What Is Misogynoir?

Misogynoir is the discrimination against black women where both factors of gender and racism form part of the bias.

The concept of misogynoir was coined by queer black feminist Moya Bailey in 2010. When dissected, the term is a combination of two concepts, one being misogyny which is the discrimination against women and the other being noir which means black in French. Historically the actions of this ideology first came about during slavery when white slave owners justified raping black women as they were accused of being hypersexual and promiscuous.

A South African example of this is found in Sara ‘Saartjie’ Baartman's story who was from the Khoikhoi tribe. She was born in 1789 in the Eastern Cape. In 1810, Sara was persuaded by William Dunlop who was an English surgeon to go with him to England where she was promised to make a fortune. When she got to England, she was put on display for her large behind and because of the colour of her skin. English men and women paid to see Sara's caged half naked body and many other Europeans traveled all the way to London to see this woman who was viewed as an anthropological freak. In 1814, Sara was taken to Paris and was still put on display. She was also used for medical and scientific research which became the foundation for how Europeans viewed black female's sexuality. After her death in 1816, some of Sara's body parts were pickled and stored in jars which were put on display as well. Sara's remains returned to South Africa on the 3rd of May 2002 and she was laid to rest in the Eastern Cape.

Over the years, there's been some cases of masognoir towards black women in sport. One case I think we're all aware of is Caster Semenya's battle with the legality of her body. The courts demanded that she medically suppress her natural testosterone level in order to compete. To me this is a true display of racism as the sports industry is one that I feel should recognize body dignity and Caster shouldn't have to do anything to her body to make other runners feel comfortable. She has the right to run free. Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka have also been victims of misogynoir, just to name a few amongst the many.

In our societies, alot of misogynoir acts are driven by stereotypes formed against black women. Society has categorized black women into four categories: the angry black women, the strong black women, the sassy black women and the sexual black women. These stereotypes to me are limiting as our individual personalities are boxed, our feelings are gaslighted, our bodies are formed as weapons against us and our freedom of expression is oppressed. In our daily lives, misogynoir comes in many forms such black women being oversexualised for wearing clothing that fits their bodies well, black women are labeled as angry or threatening for speaking up for themselves and some doctors treat black female patients differently as black women are perceived to have a higher pain tolerance.

From all of this, I think the big question is how do you know when misogynoir is occurring? The answer to that is if you cannot replace the person being targeted with another race or gender, then you know that an act of misogynoir is occurring.