"Who's is it?"

Toward a Genealogy of Black Female Sexuality: The Problematic of Silence

Hammonds digs deeply in the silence beset upon black females and harnessing of their sexuality. The relevance of acknowledging institutions' influence/accountability such as black churches and historically black colleges in their contributions to the maintenance of silence about sexuality (177) resonates with me most.  Assuming the prevailing religions (Christianity, Islam, and Judaism) in our society, the holy texts already are embedded in patriarchy that are designed to control the freedom and expression of women so that they remain serviceable to men. Therefore, the writers/translators do not discuss the issues related to WOMEN free from male interaction. So not only are they heteronormative but constantly oppressive since the very essence of a woman is deemed as shameful- inability to worship when menstruating, sinful masturbation, worthiness only privileged to those virtuous or who "saved themselves for him." Even stressed in HBCUs especially the valued good girl at Spelman is who gets to meet mama while homegirl at Clark remains the "jumpoff" (as a male associate explained) remains on the side as a secret. As religion traditionally remains as the forefront of black culture, we unconsciously perpetuate the "virtuous woman" concept without ever understanding whether or not it is truly the choice of the individual woman that works best for her as she expresses her faith in her creator or is it a tactic that is ignorantly followed to continue the lack of women's ability to be pleasured in a male dominated society that only recognizes her being as "serviceable" to HIS needs...? This brings me to my point that too many women have been trained to silence their concerns and challenges on the HOLY word that in turn leave them voiceless, misguided, confused, and/or limited in their self expression and freedom to explore in pursuit of embracing their own sexuality- something that cannot be defined by anyone else other than the individual. While the lid covers the truth and diversity of our sexuality, it is left to that of the White race to exploit and misinterpret our sexuality before we can even understand it for ourselves first.  As Hammond stressed it is important for us to reclaim our bodies as well as subjectivity (177) so that we may not only challenge the racist and sexist notions but to also to celebrate and own ourselves for the individual and unique women that we are unafraid & uninhibited when affirming our sexuality in any society- "Naming ourselves rather than being named, remembering how WE look. "