Butch Heterosexuality in Black Caribbean Womanhood

Marsha Myrie Obi, PhD, is a Caribbean researcher, whose research explores the intersections of womanism, Black studies, philosophy as praxis and intellectual history. She works with embedding anti-oppressive and inclusive pedagogies in PWIs and is an adjunct professor in Political Science at the University of Guelph, Ontario. She is the master advocate in the survivor-led group Operation Safe Space in Barbados.

"Both scholarly and deeply personal, this is essential reading for anyone ready to confront the silences around gender, power and the Black woman's identity in the Caribbean - 'Butch Heterosexuality' redefines black femininity through the lens of resistance, survival, and historical truth."Anya A. A. Lorde, Attorney-at-Law, (Family Law), Barbados Bar"Butch Heterosexuality is an important contribution to scholarship in several areas – gender studies, post-colonial studies, Caribbean history. Marsha Myrie Obi has written a beautiful book that weaves together personal narrative and Caribbean social and political thought to present the case for a unique kind of women’s resistance to gendered and colonial oppression. Myrie Obi offers “butch heterosexuality” as a term for a certain kind of refusal enacted by women in plantation societies. By rejecting what is a compulsory femininity for heterosexuality, women have reclaimed some of the freedom over their bodies. On the plantations, masculinity was practiced by slave women as a matter of survival, as a way of demonstrating strength and utility and also in effort to avoid unwanted sexual attention. Myrie Obi explains “butch heterosexuality as a legitimate way that Caribbean women refused the boundaries of creole society… [it can] now be harnessed by those of us women who enjoy sex with men but who refuse to live in relationships of subordination where our mental health, financial well-being and sexual and physical safety are not guaranteed.” She argues, with compelling evidence and conviction, that the survival strategies of black women during slavery “ratooned” their way into the modern era and manifest today as socio-political, gendered refusals. Ultimately, understanding performances of masculinity and femininity in colonial context is important for interrogating transnational and interpersonal power relations and moving toward equality and peace, and away from subordination. This is a brilliant book that should be read by anyone interested in the politics of gender and race."Candace Johnson, Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Guelph, Ontario"Marsha Myrie Obi’s debut book moves us through historical gender readings of the Commonwealth Caribbean; offers theoretical analysis; and provides moving, though melancholy personal stories, that colour this assessment of expectations, performances and rebellious being that characterize Black womanhood/the feminine in the region. Myrie Obi’s evaluation of colonial, raced and trauma informed patriarchy; compliance with it; and resistance against shakes the reader asking them to pause and reflect. A brave, thought provoking, moving, and likely contentious take on gender in the Commonwealth Caribbean that is well worth reading!"Kristina Hinds, PhD, Senior Lecturer in Political Science, The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Social commentator, author, and firebrand"Dr. Myrie Obi’s analysis is sharp and deeply historically – and personally – contextualized. Illuminating how some Black Caribbean women’s performances of gender enable resistance to individualized and systemic patriarchal oppressions, Butch Heterosexuality also provides a critical conceptualization of gender – as system, as strategy, as identity-in-practice – that will be valuable to readers in many parts of the world."Elizabeth Jackson, PhD, Director, Community Engaged Scholarship Institute, University of Guelph, Ontario

• 1. Introduction 2. Breaking Silence: State/Family Dysfunction and Plantation 3. Butch Heterosexuality: Black Women Are (Gender) Innovators 4. Redefining Heterosexual Partnership: Building Anti-Patriarchal Relationships by Prioritizing Healing