I liked the snowman, when he sang.
CONGRATS MALLORY
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG I MISSED IT. And now I love this even more than I did before which I did not think was possible.
haha right? nope, they managed to use all "other" bodies - white women, black men, and black women - to create a specific story that would further their racist, sexist patriarchy. sigh.
Unfortunately they are major downers - it's emotionally draining. On the upside, though the textured, complex view on race, class and sexuality really breaks down a lot of stereotypes and myths and reveals just how flawed a lot of our understanding of the past is. I'm sorry to recommend them to you, but yeah, at least you'll have a delightfully misandrist answer when somebody asks you "What are you reading?"
It's a really tough topic, but there is some good stuff out there - here are two off the top of my head (why didn't I keep all my syllabi!). Would love to hear recs from others!
Redefining Rape: Sexual Violence in the Era of Suffrage and Segregation by Estelle Freedman - Estelle was my advisor and guide through this whole topic, and she later wrote this book - I highly recommend this, it's very readable.
Rape and Race in the Nineteenth-Century South by Diane Sommerville - a different perspective that brings in a lot of discussion of class.
I'm very sorry about your father. I hope that completing this story - no matter how unfinished it may feel - feels good. Thank you for sharing this with us.
Okay, so while acknowledging my own perspective as a white feminist, I'm also a historian who focused on American women's history, and I have to weigh in on the context here. Despite the myth of the rape of the white woman in the pre- and post-war South - and it was, for the most part, totally a myth, as white women were raped disproportionately by white men, and of course black women were raped unfathomably often by white men - white men were actually almost always exclusively responsible for the lynching of black men who were accused of rape or "looking at them wrong". By most historical accounts, white women only rarely were directly involved in these "revenge" killings and lynchings. They were frequently, in fact, totally fabricated by white men as an excuse to teach a black man or a community "a lesson". Definitely doesn't excuse white women for their complicity in slavery and Jim Crow and ongoing systematic racial inequality, but it also has basically nothing to do with modern feminism. Noninclusive feminism is obviously a huge issue, but I honestly don't think that this kind of thing is related to lynchings - it's a false equivalence.
i want 10,000 more words of this fic
Clutch a wetted towel (here’s the tricky bit) not over your mouth and nose — so as to filter your breathed air for you somewhat — but rather over the back of your head as a cooling, comforting, and stylish shawl, giving your hands something to do. Then, and only then, wander panicked through the flaming ruins until your towel — as wet towels are sadly wont to do — is engulfed in flame.
Perfect. I think one of my favorite parts of this is that it was so incredibly thorough. I now feel confident that I can escape fires from 1974.
WHO IS CHARLOTTE THOUGH?!
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Medley