This week, I focused on the reading by Russworm et. al, Replaying Video Game History as a Mixtape of Black Feminist Talk. This article took me a little while to fully understand their concept of a mixtape. I was confused how a musical term could be mixed with video games and I questioned what it meant. I also am not a very knowledgeable person when it comes to video games, so it took me a moment to understand the takeaways I can get from this reading. Russworm does a really good job explaining the different ways black feminism has impacted other areas of media. Specifically, I really liked their quote from The Black Joy Mixtape when the women explained their podcast as a "seat at the table." To go even further, they say, "we actually own the table. We built the seats" (Russworm et. al, 2). I really liked their metaphor because it shows that they worked hard to be in the place that they're in. Yes, they now have a seat at the metaphorical table, they have a place now in this society, but they had to build the chairs. They had to work and create this empire just for themselves to be seated at the table, to have others join them at their table.
As I said, I am not much of a gamer, so I want to continue on with this analogy made by the women behind the podcast, Amber J. Phillips and Jazmine Walker. "[They] advocate a Black feminism that treats race and gender, class and sexuality, gender presentation and other complex and interlocking aspects of their identities nonhierarchically" (Russworm et. al, 2). This quote made me think about other black feminists that I know of and one that came to mind for me is Lizzo. The singer has taken TikTok by storm and is known for her body positivity. I think of her as another example of an artist who advocates for something specific, yet gets a lot of backlash for it. I sometimes wonder if a celebrity who is white and male decided to dedicate their platform to body positivity, would they receive the same amount of backlash, if any? I have a feeling that the amount of hate would be considerably less. I think that Lizzo is a wonderful example of a black female artist who has a seat at the metaphorical table yet is still "building chairs" for others to join her.
My question for the class is who are other people that come to mind when reading this post? Who are other strong examples of black feminists that are paving the way for others to join them?
Russworm, Treaandrea M., and Samantha Blackmon. “Replaying Video Game History as a Mixtape of Black Feminist Thought.” Feminist Media Histories, vol. 6, no. 1, 2020, pp. 93–118., https://doi.org/10.1525/fmh.2020.6.1.93.
Hello Grace,
ReplyDeleteI agree that the article took some time to fully understand as a non-gamer. However, the ideas you pulled from the article are very interesting. The quote you mentioned about having a ‘seat at the table’ was powerful to read. Diversity is so important in different culture groups. I also really loved that you brought up Lizzo. She is beyond amazing because of her confidence and how she uses her platform to promote body positivity. To answer your question, another black feminist that paves the way for others is Serena Williams. She inspires many young girls that dream of becoming a tennis player.
-Rodina