Morgan’s work, she goes into how African women were labeled and how that labeling had caused Europeans to see them as something monstrous and nonhuman. To provide context, Europeans believed  that the birth of a child was very laborious and that more difficult work followed with the tending and breast-feeding of the child, not to say that this isn’t correct because it is. In comparison to European women African women were said to have painless labor and could deal with breast feeding their child. This was used as a reassurance that they could work hard labor and not be bothered. (Morgan 36) To slave owners this was why African women were valued because they were seen as something that could produce both crops and more laborers. The concept of labor ties these works together because they show that regardless of what race a woman was or where they were from they still faced the same problem. European women were forced into reproductive labor because they didn’t have the chance to work and were exploited when they did; they were forced into a home life and to depend on men. African women were labeled by European travels as savage monsters and were taken advance of as both something that could work hard labor and produce more laborers. Both Federici and Morgan show that regardless of race women suffered from the actions men took against them.

The topic of motherhood is present in both the works of Davis and Federici, they have similar views on motherhood during the time. Motherhood can be described as the state of being a mother, a experience very few women were able to experience during the time. In Davis’s point of view “motherhood” wasn’t about taking care of your young and raising them rather producing as many offspring as possible and offering them to their masters. Back then African women were view only as machines that were able to produce and provide more labor. They were often forced to have babies to replenish the ones that have die due to various reasons. From the moment a child is able to crawl, he or she is put into work, these extremely young children would rarely spend time with their mothers as they are often placed elsewhere given different tasks to do. These children would spend countless hours working for their master just like the women who gave birth to them; there was no time for motherhood, the very idea of it was nonexistent. More often then not, these children would be sold off to other owners leaving their mothers behind and never seeing them again. They would barely know their own parents much less where they came from, just the fact that they gotta obey their owners for face the consequence of death. In most cases the children would die at a very young age but it doesn’t matter since another one is already born to take its place. Davis wanted to highlight how women didn’t get any time with their children much less knowing them before they passed away. Morgan brings up the traveler and how he saw how the native women would give birth in public and not showing any signs of pain. In western views such was considered as immoral and shameful, it was seen as the if the mother had no feelings towards the newborn. We view a mother as someone who is always standing behind their child supporting them and loving them. All of these weren’t really shown making it seem as if there wasn’t any love making the presence of motherhood absent.

Jennifer Morgan discusses how women are viewed through multiple travelers that have wrote on their journeys to express the connection between the female body and racism. Some writers believed that women from outside of Europe were quite different like they were pleasant beings but would still degrade them, which made it all the more contradicting. Others sometimes referred these women to be savages and not pleasant to look at. Regardless of what the writers wrote, the women that were examined set how society should be run.

In Vespucci’s passage, there was a woman that really showed beauty to him. He makes remarks of the women’s bodies. In his perspective, their bodies were clean and smooth due to them often washing. The women also never refuse to do any labor while even having children. However, in after all the good remarks he made about the women, he still manages a way to degrade them on their body which can be connected through racism if you further interpret it. When he discusses about their bodies being clean and smooth, he says that they’re still filthy in other ways and have no shame but does not specify it clearly in what terms he was trying to mention. He notices that women are free when it comes to marriage. There was no legal set of rules to how to deal with marriages. A man was allowed to have as many women as he pleased, along with leaving them whenever he wanted with no obligations. These indigenous women were nothing like white women of their gentleness and modesty and were able to do more things, such as working and easier pregnancies.

Black women were able to do labor and far less complications with pregnancies than white women did. They were still degraded on the fact that they were more free than white women were. They could be in any marriages they wanted without issues versus in Europe where religion played a huge role. My question to this passage is, what makes an evolving civilization if women and men cannot make decisions for themselves?

In the works of Morgan and Federici the concept of “monstrosity” was addressed multiple times. In the work of Morgan, she wrote about how the the male travelers viewed the bodies of black women. Most of the descriptions that were used included the word monstrous. The concept of  “monstrosity” was used more to describe the mothers, on page sixteen Ligon states that mothers became monstrous and it reinforces their racial distinction. Throughout Morgan’s work the men go into full detail explaining the monstrosity of the the women’s bodies. One of the main points the men used to explain that they are a monstrosity was due to their breast. Again, on page sixteen they mentioned that images of female devils were depicted with sagging breast. Mothers would feed their babies on their backs and would just move their breast over their shoulder. The men used this description to justify that black women, especially mothers, were a “monstrosity”. In the work of Federici, she explains how women were degraded in many forms. The concept of “monstrosity” again was used more by men and how they viewed women. In this work women were considered to be so monstrous that they  believed they were true witches. During this time in the reading of Morgan, women were looked down upon if they worked out of their homes. On page one hundred and twelve there is an image of a women challenging the sexual hierarchy and  beating up her husband. In this image, it depicts the women as the evil one in the drawing where her husband looks at her with pure fear in his eyes. This right here demonstrates how men pictured women as a “monstrosity”. Federici emphasized how women were considered monstrous if they tried to play a role that was considered more for a male while Morgan demonstrates that women were depict as a “monstrosity” due to how men viewed their bodies.

Both Morgan and Davis portray the concept of Labor and enslaved women similarly in both their writings. Labor was only to be done by slaves including field work and house work. In Davis’ work she tells how women were degraded to the point where there were no difference in gender between the men and women. Both were used for the same work and seen as equals since the women were said to have muscular bodies. The purpose of the women was to tend to the field and the slave owners, same as the men. Davis mentions that the women would only become wives, mothers,and homemakers by accident. They were used solely for work or as breeder in which their children were either sold or used in order to make a bigger profit. The black women’s body was not seen as feminine by the europeans making them “useful” for various types of labor compared to men. Slaveowners actually preferred women over men or even animals because they were used as breeders to increase slave labor and they were able to work in the field, cook, sew, and more. In Morgans book the same idea that black women are not feminine and better used as workers because of their muscular traits is shown. The women were seen as productive and reproductive getting many uses out of one slave. Morgan explains how the women’s breast would hang so low when they would reach down to do their field work it looked as if they had multiple legs. She further explains that this showed the only things that the slave women were good for, which was bearing children and working in the fields. The women were much preferred over the men that they made up fifty percent of the slave workers as Davis informs us. The way the white men saw the black women’s bodies were the reason the women were subjected to this type of treatment. They were unattractive and unfeminine putting them in the same category as male workers.