(Research question: How does Morrison portray blackness and sex as two things that directly and/or indirectly affect one another?)

• Abdullahi, Jumoke “Jay,” and Kym Oliver. “Triple Cripples: On Blackness, Sexuality, Disability, and Autonomy.” AAIHS, 17 Mar. 2020, https://www.aaihs.org/triple-cripples-on-blackness-sexuality-disability-and-autonomy/.
  • Unlike a few of my sources that focus on blackness and sexuality specifically in The Bluest Eye, this source focuses on blackness and sexuality in the present day and how they relate to each other. However, this source also ties in the topic of disability and its relations to blackness and sex, which is particularly unique because of how it can relate to Polly’s race and sexuality. This source also puts a slight emphasis on religion as well, which can further tie into Polly’s character because of how religious she became due to her poor relationship with sex that stemmed from her insecurity of being abused, black, and disabled.
• A.R. Gayathri, et al. “Objectification of African American Women in the Bluest Eye.” International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, vol. 119, no. 12, 2018, pp. 2769–77.
  • This article focuses on the direct relationship between blackness and sex by discussing the different types of objectifications that all the female characters in The Bluest Eye are subjected to. It then explains how this affects the characters by creating a sense of self-objectification. Thus, this text argues that Morrison’s portrayal of sexual objectification of black women leads to their lower self-esteem pertaining to their identity as African Americans.
• Byerman, Keith E. “INTENSE BEHAVIORS: THE USE OF THE GROTESQUE IN ‘THE BLUEST EYE AND EVA’S MAN.’” CLA Journal, vol. 25, no. 4, 1982, pp. 447–57.
  • Byerman makes the argument of how Morrison portrays blackness and sex as two things that are both “grotesque” to the audience. However, he states that this “grotesqueness” is not something that arrives from just racism and the sexualization black men and women, because our society already knows about racism – this is just not shocking enough to the audience because we already know of these problems. Hence, Morrison needs to use topics such as incest to make this novel truly “grotesque” in order to portray the relationship between blackness and sex. 
• Rosenberg, Ruth. “Seeds in Hard Ground: Black Girlhood in The Bluest Eye.” Black American Literature Forum, vol. 21, no. 4, 1987, pp. 435–45. JSTOR, doi:10.2307/2904114.
  • Rosenberg focuses on the levels of sexualization compared to the levels of blackness by focusing on colorism. She suggests that Morrison is able to focus on the relationship between blackness and sex by being one of the first authors to focus on how colorism, or in other words, light-skinned versus darker-skinned African Americans, and how it affects the treatment of different “types” of black people. Thus, Roseberg argues that there  appears to be a direct relationship between the type of blackness and sex.
• Rosenthal, Lisa, and Marci Lobel. “Stereotypes of Black American Women Related to Sexuality and Motherhood.” Psychology of Women Quarterly, vol. 40, no. 3, Sept. 2016, pp. 414–27. PubMed Central, doi:10.1177/0361684315627459.
  • This source is a research experiment done with the purpose of finding out how prevalent stereotypes of African American women are related to sexuality and motherhood in comparison to white women. It was found that many stereotypes remain alive in the present day and that they have extremely detrimental effects on black women. This experiment is therefore useful to my research question because it actually analyzes the relationship between blackness and sex by using the scientific method. The findings can then be compared to the way black women are treated throughout The Bluest Eye in terms of how the research correlates with the relationship between blackness and sex portrayed in the novel.
• “Sex Stereotypes of African Americans Have Long History.” NPR.Org, https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10057104. Accessed 30 Nov. 2020.
  • Professors Herbert Samuels and Mireille Miller-Young discuss the sexual stereotypes, particularly honing in on black sex workers. They discuss how there is a direct relationship between blackness and sex based on how they are paid, how black sex workers are viewed compared to white sex workers, and even how these things are impacted by politics. However, what is most relatable to The Bluest Eye is how the professors discuss how black communities often disidentify with sexuality as a whole. This can relate to the sex workers in the novel and others’ attitudes towards them. (For example, Claudia’s mother despises them simply because they make a living off of sex, which can perhaps be interpreted as disidentifying with sex.) Thus, this source touches upon a more specific relationship pertaining to sex and blackness.

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