singularexpression's review against another edition
4.0
Some of it was dated but she literally says that introduction so it was expected but it was really good! Easy read detailing the dismissal and invisibility of Black women’s contributions to civil rights movements, and the expectation of a ‘superwoman’ who is really just a woman trying to survive. Will need to read again soon to soak it all in.
michelempls's review against another edition
3.0
All the reviews of this book apply - this is a classic, and I'll likely be looking to acquire the revised edition for my bookshelf. I particularly appreciated the history Wallace provides - all these names that were floating around during the 60s and 70s now have a context in my mind, and I'm looking forward to educate myself further on what was really going on.
Thank you, Michele Wallace, for giving me a fuller foundation to begin to learn more about the revolutionary currents that were so active back in those decades.
Thank you, Michele Wallace, for giving me a fuller foundation to begin to learn more about the revolutionary currents that were so active back in those decades.
avmash's review against another edition
4.0
I’ve been going round my circles in my head trying to work out how to review Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman, Michelle Wallace’s 1978 tract on Black Power, masculinity, and the sexism internalised by the African-American community. How does a white girl born 6 years after this book was published critique such a deeply personal, passionately written and important book? Perhaps the safest route to take is to say that she doesn’t really. She reads. She admires. She learns. There are flaws in the reasoning in this book, and issues left un-examined, but Williams was younger when she wrote it than I am now, and she has come over the years to openly acknowledge the gaps in the book. None of that takes away from how important a text it remains.
oThe central thesis of the book – or the one that I came away with firmly lodged into my brain – is that African American culture has accepted external white definitions of masculinity, family, femininity and gender relations to the detriment of their own culture and their own struggle for equality. When the black man is struggling to be perceived as a man on white terms, he is neglecting the needs of his own people and fighting a false battle. When black culture in American accept uncritically the portrayal of the black slave woman as a collaborator who had a privileged status in the slave-owners home, they do untold damage to the unity of their fight.
What really struck me here are the parallels with the argument Christine Delphy makes in another upcoming release from Verso Books, Separate and Dominate, which I reviewed here just last week. In her book she speaks powerfully of the way in which the dominant class sets the paradigm and the rules which the oppressed need to conform with in order to be fully accepted and equal; standards which they can never meet because of their otherness, but which they are then blamed for failing to meet. And their failure to meet these false standards justifies their continued exclusion. The complexities of the hierarchies of oppression, whether race or gender or class or any other based, are fascinating in their similarities.
The arguments in Black Macho are not intended to feel fully formulated and academic. They are based on personal experience, on popular culture and on mainstream media. For the interested reader this makes them all the more readable, as we jump from an autobiographical note to a lengthy discussion of Norman Mailer’s ‘The White Negro’ to LeRoi Jones, Angela Davis, Nikki Giovanni. This book left me with lists of names to look up; black authors and poets and figures in the Black Power movement. It made me realise how ignorant I am of black history in the States. And ultimately, whether every claim the book made will stand water or not is not the point. It hooked me early; it was compulsively readable; it made me think and it opened my eyes. What more can I ask for?
Read more of my reviews at www.goodbyetoallthis.com
oThe central thesis of the book – or the one that I came away with firmly lodged into my brain – is that African American culture has accepted external white definitions of masculinity, family, femininity and gender relations to the detriment of their own culture and their own struggle for equality. When the black man is struggling to be perceived as a man on white terms, he is neglecting the needs of his own people and fighting a false battle. When black culture in American accept uncritically the portrayal of the black slave woman as a collaborator who had a privileged status in the slave-owners home, they do untold damage to the unity of their fight.
What really struck me here are the parallels with the argument Christine Delphy makes in another upcoming release from Verso Books, Separate and Dominate, which I reviewed here just last week. In her book she speaks powerfully of the way in which the dominant class sets the paradigm and the rules which the oppressed need to conform with in order to be fully accepted and equal; standards which they can never meet because of their otherness, but which they are then blamed for failing to meet. And their failure to meet these false standards justifies their continued exclusion. The complexities of the hierarchies of oppression, whether race or gender or class or any other based, are fascinating in their similarities.
The arguments in Black Macho are not intended to feel fully formulated and academic. They are based on personal experience, on popular culture and on mainstream media. For the interested reader this makes them all the more readable, as we jump from an autobiographical note to a lengthy discussion of Norman Mailer’s ‘The White Negro’ to LeRoi Jones, Angela Davis, Nikki Giovanni. This book left me with lists of names to look up; black authors and poets and figures in the Black Power movement. It made me realise how ignorant I am of black history in the States. And ultimately, whether every claim the book made will stand water or not is not the point. It hooked me early; it was compulsively readable; it made me think and it opened my eyes. What more can I ask for?
Read more of my reviews at www.goodbyetoallthis.com
dubiousdeeds's review against another edition
4.0
This book was among the first to do something difficult and turn against those possibly considered supporters of the same idea of black liberation, asking for reasons why black women where left behind by Civil Rights and Black Power movements. It's not fully developed, I'll admit, but it's am effort to instill action and discussion.
2jam4u's review against another edition
1.0
I OFFICIALLY GIVE UP! What the flying fuck did I just read?!?! How in the world is this a landmark of black feminist text???? I could actually write a dissertation on how fucked up this book is, but I don't even want to put enough effort into writing a proper review on how much I hated this!
DNF @ 75% when Wallace essentially says: yes black people were stolen and forced into deplorable slavery but white people were also sold as slaves so like.......
We're lucky I wasn't near a fireplace or something because when I read that line I actually chucked the book so far from me I looked like a cartoon character. Bullshit.
(I will say though there was some nice critical lines that I enjoyed.. but honestly I don't even know how to consume them. Are they satirical? Are they genuine? Is she saying these things only to use as a contrast to the insane claims she wants to make later?? I really couldn't figure out what the fuck the author was doing with this book. The funny thing is, I read it with the 2 updated forwards!!! And it was still trash!!!)
DNF @ 75% when Wallace essentially says: yes black people were stolen and forced into deplorable slavery but white people were also sold as slaves so like.......
We're lucky I wasn't near a fireplace or something because when I read that line I actually chucked the book so far from me I looked like a cartoon character. Bullshit.
(I will say though there was some nice critical lines that I enjoyed.. but honestly I don't even know how to consume them. Are they satirical? Are they genuine? Is she saying these things only to use as a contrast to the insane claims she wants to make later?? I really couldn't figure out what the fuck the author was doing with this book. The funny thing is, I read it with the 2 updated forwards!!! And it was still trash!!!)
sheralegend's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
grayola's review against another edition
3.0
What’s great about reading even remotely controversial texts are the active ways we as readers have to juggle our own subjectivities along with the author’s. The fiery Goodreads reviews seem to expect the book to flawlessly fulfill its place among the intersectional feminist canon and disqualify it of any merciful critical examination—though I agree, it’s aged a bit. On the other hand, there’s plenty of “I’m white, so I’m here to learn” in fear of saying anything bigoted. It’s a flawed text! And it’s important that even if it is flawed, we read it, analyze its flaws, and in turn, understand our own politics in a meaningful way.
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