Black Men Fail to Protect Black Women by Choosing to Hate Them Instead
Misogyny and racism exist in more ways than one might believe. Taken at face value, harm done to a Black girl done by a Black boy may appear as if it’s just misogyny. It’s more than that. It’s misogynoir. TikToker and Instagram baddie, Cindy Noir has dedicated her platform to addressing the real life effects of misogynoir, bringing examples to viewers from outside a purely theoretical standpoint. In one of her videos, she discusses a Black boy who snatched the wig off of a Black girl and goes on to describe the demonization of Black girls and women. This blog post will relate Cindy Noir’s video to Moya Bailey’s concept of misogynoir and Teju Cole’s concept of violence embedded into cameras.
To talk about the TikTok video, first we must talk about author Moya Bailey’s Misogynoir Transformed. In this book, Bailey (2021) describes the dual oppressions that Black women face. It is “racialized and sexist violence that befalls Black women as a result of their simultaneous and interlocking oppression” (Bailey, 2021). There are many violences that are specific to Black feminine people, including wig snatching. Wigs are worn primarily by Black femmes, meaning it is not Latinas and White women who could be victims of this. It is not customary for men to wear wigs. These two facts allow us to label wig snatching as misogynoiristic.
Misogynoir plays itself out in several ways, one of which is respectability politics. Respectability is the idea that marginalized groups must act similarly to White people in order to succeed in society. Marginalized groups may choose to fit into this narrative by speaking and acting a certain way or protest against it by dressing and acting the way they want.
Bailey (2021) discusses a deviation from respectability. In fact, (Bailey, 2021) “Black feminist thought has expanded to be more inclusive of Black women who are not interested in respectability because… it leads to intra-group policing” (p. 15). If Black women criticize each other for not conforming and “comporting themselves well enough,” no real, equitable progress will ever be made (Bailey, 2021). Noir’s video focuses on Black males and their proximity to 8.5 x 11s a.k.a. White people. (Noir, 2021) She never blames the woman in a video for choosing to wear a certain thing (a wig) or “egging on” the perpetrator. Noir’s videos focus on the larger systemic issues portrayed in a video she unpacks, rather than blaming the individual.
Noir challenges respectability by wearing bonnets in her videos. Her appearance should not matter; she’s comfortable in her bonnet. Her videos are more about unpacking misogynoir than looking fashionable. This is important to note in relation to the idea of respectability because many TikTok users refuse to take her content seriously, simply because of what she is wearing and her lack of makeup.
After discussing how Black feminists are moving away from respectability, Bailey (2021) says that, “In every era, Black women have been at the forefront of creating media for themselves that challenge misogynoir, whether explicitly or implicitly” (p. 15). Black women have attempted to use media as a platform for themselves, whether it was originally intended for them or not. They might have specifically named the misogynoir they were experiencing.
They also may not name the violence held within the camera that was used. While Noir is creating content that explicitly challenges long held racial stereotypes and behavioral expectations in Black and White cultures, she implicitly acknowledges that this situation is exemplified by the media. As writer and photographer, Teju Cole, said in a piece on photography and the abilities of cameras, “When we speak of “shooting” with a camera, we are acknowledging the kinship of photography and violence” (Cole, 2019). Photos and videos often portray violence. In general, the victims of violences tend to be intersectionally marginalized people such as Black women, even within their own communities. In Noir’s video she states, “This situation [the viral video of a wig snatching] is symbolic of a larger issue in the Black community… Black males use Black women as the butt of their jokes to gain access and approval from other people'' (Noir, 2022). In other words, Black men participate in respectability by joining White men to demonize Black girls.
The theme of several videos include respectability or misogynoir elements because Noir’s main demographic is Black feminine people. She speaks to girls and women who have experienced the violence of wig snatching before. They probably felt hurt and disrespected, (as some TikTok users expressed in the comments) but didn’t have the words to describe how that sort of behavior is related to misogynoir. Noir provides them with that language so they can express themselves and feel both seen and heard.
Not only does Noir address a captive audience, she also pushes viewers to think on their own by asking if they see a point in circulating videos such as these. Cole said, “... contemporary photographic practice… is generally made (and published) for the greater good is to misconstrue history, because it leaves out the question of “Good for whom?”” (Cole, 2019). Noir would agree with this line of thought. At the end of her video she says, “Black males, I just wanna know. Why are y’all so quick to put us down to make yourselves look better?” (Noir, 2022). Black men use Black women as cannon fodder to get closer to Whiteness. Noir recognizes that videos like these, circulated without the consent of the main character, are not shared on social media platforms to enhance the greater good of society.
