Author Archives: Adriana Chavez

The Bluest Eye, The Freest Women

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     Like most books, Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye includes a pivotal scene where an eleven year old girl is welcomed into the home of three sex workers. You remember reading about that trope in your high school English class, right? In reality, this provocative interaction between Pecola, Poland, China, and Marie shows Pecola an alternative form of physical beauty that is more carefree and motivated by the women’s sexually liberated lifestyle.

     Pecola’s interaction with the three sex workers revolves around their freedom from standards of beauty, freedom from femininity, and freedom of sexuality. However, the casual reader might think from the descriptions of China getting ready that she desires beauty in the same way other female characters throughout the novel. Morrison writes, “China had changed her mind about the bangs… She was adept at creating a number of hair styles, but each left her with a pinched and harassed look. Then she applied makeup heavily… Oriental eyebrows and an evilly slashed mouth” (57-58). China takes actions to control her physical appearance, but her vanity is different than other characters’ in the novel. For instance, Morrison describes that black women like Geraldine, “hold their behind in for fear of a sway too free… they never cover the entire mouth [with lipstick] for fear of lips too thick” (83). Women like Geraldine represented in the novel take efforts to make sure their beauty hides their blackness. However, the only concern China has about her hair is that she doesn’t look “pinched or harassed;” she does not want to look weak or inferior.  She is a free woman and intends to look that way. Unlike the ideas of femininity that call for women to look beautiful to appease a man, China employs her physical beauty to make herself look strong – a trait women are never encouraged to emulate – even adorning an “evilly slashed mouth.” She does not primp herself to look “white” or even appealing. In addition to the above excerpt, the novel also mentions how “China [sat] in a pale-green kitchen chair, forever and forever curling her hair” (52). Rather than straightening her hair to emulate a white woman’s hair texture, she curls her hair. China also deliciously takes her time while getting ready. China is free to fuss over her appearance “forever and forever” unlike women who have socially acceptable lifestyles. China’s life is not spent caring for someone else like a spouse, a child of her own, or a white woman’s child. Her profession gives her the free time to care for herself frivolously and in a way that is not tightly bound to social conformity.

     Morrison employs the sex workers’ liberated primping to show the reader and alternative, and better relationship women can have with  physical beauty. However, some may claim that Morrison vehemently objects to all physical beauty without exception, including the sex workers’ primping. She writes in the section Spring, “[Pauline] was introduced to… physical beauty. Probably one the most destructive ideas in in the history of human thought… [which] originated in envy, thrived in insecurity” (122). Morrison critiques physical beauty but only disapproves of it in its most common form. Pauline’s relationship with physical beauty  is diametrically opposed to the sex workers’ more unusual relationship with it. Morrison writes that one of the problems with physical beauty is that it “thrive[s] in insecurity.” However to say that that China, Poland, and Marie’s beauty is “thriving” is a long shot. The women are described as old and fat (52); they do not fit the socially prescribed ideas of what it means to be beautiful. And though ugly, the women are confident, not insecure. Marie doesn’t care about her “bandy legs,” and believes she is attractive (53). Morrison asserts that the problem with physical beauty is that to look beautiful to others, a woman must first be insecure about her looks and desire outside validation. The sex workers don’t have this problem: they are “ugly,” confident women who can employ makeup and hair products either purely for their own pleasure and desires.

     Toni Morrison bravely writes about the appealing aspects of sex work; not only do China, Poland, and Marie refuse to conform to certain standards of femininity and womanhood, but the primping China does do is for personal satisfaction rather than to appease the patriarchal, white-supremacist society. Readers and critics alike shouldn’t sell Toni Morrison short and ascribe the author a simplistic, “burn your bra, burn your makeup” second-wave feminist philosophy. Morrison’s writing is admirable because she explores the complexities of feminine physical beauty without automatically bashing women if they want to put on lipstick or curl their hair.

Non-Political Women

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     Where do women fit into an organization called “The Brotherhood?” Though it isn’t hard to believe that women wouldn’t have positions of power in the Brotherhood, Invisible Man fails to represent politically active women at all, to the fault of author Ralph Ellison. The women The Invisible Man encounters in the Brotherhood are strangely disinterested in politics and overall negatively represented. 

     The Invisible Man has a troubling interaction with a white woman in the Brotherhood in Chapter 19. The novel states: 

Her problem… had to do with certain aspects of our ideology. ‘It’s rather involved, really,’ she said with concern, ‘and while I shouldn’t care to take up your time, I have a feeling that you –’ ‘Oh, not at all,’ I said. ‘But Brother, she said,’ ‘it’s really so late… my problem could wait until some other time…’ … ‘unless,’ she smiled, ‘I can induce you to stop by this evening (409-410).  

