Audre Lorde and Gender

Audre Lorde's Contribution to Understanding Gender

• Intersectionality is a critical tool that revealed the multifaceted nature of exploitation and questioned the categorization of people into uniform groups.
• Lorde's work contributes to our contemporary understanding of gender and exploitation.
• Lorde was an American poet, novelist, and essayist.
• She was named poet laureate of New York in 1991.
• Lorde passed away in 1992 due to prolonged illness.
• Her first poetry collection, "The First Cities," was published in 1968.
• Lorde identified as a black woman, mother, feminist, and lesbian.
• Adrienne Rich described Lorde's poems as having "an elemental wildness as well as the capability to heal, they include the nightmare as well as lucidity."
• Lorde adopted the "theory of difference," which challenges the simplistic binary opposition between men and women, as conventional genders.
• The categories of men and women have subdivisions.
• Lorde critiques the feminist tendency to group individuals under a pretense of homogeneity of experience.
• Individuals categorized similarly belong to diverse backgrounds and communities with different racial histories.
• Grouping diverse communities together is a misleading attempt because they have inseparable operations that differ in their own ways.

Devaluation and Distancing

• Ignoring artificial distinctions like racism, sexism, and homophobia impacts people.
• "Difference" translates into devaluation and distancing.
• Distancing justifies the exclusion of certain groups from the mainstream, leading to a lack of communication.
• This renders suppressed sections of society silent and invisible.
• "Difference" results in hierarchical dynamics related to power, moral judgment, and social privileges.
• This provides a rationalization for assigning responsibility for working across differences to the less powerful group, often blaming operation victims.
• Major contemporary feminist dialogues incorrectly categorized people into inseparable segments and overlooked inherent differences.
• Lorde identified issues such as race, class, age (ageism), sex, sexuality, chronic illness, and disability.
• These factors are fundamental to her experience as a woman.
• No single aspect should be prioritized over others.
• While gender differences have received much focus, other differences must be recognized and addressed.
• Lorde's novel "Zami: A New Spelling of My Name" is known for its imagery and treatment of mother-daughter relationships.
• Other prose volumes include "Sister Outsider, Essays and Speeches" and "A Burst of Light," which won a National Book Award.
• Her last poetry volume, "The Marvelous Arithmetics of Distance," was published posthumously in 1993.
• Lorde co-founded the feminist press "Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press" with Barbara Smith.
• The name refers to the kitchen as the heart of the home and the traditional space for women.
• The press served as a resource network for women of color.

"The Black Unicorn"

• "The Black Unicorn" (1978) explores Lorde's relationship with womanhood by providing insight into interwoven operations like sexism, African culture, sexual and spiritual awakening, and race.
• Feminism necessitates focusing on each of these elements.
• Adrienne Rich said it is a collection of poems by a woman known for her complex vision, moral courage, and passionate language.
• Lorde used intersectionality as a feminist aesthetic, establishing agency and empowerment through retrieving spirituality, autonomy, sexuality, and racial pride.
• Lorde weaves spirituality, womanhood, and racial operations together.
• Spiritual empowerment combined with womanhood is a recurring theme.
• This collection also unveils the operation of African culture and associated belief systems.
• European domination eradicated African belief systems, contrasting with European Christianity.
• Lorde's spirituality honors the ancient strength and grace of African culture, celebrating priestesses, solstices, full moons, and pagan worship.
• Her invocation of the African goddess illustrates a time when women were worshipped for their natural life cycles and sexuality.
• The moon in "The Black Unicorn," "A Woman Speaks," and "Meet" symbolizes womanhood's sanctity, derived from beliefs that menstrual cycles and pregnancy mirror natural rhythms.
• Imagery of the priestess exemplifies women oppressed alongside the goddess culture.
• Roughly 40% of African-Americans claim ancestry to the Dahomean Vodoun religion.
• Lorde refers to Vodoun in several poems, including "Witches in Dahomey," "A Woman Speaks," Mawulisa," and ""Meet."
• Mawulisa is comprised of Mawu and Lisa, regarded as the male and female principle but occasionally reported as androgynous deities.
• Lorde's image elicits memories of slavery, colonization, dehumanizing operation, and the richness of African culture lost to current generations.
• Her lamentation over the persecution of ancient African and goddess cultures instills an image of rebirth and renewal, granting agency to the goddess by reviving her spirit through women.
• The goddess becomes an emblem of divine feminine strength immortalized through the resilience of African women, deserving veneration.
• The image evolves from worship to rebellion, empowering women's freedom of expression.
• Reclaiming ownership over the victimization of women and the goddess lessens the power of the perpetrators of operation.
• "The Black Unicorn" reclaims ownership over the degradation of African religion and women, asserting that both will rise with "magic that is still unwritten."
• Eroticism is paired with spirituality, enabling her proclamation that freedom of self is revolutionary.