This blog post unpacks a lot. From misogynoir to respectability to the violence cameras make it possible to capture, this piece delves into a TikTok video made by Cindy Noir. The video, which responds to a viral video of a wig snatching, discusses how ordinary and famous Black men choose to make fun of Black women when they shouldn’t be laughing. They should work to erase their own misogyny and racism.
Works Cited
Bailey, M. (2021). Introduction: What Is Misogynoir?. In Misogynoir Transformed: Black Women’s Digital Resistance (pp. 1-34). New York, USA: New York University Press. https://doi-org.proxy.library.upenn.edu/10.18574/nyu/9781479803392.003.0004
Cole, T. (2019, February 6). When the camera was a weapon of imperialism. (and when it still is.). The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/06/magazine/when-the-camera-was-a-weapon-of-imperialism-and-when-it-still-is.html
Noir, C. [@TheCindyNoir] (2022, October 6). Cindy Noir on Instagram: "#canwetalkaboutit b/C this is such a common issue I see in the #blackcommunity that needs to be discussed! #funny #comedy #humor #unpopularopinions". Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/reel/CjZFcMVrDF1/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
By: Anastasia Russell
ReplyDeleteHi Lex! Your blog post is super interesting. You mentioned the casual ambience in Noir’s videos manifested through her lack of makeup and of wearing a bonnet. This dynamic is a display of Abidin’s theory of intimacy: the degree to how close a follower feels to an influencer. This intimacy can be curated by the influencer and often motivated through commerce (Abidin 5-8). In wearing a bonnet and no makeup, Noir is making the followers feel as though they are her close friends - so close that she doesn’t have to put on a fake face for. Although, this intimacy is not real, as Noir does not actually know her followers and has never even met them. This is what Abidin would call Perceived Interconnectedness, the one sided relationship in which influencers use explicit displays of intimacy to give the impression that they are constantly sharing aspects of their lives. In turn, followers feel as though they know everything about the influencer (Abidin 9-11).
The juxtaposition between the heaviness and important issues of black feminism that Noirs videos address, and the relaxed personal vibe of her videos create appeal for the audience. It is a personal and digestible mode for a consumer to learn about these issues. It is a lower commitment, taking less mental energy to consume. They are not professional, yet they are real, just like the problems that she is addressing.
I found the piece on how black men use black women as a form of respectability politics very interesting, and how they use them to get closer to whiteness. Black women do not experience racism the same as black men experience it. Their intersection of being black and female, makes them vulnerable to both sexism and racism, even from black men and white women.
One piece of advice I have would be to put some contextualization of Noir’s video in the beginning of the piece to set the stage for the concepts you introduced, but other than that great job! I had a good time reading it.
By: Anastasia Russell
Hey Lex, loved reading the article. The topic is really interesting, and the framing of Noir as a producer of content was super vivid and helped my understanding. I felt that the post was super fluid and I never felt the need to stop reading, overall kick ass post.
ReplyDeleteThe connection I want to draw is to Ziesler and the male gaze. Ziesler (2008) defines the male gaze as “positioning women as nothing more than objects to be looked at, sexualized, and made vulnerable, the male unconscious reassures itself that, really, it has nothing to fear from women” (p. 8). Your article focuses In on the culpability of black men and boys when it comes to joining white men in misogynoir, and I feel this practice relates to Ziesler's overall theory that men feel the need to tear down women for their own safety. The concept of wig snatching falls in line with Ziesler's belief that men are subconsciously inclined towards tearing down women in an attempt to feel safe in their positions of power. Tearing off a wig in jest both makes a woman vulnerable and positions them as an item in the view of men or as an object that can be messed with and altered. Ziesler was writing about how women are positioned in male gaze centric viewpoints in media, which is exactly what happens when boys post videos of wig snatching. Ziesler says the only way to help stem this problem in media is to have more women participants and producers, which is what Noir performs as. Her tiktoks deconstruct the harmfulness of certain patterns as both an actor in media and a producer. Thought the connection to Ziesler was interesting in the way it paralleled Moya Bailey's points and the points made about the power of the camera seeing as Ziesler commented both on sexism and the medium of film.
- Sean McKeown