I agree Heather it is interesting that both articles tackle the same issue from different points of view. It is interesting that from the Black male point of view they are seen in a negative light however it seemed acceptable for Josephine Baker to been seen in a positive light. I am assuming this is due to white males seeing black males as a threat to their masculinity as well as their culture whereas it is perfectly fine for them to enjoy the eroticism displayed by Baker for their own desires and pleasure. I was also thinking it could be purely from a sexual point of view, as both articles are, that the very fact that a black male could have sexual relations with many white females and pollute their genetic stock, as Campt puts it in her article, and yet for a black woman, she would not be polluting the stock per se, as in order to conceive, she would only need one white male, to put it bluntly. The point I am trying to make is this may be another reason why black males were seen as more of a threat, the white men would have to deal with the consequences of their culture and society being threatened, whereas they would not have to if it was a black woman.
I found both these readings quite tricky, especially Campt but I think you’ve summed them up well Heather.
From Campt the most notable concept I understood was the German position of victimhood and the idea that the use of black soldiers in an occupying force was seen as a deliberate insult or punishment by the allies.
As you’ve both mentioned, there is a quite a complicated mixture of race, gender and sexuality in both sources with the idea that Josephine Baker was accepted due to a kind of white colonial master fetish of her male audience, versus the hysteria surrounding the sexual threat of black male soldiers to white women.
I know what you mean Siobhan, its like the representation of the nation through women, the mothers, and the fear that German racial purity is under threat. Whereas in France, with Josephine Baker there was no threat, only entertainment/arousal still with a sense of superiority over the primitivism and “slave girl chic” as Sweeney called it.
Thanks, Heather – these readings are difficult and you’ve done a good job here. There are some interesting points of commonality and comparison coming out here, which I think are very important, particularly the emphasis on gender. One thing that we can probe here, but which I’d like to discuss in the seminar, is how we approach the degree of ‘agency’ and empowerment of Baker, even as she was exploited/exploited herself.
I think Siobhan’s point about gender/sexuality and the idea of passive/active (which I think is a different way of putting it) is important: because, to use the ideas of the 1920s, women were passive and victims, their sexuality was perceived to be much less threatening.
As Neil points out, both of the articles point to the difficulties and contradictions in attitudes towards race in this (and any?) period -a combination of fear, hatred, desire, exoticism… I wonder if we can define the relationships between them more clearly.
I agree Heather it is interesting that both articles tackle the same issue from different points of view. It is interesting that from the Black male point of view they are seen in a negative light however it seemed acceptable for Josephine Baker to been seen in a positive light. I am assuming this is due to white males seeing black males as a threat to their masculinity as well as their culture whereas it is perfectly fine for them to enjoy the eroticism displayed by Baker for their own desires and pleasure. I was also thinking it could be purely from a sexual point of view, as both articles are, that the very fact that a black male could have sexual relations with many white females and pollute their genetic stock, as Campt puts it in her article, and yet for a black woman, she would not be polluting the stock per se, as in order to conceive, she would only need one white male, to put it bluntly. The point I am trying to make is this may be another reason why black males were seen as more of a threat, the white men would have to deal with the consequences of their culture and society being threatened, whereas they would not have to if it was a black woman.
I found both these readings quite tricky, especially Campt but I think you’ve summed them up well Heather.
From Campt the most notable concept I understood was the German position of victimhood and the idea that the use of black soldiers in an occupying force was seen as a deliberate insult or punishment by the allies.
As you’ve both mentioned, there is a quite a complicated mixture of race, gender and sexuality in both sources with the idea that Josephine Baker was accepted due to a kind of white colonial master fetish of her male audience, versus the hysteria surrounding the sexual threat of black male soldiers to white women.
I know what you mean Siobhan, its like the representation of the nation through women, the mothers, and the fear that German racial purity is under threat. Whereas in France, with Josephine Baker there was no threat, only entertainment/arousal still with a sense of superiority over the primitivism and “slave girl chic” as Sweeney called it.
Thanks, Heather – these readings are difficult and you’ve done a good job here. There are some interesting points of commonality and comparison coming out here, which I think are very important, particularly the emphasis on gender. One thing that we can probe here, but which I’d like to discuss in the seminar, is how we approach the degree of ‘agency’ and empowerment of Baker, even as she was exploited/exploited herself.
I think Siobhan’s point about gender/sexuality and the idea of passive/active (which I think is a different way of putting it) is important: because, to use the ideas of the 1920s, women were passive and victims, their sexuality was perceived to be much less threatening.
As Neil points out, both of the articles point to the difficulties and contradictions in attitudes towards race in this (and any?) period -a combination of fear, hatred, desire, exoticism… I wonder if we can define the relationships between them more clearly.