     The woman makes it seem like she’s interested in discussing the Brotherhood and having an intellectual conversation with The Invisible Man. However, she slyly offers to talk at her apartment which makes it obvious to the reader that she’s looking for sex. At the apartment, the two talk: “Please go on, tell me your ideas,’ she said… her hand light upon my arm. And I.. [was] carried away by my own enthusiasm and by the… wine… only when I turned [towards] her… I realized… she was leaning only a nose-tip away” (412-414). Every political topic the two discuss eventually leads back to the woman flirting with the Invisible Man. Ellison does not portray this woman as an authentically passionate member interested in discussing politics, but as a woman feigning political interest to lead a black Brother to her apartment for sex, which she accomplishes. 

     The next time The Invisible Man describes women in the Brotherhood is when female members find out about Tod Clifton’s death. Ellison writes, ‘‘Take me home,’ a girl screamed. ‘Take me home!’… I… caught her… ‘No, we can’t go home,” I said, ‘… We’ve got to fight’… One of the girls was still crying piteously” (448-449). The girls are stereotypically emotional about Clifton’s death. The screaming girl fits the “hysterical female” trope especially well. The girls, supposedly members of a political organization (The Brotherhood), appear to have no concern about what Clifton’s death means politically, unlike The Invisible Man who is calm, collected, and insightful about the situation. Though The Invisible Man later begins to question whether the best response to Clifton’s death is to be emotional or to only think about his death in a political context, the female members are still written unjustly. IM vaguely mentions that at the funeral, “There were tears and muffled sobs and many hard, red eyes” (451). However, these people are genderless. Ellison singles out the women when the despair surrounding Clifton’s death is discussed in more detail. These women are stereotypically emotional; their emotional despair is their only character trait. These youth members show no political intelligence or knowledge about the Brotherhood but are driven by their tears.  

     Ellison reduces female characters in the Brotherhood to either women controlled by their emotions or driven by sexual desire. Ellison doesn’t justly portray the large number of female activists in the early 20th century, especially when the novel takes place less than 20 years after women won the right to vote. He instead makes women out to be either too emotional or too sexual to be authentically concerned about political issues. Though Invisible Man fantastically covers the social complexities of being a black man in America, it’s essential to note the novel’s limitations. We can evaluate the novel critically by appreciating its strengths, accepting its flaws, and understanding that we can’t assume every sentence Ellison writes is credible.  

The Privilege of Sexuality and Freedom of Sexual Thought in Invisible Man

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Black-ish Little Girl in Elevator Scene

Blackish S03E04 Dre meets little white girl in elevator scene. https://twitter.com/blackishwriters/status/786379713891569664

Though this scene from Black-ish does not directly relate to what I discuss in the post, I think it does a great job of showing how a person’s blackness can affect every action. It reminds me of the scene where IM is freaking out when he’s pressed against the white woman in the subway: one accidental touch can be blown completely out of context.

     Have you ever been at a strip show and looked into the dancer’s eyes more than any other body part? Have you ever immediately thought about how a girl’s incestuous rape would affect you? Your answers to these questions may directly relate to your race. And if you’re the protagonist in Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man, the answers to these questions are yes and yes. Ellison argues that The Invisible Man’s experience as an African American man shapes the way he thinks about sex, sexual violence, and acts in sexually charged situations. 

     The first encounter with sexuality in Invisible Man is at the Battle Royal scene when the dancer appears. The Invisible Man recalls, “I wanted at one [of her nipples] and the same time to run from the room, to sink through the floor, or go to her and cover her from my eyes and the caress her and destroy her, to love her and murder her” (19). The Invisible Man is attracted to the dancer like the white men at the hotel and even holds sexually violent thoughts about her. However, he also wants to look away from her, most likely because he knows the long history of black men being lynched for supposedly raping white women. The Invisible Man’s reality as a black man means he is not proud about his attraction towards the dancer. It’s dangerous for the Invisible Man to interact with or think about the white dancer because any supposed encounter with her could be his death sentence.  He cannot guilelessly treat her as a sexual object and his standing as an African American man affects how the Invisible Man and his peers behave towards the dancer.. This is especially apparent when the dancer is nearly raped. Ellison writes, “the men began reaching out to touch her. I could see their beefy fingers sink into the soft flesh… They caught her… tossed her twice… I… head[ed] for the anteroom with the rest of the boys… some were crying in hysteria” (20). The novel implies that only the white men attempt to rape the dancer because throughout the chapter they town’s white elites are always referred to as “the men” while the black students there to fight are “the boys.” The Invisible Man’s description of heading to the anteroom also implies that he and the other boys weren’t involved in the attack but left to get away. Part of the reason why the boys don’t have the (ludicrous) privilege to touch whomever they want. Quickly touching a white woman, not to mention violently assaulting her, could end these boys’ lives.  