Eroticism and Female Empowerment

• Lorde identifies the erotic only as a feminine power and never as a masculine power.
• The combination of the erotic with feminine power invalidates the dominance men have traditionally claimed over female sexuality.
• Experiencing the erotic is "to do that which is female and self-affirming in the face of a racist, patriarchal, and anti-erotic society."
• Erotic empowers, but difference becomes paralysis when silence, separation, and lack of dialogue reign among women.
• Female empowerment necessitates liberation from male-defined conceptions of sexuality, spirituality, and femininity.
• Lorde introduces eroticism without the male gaze, becoming fully autonomous through her sexual empowerment.
• This is revealed in many poems in "The Black Unicorn".
• "Meet" advances women's sexual sovereignty through descriptions of lesbian eroticism.
• Sexuality reveals creativity that is female and self-affirming.
• "Black Unicorn" suggests that women should claim ownership of their sexuality in feminist retaliation.
• Lorde investigates sexism within the black power movement and racism within the feminist movement.
• This approach makes her poetry intersectional.
• Her poem "A Litany for Survival" introduces those living in shadows, unable to enter the world of acceptance.
• It outlines the effects of racism, ending with "So it is better to speak/ remembering/ we were never meant to survive.”
• The survival of the African-American race is a testimony to their resilience and bravery.

Psychological Trauma

• Lorde exposes the deep-rooted psychological trauma of being imprinted with fear at a young age.
• Living in fear becomes ingrained, becoming part of the black identity.
• There is a direct causal relationship between racism and internalized racism.
• Slavery becomes a mental fact, and people start thinking it is natural to be subservient.
• Through an intersectional investigation of these experiences, Lorde aims at a more holistic understanding of each woman’s life.
• Individual experiences of womanhood depend on sexual orientation, gender, class, age, race, religion, etc.
• Separation among women lies in their refusal to recognize these differences and to examine the distortions resulting from misnaming them and their effects.
• "The Black Unicorn" portrays women's varied lives and identities, acknowledging the necessity of examining each aspect of womanhood through a feminist lens.
• Her investigation of empowerment through reclaiming spirituality, autonomy, sexuality, and race provides insights into the experiences of a black woman.
• Intersectional approach is vital to promoting an authentic, unified, and holistic feminist agenda.

"Zami: A New Spelling of My Name"

• "Zami: A New Spelling of My Name" is popularly understood as a novel or autobiography but is termed a "biomythography" by Audre Lorde.
• "Zami" is an unconventional work that pioneers a new genre of writing.
• It is a combination of biography, history, and myth, even though it is fiction.
• It is fiction built from many resources to expand the vision.
• "Zami" is a word from Carriacou signifying women who work together as friends and lovers.
• Carriacou is the Caribbean island from which her mother immigrated.
• It is sometimes understood as a bildungsroman, a narrative of recognition and naming, showing how Lorde severed from an old identity and revived connections with new communities.
• Community is important in Lorde's work, more than the individual.
• While it can be termed a novel or bildungsroman, it is more of a biomythography.
• It focuses on the community and the individual.
• Home for Lorde is the land of origin, a mythologized land she can never reach.
• Race is crucial to her considerations of feminist spaces of contestation and contradictions.
• "Zami" is a record of Lorde's growing up years in Harlem in the 1930s and 1940s as a child of West Indian parents.
• The society had diversities but upheld norms and dreaded deviation.
• Lorde experienced societal mechanisms of exclusion from an early age.
• She grew up as a fat, black, nearly blind, ambidextrous child in a West Indian household.
• Much of her strength comes from the women in her life, who taught her how to harness her power.
• The book is devoted to stories of other women she has celebrated.
• She subverts masculinist discourses and turns to matrilineal subjectivities for guidance and support.
• The structure is dominated by intersectional arguments.
• Lorde felt she could never be categorized, viewing it as both a weakness and strength.
• The narrative contains tropes, including her tumultuous relationship with her mother.
• It pays tribute to women whose portrayal signals the erasure of black women by a society that privileged whiteness.
• The book refers to historical contexts underscoring the fear of being the other, including the Great Depression, World Wars, and the Red Scare.
• Lorde describes her lovers, affirming her conceptualization of feminist alliances, which is permeated with ambivalence and contestation.

Myth and Transformation

• Myth plays a transformative role in creating spaces of contestation as well as transformation.
• "Zami" ends as Lorde merges with Afrekete, the Afrocentric figure who transcends restrictions and reclaims "the poet" as a source of inspiration.
• The beginning is written as a prologue, with a dedication to Afrekete and anticipating the women-centered ending.
• The epilogue pays tribute to the women in Lorde’s life, forming her empowering matrilineal genealogy.
• Feminist alliances are premised upon dismantling whiteness and its reproduction in feminist politics.
• A genuinely intersectional and transformational feminist activism should be built on multiplicities.
• Differences and contestations are integral parts of feminist alliances and sisterhood.
• It is necessary to have differences and contestations for strategizing against operation.
• “Zami” is informed by a vision of togetherness, diverse women sharing their experiences learning from each other, and growing together.
• The women continually enriched by their differences live, work, and operate together as friends and lovers.

