Ban 'Bossy' and Reject 'Angry': Why We Must Stop the Mislabeling of Black Women [View all]
Recently, the news and the Internet have been abuzz with stories about Facebooks Sheryl Sandberg and pop star Beyoncé Knowles and their mission to ban the word bossy as it applies to girls and women. Their campaign makes sense. Its no secret that in America, attributes praised in men are often vilified in women. Where a man is bold, confident, daring and a real go-getter, a woman is aggressive, bitchy, cocky or a ball-breaker. In other words, assertive girls and women get called bossy.
Little girls who emerge as natural leaders on the playground are discouraged from being bossy. Where little boys might be encouraged to seize the reins of whatever game or activity in which theyre engaged, little girls are scolded to share, and let so-and-so take control, now. Its as if being a natural leader is a bad thing, a threat to their femininity. Or worse, a girls assertiveness emasculates the boys around her.
Labelling anyone with a negative description like bossy damages their self-esteem. And it just isnt fair. It isnt fair to squash a girls natural leadership skills so that she isnt labelled as aggressive. Yet while I agree with the thesis behind Ms. Sandbergs and Ms. Knowles campaign, I believe that another term should be eliminated as well. I want to destroy, once and for all, the myth of the Angry Black Woman.
Just like the bossy label, the Angry Black Woman (ABW) label diminishes and trivializes the experiences and feelings of Black women. If every time a Black woman asserts her rights she gets pigeon-holed as an ABW, her voice is silenced. No one hears her.
The exception, of course, is when Black women speak out for issues that affect men, too. Our outrage is fine as long as were marching for civil rights or protesting new voting laws which seek to disenfranchise minorities. Our wrath is justified when we decry the modern day lynching of our young Black men under the Stand Your Ground laws. When were rallying against these injustices, our tears are celebrated, held up as emblems of the struggle: grieving mothers, clutching the photographs of our slain sons. But the moment we speak up for ourselves, we become the Angry Black Woman.
http://www.forharriet.com/2014/03/ban-bossy-and-reject-angry-why-we-must.html