     The Invisible Man and his peers’ social standing as black men also affect their range of sympathy and empathy towards victims of sexual violence.  The Invisible Man further describes the dancer’s attempted rape, saying, “Above her red, fixed smiling lips I saw the terror and disgust in her eyes, almost like my own terror and that which I saw in the other boys… some [of the boys] were still crying and in hysteria” (20). The Invisible Man and the boys empathize with the dancer. Like her, they face violence by white men and are at their mercy. Empathy towards the dancer is specifically afforded because the dancer’s attackers are white. Later, The Invisible Man’s talks about his feelings towards Trueblood, the black man who claims to have raped and impregnated his daughter.  The only fleshed out comment The Invisible Man interjects into the narrative in between Trueblood’s story is, “How can [Trueblood] tell this to white men… when he says all Negros will do such things” (58)? Instead of sympathizing or empathizing with the Trueblood’s daughter, a victim of sexual violence like with the dancer, The Invisible Man is concerned about how the rape story will negatively impact the black community. The Invisible Man’s social standing as a black man veils him from feeling sympathy towards Matty Lou. The rapist in this story is black – unlike the white attackers at the Battle Royal. But more importantly, his mind is preoccupied by fear of how Trueblood’s story will affect the entire black race. Any feelings of sympathy he could have garnered towards the rape victim are blocked because The Invisible Man is rightfully fearful of how the white, racist world will attribute Trueblood’s actions to all black people. 

     Invisible Man argues that African Americans’ relationship and approach to sexuality is directly tied to their low social standing and their lives as constant victims of racism. The implication is heartbreaking as it shows one of the more hidden ways in which the black community is chained and how racism can affect every aspect of one’s life. However, the “end goal” for African American men shouldn’t be to become as sexually liberated as the white men in Invisible Man who freely attack the dancer. Balancing sexual freedom and proper restraint is a tricky issue, but perhaps the first step is the most and least obvious: have universal human respect. White men respecting both women and the black race could enable the latter group to become sexually free in thought and action without gaining the white man’s current freedom and “right” to be sexual predators. Less freedom for white men will equal more freedom for black men and make women safer. Like usual, the white men hold the most power to inflict change with the least incentive to do good. 

No Vision or Visibility for the Invisible Man

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If one were to describe the first chapter of Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man in three words as, “Blood! Racism! Invisibility!,” the potential reader would be left horrified or extremely intrigued. The novel’s opening chapter describes an intense “battle royal” the protagonist participates in which leaves the reader both exhilarated and indignant. Invisible Man‘s significant first chapter employs color and light symbolism during the “battle royal” to argue that the black race is invisible to the white race which causes a vulnerability in the former.

Cigars are an important symbol of light in Chapter One when the protagonist participates in the “battle royal.” Ellison writes, “All of the town’s bigshots were there… smoking black cigars… each of us ..was issued… boxing gloves and ushered out into the big mirrored hall… the room… was foggy with cigar smoke… the men kept yelling, ‘slug him black boy!’” (Ellison 18). The color choice of the cigars symbolize how the white professionals at the hotel are using the black boys like they frivolously use and light their black cigars. Ellison also employs the black cigars to reveal how the white men do not clearly see the black boys both mentally and physically. The boys’ humanity is invisible as the white men only see them as primitive fighting machines – a source of entertainment. Comparatively, the men’s smoke fogs the room into a haze so they literally cannot see the boys.  

The white men and race’s warped perception of the boys is akin to a concept described in “The Fact of Blackness,” the fifth chapter of Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks. Fanon writes, “The white world, the only honorable one, barred me from all participation. A man was expected to behave like a man. I was expected to behave like a black man – or at least like a nigger” (Frantz 260). The smoke in the hotel obscures the white men from seeing the boys’ true nature. They treat the boys as they expect black people to act: violent and animalistic, as Fanon says.  Unlike Fanon, Ellison iterates this point through imagery and symbolism, rather than explicitly.  

The white men’s blindness and violence towards the boys causes the boys themselves to become blind and therefore vulnerable. The novel’s protagonist recalls during the match:  

All ten of us… [were] blindfolded with broad bands of white cloth… Quite a struggle was going on. Chairs were being kicked about and… voices grunt[ed] as with a terrific effort. I wanted to see… more desperately than ever before… when I raised my gloved hands to push the layers of white aside a voice yelled, “Oh no you don’t black bastard! Leave that alone” (Ellison 21-22)! 

Though he is fighting his own race, it is the white professionals at the hotel that inflict (and eventually force as seen in the last line of the above quoted passage) violence and vulnerability. The white cloth, like the white race’s inhumanity, tightens around the protagonist and leaves him unprotected and unsure what is going on. Ellison claims that to be black is to be at the mercy of the white race and completely unguarded.  

Ellison beautifully employs color and light symbolism in Invisible Man through the “battle royal” to argue the ways in which the white race makes the black race invisible and vulnerable. What’s admirable about this horrific opening chapter is its unexpected nature. Ellison’s protagonist only participates in the “battle royal” on a whim before giving his speech and has no idea the extent of violence and racist slurs he will have to endure in it. The black race, though blindfolded by white cloths, must somehow also always keep an eye open to the racism and inhumanity waiting behind the grey-colored wall.