As I stood in pained shock, I heard shouted words, “ Hey, get down, you African wench. ” The words deepened the pain, while also making crystal clear to me that I as a Black woman was nothing more than a “ wench, ” a Jezebel to many on that campus. The wider signifi cance of that incident became clear to me only after I left Denison. I later understood that as long as there was a White patriarchal hegemony in America, so fervently protected by White culture, Black women — regardless of our successes — would forever be branded as Jezebels

Welfare mothers are characterized as promiscuous unmarried women who sit around, collect government checks, and give birth to a lot of children.

White society was able to easily embrace lynching as a necessary means for protection against such a passionate animal.

No such crime as rape of a Black woman existed. Such a crime would be ludicrous since Black women “ were said to give themselves willingly, even wantonly, to white men.

Castration

Black male sexual prowess

These images of Black womanhood provided a gateway to the dehumanization of Black men.

Mammy meant that it was possible for Black women to become something other than Jezebels.

Sometimes Mammy may have been a trusted confi dante of the White mistress.

” This image served to “ calm Southern fears of moral slippage and ‘ mongrelization, ’ or man ’ s fears of woman ’ s emasculating sexual powers. ”

Black women were helplessly trapped in the mythology of being Jezebels by the very institution that demanded them to be precisely that.

With the disruption of the slave trade, the growth of the enslaved population was dependent upon the fertility of the already enslaved

Each slave, whether female or male, is brought up to the block, and sometimes stripped entirely of all clothing, that the buyer may examine as to any bodily defect, and their persons are handled like oxen or horses, and each is sold separately to the highest bidder.

Clothing signifi ed one ’ s moral status as well as class

Such stereotyping has produced the paramount image for Black womanhood in White culture — the Jezebel image. “ Jezebel ” has come to symbolize an evil, scheming, and seductive woman.

suddenly the girl ’ s face sprouted a beard. Horrifi ed by the appearance of the hairy-faced, young woman, Wilgefortis ’ father had his own daughter crucifi ed.

Queer theory has played a critical role in the study of religion and sexuality as well.

Her uncompromising father was forcing her to marry a pagan king. She was desperate about her devotion to Christ and her vow of virginity was now under peril.