{"title":"Books Saved My Life","authors":"E. P. Johnson","doi":"10.5149/northcarolina/9781469641102.003.0014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469641102.003.0014","url":null,"abstract":"In this chapter, Mary Anne Adams narrates the story of her upbringing in Oxford, Mississippi, including the spatial organization of the town, her relationships with her parents, and struggles with child sexual abuse at the hands of her favourite uncle. Most of all, she discusses her feelings of loneliness in adolescence and never feeling quite like she fit with her family, identifying books as her respite from this isolation. She also discusses her involvement in local Atlanta politics and her commitment to coalitional struggles.","PeriodicalId":206070,"journal":{"name":"Black. Queer. Southern. Women.","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132080658","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Taste of Honey","authors":"E. Johnson","doi":"10.5149/northcarolina/9781469641102.003.0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469641102.003.0006","url":null,"abstract":"In this chapter, Johnson’s interlocutors share stories about sexual awakenings, sexual encounters, sexual desire, and sexual violence. Since their narratives move between and beyond pleasure and pain, the chapter is divided into three sections—the first focuses on sexual awakenings and the narrators’ various emotional attachments to sex with other women; the second centers women’s sexual behaviors and practices; and the third focuses squarely on these women’s painful experiences of sexual violence, often in adolescence and at the hands of male relatives. Importantly, these narrators stress that their sexual desires have not developed in response to these violent experiences, illustrating that their articulation of same-sex attraction is conscious and affirmative.","PeriodicalId":206070,"journal":{"name":"Black. Queer. Southern. Women.","volume":"43 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134478207","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"I Found God in Myself and I Loved Her Fiercely","authors":"E. Johnson","doi":"10.5149/northcarolina/9781469641102.003.0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469641102.003.0005","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter explores the role that religion and spirituality have played in the lives of Black, queer, Southern women. Here, Johnson interrogates how these women developed an alternative consciousness of spirituality, particularly when institutionalized religious spaces failed to interpret texts in progressive ways. Some leave these spaces entirely and delve into spiritual practices like Yoruba, others find subversive ways to transgress the mores and conventions of these rigid spaces, and still others find creative and dynamic ways to employ a blend of these strategies.","PeriodicalId":206070,"journal":{"name":"Black. Queer. Southern. Women.","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121225521","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"I’m Alright with Who I Am","authors":"E. Johnson","doi":"10.5149/northcarolina/9781469641102.003.0013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469641102.003.0013","url":null,"abstract":"In this chapter, “Ida Mae” narrates her upbringing in Odenville, Alabama. She shares stories of experiencing childhood in a segregated town, being highly involved in the church, spending time at a local, Black, gay bar, and her family’s various reactions to her sexuality. In her narrative, she also stresses the importance of cross-dressing and experimenting with her gender presentation more often once she enrolled in college.","PeriodicalId":206070,"journal":{"name":"Black. Queer. Southern. Women.","volume":"53 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115921001","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"It’s Thick Here","authors":"E. Johnson","doi":"10.5149/northcarolina/9781469641102.003.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469641102.003.0002","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter is primarily focused on how Black, queer, Southern women experience and navigate intersecting oppressions throughout their lives. Johnson pushes past the “holy trinity” of structural oppression—race, class, and gender—to consider how sexuality and region complicate this theoretical formation. In this section, the narrators shed light on the various ways that they have responded to the confluence of these forces, from using drugs and alcohol to having children to attending college.","PeriodicalId":206070,"journal":{"name":"Black. Queer. Southern. Women.","volume":"115 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123984516","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"I’m Just a Black Woman in America","authors":"E. Johnson","doi":"10.5149/northcarolina/9781469641102.003.0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469641102.003.0012","url":null,"abstract":"In this chapter, Lori Wilson discusses her upbringing in Houston, Texas. She narrates her struggles with teenage pregnancy, an early marriage, dropping out of high school, addiction, imprisonment, and probation. In her narrative, she stresses the importance of healing and finding ways to cultivate relationships with her child and grandchildren.","PeriodicalId":206070,"journal":{"name":"Black. Queer. Southern. Women.","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131088165","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Does Your Mama Know?","authors":"E. Johnson","doi":"10.5149/northcarolina/9781469641102.003.0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469641102.003.0003","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter explores Black, queer, Southern women’s relationships with their mothers, their desires to have children and mother, and, in some cases, having maternal responsibilities imposed on them (due to poverty, abandonment, or the death of a parent). The women’s relationships with their mothers are varied; some recount the love and acceptance they were given when they told their mothers about their same-sex attraction, while others recall rejection. Similarly, these narrators have varied reasons for having children, including abiding by the conventions of heterosexuality and marrying men and wanting to raise open-minded people.","PeriodicalId":206070,"journal":{"name":"Black. Queer. Southern. Women.","volume":"48 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122235494","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"I’m Happy as Hell","authors":"E. P. Johnson","doi":"10.5149/northcarolina/9781469641102.003.0011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469641102.003.0011","url":null,"abstract":"In this chapter, Gwen Cubit narrates the story of her upbringing in Austin, Texas. She discusses her involvement in the church, her experiences with poverty, her understanding of sexuality as a young person, and her relationship with her current partner. She also shares the story of her past drug addiction, acknowledging that it may have developed in response to child sexual abuse and having to repress her sexuality.","PeriodicalId":206070,"journal":{"name":"Black. Queer. Southern. Women.","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122231665","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Salsa Soul Sister","authors":"E. P. Johnson","doi":"10.5149/northcarolina/9781469641102.003.0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469641102.003.0009","url":null,"abstract":"In this chapter, Johnson converses with the book’s eldest narrator, Aida Rentas. She discusses her upbringing in Spanish Harlem, her time living in Atlanta, and her work with Black and Latina lesbian organizations in the city. She also recalls romantic and sexual experiences with women in her adolescence.","PeriodicalId":206070,"journal":{"name":"Black. Queer. Southern. Women.","volume":"37 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116950765","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Walk like a Man, Talk like a Woman","authors":"E. Johnson","doi":"10.5149/northcarolina/9781469641102.003.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469641102.003.0004","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter upends the myth that all queer women of color are butch, or masculine-presenting. Johnson’s interlocutors reveal that gender presentation and expression for women in the South have historically been much more fluid and malleable than is commonly assumed. Moreover, the women expose the inability of terms like ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine” to fully capture how they play with gender.","PeriodicalId":206070,"journal":{"name":"Black. Queer. Southern. Women.","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125050229","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}