Racialicious Crush Of The Week: Heidi Renée Lewis
Do we throw progressive labels, like “feminist,” on folks too quickly? Perhaps we should say someone did something feminist/progressive instead of papering the person as being feminist because they did something that may be considered feminist?
I definitely do think it’s useful for us (feminists, that is) to think about who we are and what we stand for. Those definitions vary and are extremely complex, but thinking and talking about it also helps us to know where we’ve been and who we were, as well as where we’re going and who want to be. As a black feminist, I’m all always thinking about the power of naming. Toni Morrison once wrote, “Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined.” Ever since I read that, I realized I don’t ever want to assume I have the power to name anyone other than myself. So, that’s partly where my position is rooted. However, I think there are some folks and things that we just know aren’t feminist, like those who are physically/mentally/emotionally/spiritually abusive. That really is the difficulty—at least for me. That’s why I declared I wasn’t going to take up that task in the Li’l Wayne piece. I wouldn’t dismiss anyone else who wanted to take it up; I just knew that taking that up was beyond the scope of the blog, if you will.
Speaking of name-tossing, let’s talk about your latest post on The Feminist Wire about “ratchet” and “respectability politics” on TV. As you present it, “ratchet” is the latest electric-fence parameter that (over-)determines how Black women especially are seen on TV and are to rail against in US society. I’d dare say that it’s also the parameter on which the class lines of Blackness themselves are over-determined, such as the comments saying the phrase “bougie ratchet” is oxymoronic. Thoughts? And would you mind offering your definition of what “ratchet” means in offering your thoughts?
Wow, Andrea, these questions are good! I love that you’re challenging me, and that’s why I bangs with you and Racialicious!
Let me start with my own definition of “ratchet.” For me, it means so many things. I like some of the ways that the term was used when it was first introduced. “Turnt up” is the new thing, and ratchet—for me—is in that, in some instances. Generally, though, when I’m being ratchet, I’m doing what I’m not expected to do (by someone, somewhere)—going further than anyone may have expected me to go. It’s me being bad or crass, if you will—drinking a li’l too much, being a li’l too loud, cursing a li’l too often, spending a li’l too much money, dancing a li’l too raunchy, rolling my eyes a li’l too hard. In “(Un)Clutching My Mother’s Pearl,” Brittney Cooper talked about ratchet acts as those that exceed the bounds of acceptability, and that’s how I see it, too. In my blog, I was trying to problematize the “too” I mentioned several times just now. Too loud for whom? Too much money for what? Too raunchy in what ways? So, I hope I accomplished that.
I don’t think “bougie ratchet” (and this is the first time I’m hearing that term, but I’m loving it!) is oxymoronic. I’m thinking about NeNe Leaks (Real Housewives of Atlanta). NeNe is new-money bougie and ratchet at the same damn time. I think that’s what draws me to her. Tamar Braxton, too. I think that’s what annoys me about them as well, which tickles me! I think, as you’re suggesting, that those who would argue that “bougie ratchet” is oxymoronic are assigning socioeconomic value to ratchet people and ratchet behavior. I write about false binaries in The Feminist Wire piece, and this feels like that to me. The oxymoronic claim suggests that to be ratchet, you have to be poor. To be bougie, you have to have money. However, I’m all about disrupting those binaries, and “bougie ratchet” seems like a useful descriptor for some cases. Maybe I’m that sometimes, too! Hahaha!
Check out the rest of the interview at the R’s Tumblr!
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