Scrubbing Our Black Asses
Welcome to This Black-Ass Life! In 1969, D. Parke Gibson, owner of the first African American PR firm, wrote, “undoubtedly, much of the desire for cleanliness is to overcome the prejudicial old wives’ tale that all Negroes smell bad.” In a world where people are flying with mops and washing individual grits, we want to talk through expectations of cleanliness especially for Black women with vaginas.
I. The Facts
A bit of an internet overshare, but something I (Jumoke) most likely share with a lot of other Black women is that when I was a very young girl (say 3 - 6) in Nigeria, it was very common for whoever was taking care of me to add talcum powder to line my underwear.
This is very much a diaspora experience, and the study, An Odor of Racism: Vaginal Deodorants in African-American Beauty Culture and Advertising, notably examines the historical racist foundations of vaginal deodorization in America.
The study purports that the pervasive discrimination against people of African lineage established personal odor control as a key to legal acceptance and social mobility in white-dominated society. Black people had to be clean at all times, and Black women with vaginas had to clean the assumed dirtiest part of ourselves.
Aided by manufacturers of vaginal deodorants in 1800s America who actively exploited racist notions by appealing to Black women’s insecurities about personal odors, Black women’s personal obsession with having the “cleanest” vaginas in all the land was born.
Along with adding talcum powder to our underwear, Black women with vaginas also douche, a method of washing or cleaning out the inside of the vagina with water or other mixtures of fluids (typically vinegar, baking soda, or iodine), at a rate FOUR times that of our white counterparts.
In the not-so-distant past, Lysol also encouraged women to use its products to disinfect vaginas and as birth control (???). Yes, some people died.
Today, we get online debates about cleaning our underwear in the shower before we put them in the laundry, hip-hop artists rap about vaginas tasting like water, we celebrate Black women who get into the vagina-cleaning game as capitalist heroes (at least until they change the formula), and have a whole sub-genre of social media dedicated to ensuring we have the cleanest of all vaginas.
We've internalized white supremacist perceptions of our dirtiness and made it into a cultural norm.
Why does it matter?
This obsession with having the cleanest vagina is hurting and killing Black women.
Just this past April, Johnson & Johnson reached a settlement deal for $8.9 Billion regarding the now-confirmed link between the development of ovarian, fallopian tube, and peritoneal cancer due to asbestos contamination found in talcum powder. Think of the many generations of Black women around the world who have died or are now dying because they lined their underwear with talcum power because they didn't want to be perceived as being dirty.
Black women who douche have significantly higher levels of potentially toxic chemicals that scientists have highlighted may cause reproductive toxicity compared with white women.
We’ve covered the topic of who gets to be dirty on this newsletter, and who doesn’t, noting the far-reaching implications: “We live in a world where white supremacy makes up slurs talking about the cleanliness of Latinx people, takes away the right to wash from people in immigrant detention camps, takes Black babies away from their parents for being deemed unclean or unkempt and requires people who are incarcerated attempt to get clean in unspeakable conditions.”
What can my Black ass do?
Beloved, there is not a douching product on the planet that can wash away white supremacy. And it's a very dangerous practice.
Give compassion to yourself and other people. Racist expectations around who is deemed dirty and clean are pervasive and are part of the explanation of why there is such tunnel vision around cleanliness of Black women. We live in a world where rich white people can brag about being exceptionally dirty and at the same time, Black women have to show how exceptionally clean they are. This is no coincidence.
With that said, the very least we can do as Black women is not bully each other. If you want to take 65 showers a day, ok. Conversely, if bowl showers are your groove sis, have at it.
II. Other Things
Black-ass happenings
Offset and Quavo reunited to honor Takeoff in a beautiful tribute at the BET Awards.
We’re made of sugar, spice, kanekalon, and cinnamon. (The full song)
Juvenile had NPR staff and the good people at home (us!) throwing ass to Tiny Desk after asking “WTF” Tiny Desk even was.
Across the Spider-Verse was a beautiful movie that apparently required unsustainable working conditions, and hopefully, they don’t try to rush and overwork their staff for the next film. Just push it!
Red Table Talk is on its way back.
Our Black-Ass song(s) of the week (Mitu):
Victoria Monét went back to back with songs of the summer, Party Girls and On My Mama.
Things we look forward to:
I (Jumoke) look forward to eating all the food my mama sent back with me from Missouri. My bag almost didn’t make it through TSA because of weight. I brought back beans, plantains, egusi, efo-riro, ata, yams, gari, okra, deep-fried catfish. Don’t talk to me for the next week; let me fat in peace!
I (Mitu) look forward to The Blackening in theaters. I know I’m late, but I needed to triple verify that it’s not too scary!
lll. Call from a Fed-Up Baby to a Black-Ass Parent
This mom is TRYING it, and baby had to phone up dad by any means necessary!
Stay Black, have a snack, and take a nap today. We'll hit your inbox next on July 18!