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The Physical and Metaphorical Rape of the BlackFemale Body and Identity“I just want to sleep. A comma would be nice. Or amnesia.Anything, just to get rid of this, these thoughts, whispers in mymind. Did he rape my head, too?”

–Laurie Anderson, Speak

Rape. A defilement of ones person without consent; it may be carried outby physical force, coercion or abuse of authority with a person who isincapable of valid consensus. It is a violation. This is a very broaddefinition for the term but can be applied to sexual rape as well as mental and social rape. Amultitude of characters and events occurring in each of the texts exhibit a form of action withoutconsent. Whether it is a rape of the physical body or rape of the mind, it is still an occurrence thatleaves an individual feeling violated and sometimes denigrated.

Rape, metaphorically, can be an infringement of a person’s identity, culture, and ideologies. Theintrusion of someone else’s beliefs forced onto another individual’s identity can change thatindividual and make them feel obsolete. This metaphorical rape took place in a number of literaryselections written by black women authors. June Jordan, Toni Morrison, Zadie Smith, and MichelleCliff all wrote on different aspects of black female identity. Whether referring to race or body image,each character in the written pieces had an experience of violation and change based on outsideprinciples of societal perspectives of women, racial unity, female beauty, and religion.

June Jordan’s “Poem About my Rights” is an example of the rape of black female identity as awhole. The most profound part of the poem states:

“Even tonight and I need to take a walk and clear

My head about this poem about why I can’t

go out without changing my clothes my shoes

my body posture my gender identity my age

my status as a woman alone in the evening/”

This acknowledgement of her race and gender being seen as a problem lays the foundation for therape of the black female identity. The violation of society’s perception of perfection has not allowedthe black female to be seen as deserving. This lack of respect has led the lens of “true womanhood”away from black women, leaving them open to societal rape. This rape of identity is specific toblack females because of gender biases, racial prejudices, and mainstream views of black femalesas deviant and accessible to abuse.

Toni Morrison delves deeper into the idea of societal rape when referring to racial ambiguity in“Recitatif.” This story about two young girls puts the reader in a difficult place when trying to interpretrape. The most interesting analysis that can be made is that of racial rape. The rape of the blackcommunity by white cultural myths has been an unfortunate deterrent in the lives of individuals bothblack and white. Myths of unfit black mothers and dirty white children have left the races violated andsmeared with racially negative beliefs. The connection the two little girls have in the beginning of thebook is a natural experience and an evolution of friendship but as they grow and the ways of societystart to violated their minds they begin to see each other in a different light. This unfortunate split

between the races can be seen as a social and mental rape of racial unity. This lack of unity affectsthe black female identify in one specific way; when this rift, or rape, occurs black females are left asthe marginalized person.

Zadie Smith holds another interpretation of mental rape; she states in chapter eleven of WhiteTeeth:

“It was speaking to her. LOSE WEIGHT (it was saying) TO EARN MONEY. You, you, you, MissJones…She knew the ad was talking to her. But she didn’t know quite what it was saying. Whatwere we talking about here? Sponsored slim? The earning capacity of thin people? Or somethingaltogether more Jacobean…”

Irie Jones is a black female placed in a position held by many other black females, the problemswith mainstream white beauty. White beauty ideals are an outside influence that begins to mentallyrape Irie, leaving a feeling of violation and a necessity to look like someone she is not. Black femalebeauty is strongly connected to black female identity leaving Irie Jones in a place of mental violationand rape of her natural beauty by mainstream standards. The fact that she does not fit into the “cultof true womanhood” or a European beauty standard creates a depreciated feeling andunattractiveness.

Michelle Cliff takes a more religious approach to black female identity. The main characters rape isembodied in the assimilation into white religion and the rejection of Jamaican culture. Symbols suchas the white Jesus and the struggle between cultural religion and mainstream Christianitydemonstrate the intrusion of another’s ideologies onto a sub set of people. This affects the blackfemale identify because the identifier in her religion is changed and made to look like a culture normthat is not hers. To take away someone’s religious freedom and colonize them to another groupsbeliefs is social and mental rape.

Rape of the physical body can be extremely traumatizing for a victim, whether male or female. In thisinstance, the rape of the black female body leaves a feeling of physical violation and degradation.There is a sense of loss of ones self and a physical intrusion that is difficult to get over. This physicalrape is depicted in Octavia Butlers “Bloodchild” and Ntozake Shange’s “Latent Rapist”

Octavia Butler allows the reader to interpret rape of the physical body in a thought-provoking way.The definition of rape typically alludes to force or restraint in order to obtain sexual pleasure andexhibit power. Rape by coercion is usually not apart of this definition but is important because itleaves the same violating feeling. Butler describes this coerced rape in Bloodchild:

“…I undressed and lay down beside her. I knew what to do, what to expect. I had been told all mylife. I felt the familiar sting, narcotic, mildly pleasant. Then the blind probing of her ovipositor. Thepuncture was painless, easy. So easy going in. She undulated slowly against me, her musclesforcing the egg from her body onto mine. I held on to a pair of her limbs until I rememberedLomas holding her that way. Then I let go, moved inadvertently, and hurt her. She gave a low cryof pain and I expected to be caged at once within her limbs. When I wasn’t, I held on to her again,feeling oddly ashamed.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.”

This scene describes an obvious sexual encounter; to some it may seem like she consented but toothers it can be read as a rape of her physical body by coercion, not force, because of theauthoritative presence the character holds over the female in the story. There is an air of silence andsubmission in the female character; this woman is like many black women who suffer in silencewhile men use them as sexually satisfy objects. This quiet rape of the black female body is acommon idea in society. It supports the notion that women are to be dominated and receptive of thesexual advances made by men; this idea is present in Butler’s passage. She gives into the act withno question or rejection because it is expected of her. Her choice is taken away.

Ntozake Shange demonstrates that a number of gender and race stereotypes play a role in thereasoning of the rape of women. These include the ideas that rape is associated with the hidingstranger, that women are to blame for their rapes, and that pressing charges on a rapist is harderthan one thinks. This leads to women being vulnerable to repeat victimization after their rape occurs.These stereotypes allow outside forces to exhibit victim blaming and judgment. Shange takes all ofthese stereotypes and places them in a poem that sums up the effects of non-stranger rapes. Shereviews the perception women have of males who are close to them and what happens when these“friends” betray their trust and misuse their bodies. Shange rejects all preconceived notions of rapeand sexual assault.

The title of the poem leaves one to ponder the point of the text, “Latent Rapist;” the hiddenperpetrator or the man who hides in plain sight waiting to graze over the female body. This conceptof date rape or non-stranger rape is new to many women; the belief that men are hiding in busheswaiting to rape us is dead and Shange demonstrates that in this poem. Rape is not the only subjectleft for interpretation; the judgment and prudish attitudes geared towards women after this rape isanother violation after their ultimate violation. Judgment’s and questions such as “had you beendrinking, are you sure you didn’t suggest, and pressing charges will be as hard as keeping yourlegs closed with five fools try to run a train on you” all promulgate this inappropriate assumption thatwomen facilitate their own rapes. This example of raping the black female body is a deep andcomplicated one. Shange placed all the social judgments and physical pains of sexual assault inone poem creating a body of literature that personifies the physical and metaphorical rape of theblack female body and identity.