"Sister Outsider, Essays and Speeches"

• Another significant book is her 1984 publication "Sister Outsider, Essays and Speeches”.
• The title itself is very intriguing.
• It is a collection of 15 individual essays and speeches dating from 1976 to 1984.
• This collection focuses on her identity as a black woman, poet, lesbian, mother, activist, and cancer survivor in feminist Western societies.
• These societies have created false binaries, "human differences in simplistic opposition to each other".
• Lorde identifies a similar problem within feminism and other political movements.
• Participants are expected to present only a small portion of their complete identities, disguising or downplaying aspects like race, sexuality, or familial relationships.
• The introduction was written by Nancy Bereano, her editor who founded the feminist press Firebrand Books.
• The paradoxical title of Lorde's work reflects her dedication to an identity built upon multiplicities.
• Lorde's essays and speeches work to desensitize readers to institutional dehumanization.
• Institutional dehumanization devalues individual traits.

Societal Norms and Marginalization

• A white, heterosexual, and patriarchal society discourages expressions that deviate from its norms.
• Profit is often valued over human interests.
• Racism, sexism, and other prejudices exacerbate existing problems.
• Marginalized groups often have limited economic power.
• Minorities may internalize skewed values, leading to infighting.

Viewing the World

• Lorde suggests viewing the world in a less fractured way.
• Political progress is possible when individual differences are seen as strengths rather than divisions.
• Differences are empowering, not constraints.

"Sister Outsider" Poem

• The poem "Sister Outsider," is named after a volume of work by Lorde, it uses West African wisdom as a central motive.
• Lorde explores this ancient wisdom throughout her essays.
• Other themes include sisterhood, the power of the erotic, and her concept of difference in connection.

Sisterhood

• Lorde insists on the idea of sisterhood, embracing both the 'other' and ourselves.
• The phrase "Sister Outsider" highlights the choice between isolation and active community participation.
• Sexual choices and preferences can make one an outsider within the black feminist community.
• Retreating from the community can leave an individual vulnerable and oppressed.

Erotic

• Lorde defines erotic using the Greek word, eros, referring to "the personification of love in all of its aspect."
• Eros is born of chaos and embodies power and harmony.
• The uses of the erotic involve trusting the self, embracing chaos, and finding creativity and harmony.
• Passion for life moves individuals towards positive action.
• Erotic connections provide deep connections between different people.
• Differences can be a source of creative dialogue rather than a threat.
• Distrust of our deepest non-rational knowledge is a recurring theme.

Difference in Connection

• Difference is a given fact in any human situation.
• Differences arise from our inability to see difference as a dynamic, enriching force.
• Racism, sexism, ageism, and homophobia are linked to the possibility of dynamism.
• Movements against intolerance can become intolerant of internal differences.
• Intolerance weakens movements and limits creative possibilities.
• "Divide and conquer must become define and empower".
• Defining "women" narrowly excludes the knowledge of women of color, older women, poor women, and women with different sexual preferences.
• Black women sometimes direct anger towards each other.
• Succumbing to pitting people against each other prevents dismantling the dominant ideology.
• Anger creates courage but is not destructive and discomfort leads to growth.
• Attacking lesbianism as anti-black ignores the sisterhood of work, play, and power in African tradition.
• Women are taught to see each other as competitors for male validation.
• Denying self is as lethal as the dehumanization of racism.

'A Burst of Light'

• 'A Burst of Light,' published in 1988, won the American Book Award in 1989.
• This collection begins with an interview about sadomasochism as an institutionalized power dynamic within the lesbian feminist community.
• Sadomasochistic relationships generate power struggles that permeate all areas of life.
• Lorde discusses her experiences living with cancer and her battle for self-determination.
• In “I Am Your Sister: Black Women Organizing Across Sexualities,” Lorde seeks to unite straight and lesbian black women.
• Lorde shares her concerns about raising children as lesbian parents in a society of stereotypes and bigotry.
• In “Apartheid U.S.A”, Lorde relates apartheid in South Africa to the suppression of African-Americans.
• Some critics found her views peculiar and counterproductive.
• Sarah King and Lester Olson feel that Lorde belittled those different from her by labeling them as "white, thin, male, heterosexual, Christian and financially secure".
• “A Burst of Light: Living with Cancer” comes from her journal during the three years following her diagnosis of liver cancer.

Intersectionality

• Lorde focuses on rooting out practices of dominance.
• This contributes to third-wave feminist discourse, highlighting differences within womanhood.