Performing an ethos of a dominant Black woman in Paris through body and language: passing at the intersection of race, gender, and class. (1st September 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Telep, Suzie
• Is Part Of: CFC intersections. Volume 1(2022)
• Page Start: 71
• Page End: 84
• Publication Date: 2022-09-01
• Subjects: Civilization, Modern -- French influences; French language; French literature; Cross-cultural studies; France; Periodicals; 306.094405
• DOI: 10.3828/cfci.2022.6
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2752-552X

Abstract

Abstract : This article aims to illuminate the social meanings of passing experiences through the practice of whitization (or whitening, i.e. speaking and behaving like a White person) among upper-class African Black women in postcolonial France at the intersection of race, gender, and class. I analyze the role of body and language in the process of political emancipation in a Cameroonian female activist, who is a consultant in the field of African fashion and luxury in Paris. After defining whitization as a form of passing, the article analyzes the phonetic and bodily markers of whitening processes among the Black female subject in three interactions in front of different audiences. I show how multiple semiotic forms are used by the doubly minoritized subject to perform simultaneously a dominant Black woman ethos and a cosmopolitan Black beauty, which partially conforms to Western canons of beauty so as to subvert race, gender, and class power structures.