When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost A Hip Hop Feminest Breaks It Down: Joan Morgan: Trade Paperback: 9780684868615: Powell's Books
Table of Content
"Sometimes, it's not a power or an ego thing," says Jacobs -- who, for the record, always pays. More often than not, he explains, a brother's ability to trick loot on a woman he likes simply makes him feel like a good guy. While Jacobs doesn't buy that brothers are necessarily intimidated by strong women, he does think that sistas need to be more realistic about what they're up against. "You know, I hear a lot of strong, intelligent women say they intimidate brothers," says Clinkscales.
Journalist Joan Morgan isn't afraid to ask tough questions. Here she challenges a feminism that vehemently defends women's reproductive rights but ignores men's lack of reproductive choice. And she refuses to discuss the physical and emotional damage of sexism without examining the utterly foul and unloving ways women sometimes treat each other. But while women today still experience sexism, we do so in markedly different ways.
About The Author
As of 1992, the number of blacks making $50,000 or more was a pathetic 1 percent of the African-American population. More often than not, married couples who reached the nirvana of black middle-classdom were only able to do so by combining their incomes. Even with the burgeoning of the black middle class and the entertainment industry's highly publicized black millionaires, there simply aren't enough rappers, ball players, doctors, lawyers, or even gainfully employed brothers to satisfy the enormous demand.
I can't say enough how great this book is, even if you don't agree with her. Joan's writing makes you feel like Black womanhood is a treasure, whether the topic is welfare queens, chickenheads, bohemian artists or professionals. She makes our rites to a melanin sisterhood enticing, so that whether you believe in feminism or not, you'll want to embrace the special qualities that translate to Black womanhood. I wish there were more books on the shelves with her name on them.
When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost
My chickenhead-hatin' homegirls, however, did a lot more qualifying. The next time I see Mr. Mention on TV all I can think is Damn. Then I find myself envisioning the lucky chicken chillin' in a new Mercedes SLK Kompressor and discover something else -- envy-green is an unattractive shade for an allegedly righteous black girl. Curious to see other sistas' reactions, I repeated this "what if" scenario.
Despite being told each time we went out that he'd "never let a lady pay," I'd instinctively reach for my wallet. This time, however, he'd gone to great lengths to plan a particularly romantic evening and the gesture came dangerously close to ruining it. But damn, Joan, a man needs to feel like he can do for a woman.
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I wouldn't do it for like $50,000 or something 'cuz you could really make that on your own -- but $300, where's a black woman gonna make that kinda money legally? It's not like you'd be selling out for a couple of pairs of Manolo Blahniks. I read this book during my college years and it was quite insightful. During that time I was completed engulfed in Hip-Hop culture, this book help me define who I was a woman in such a movement. Too much talk of the "independent woman" v. the "gold diggers" which felt like slut shaming misogyny rather than an uplifting contribution to feminism.
This is a glaring omission that I wonder if Morgan would address if the opportunity presented itself. I suspect the answer may fall somewhere along the lines of this is a book about relationships between men and women with Morgan using some of her lived experience as an example. First off, this one got 4 stars because it got me thinking and talking, NOT because i didn't find some of the content problematic.
And in a world where men got the lucci and we got the coochie, the one self-inflicted Achilles' heel men have is their tendency to define power partially in terms of sexual conquest. Punanny is the one thing women control and men have an unlimited desire for. That makes it, even in these post-feminist times, one helluva negotiating tool. "Trickin'" -- specifically using sex to gain protection, wealth, and power -- is a feminine device probably as old as sexism itself. From chickenheads to feminists, most women possess an almost intuitive understanding of the role sex, money, and power play in our intimate relationships -- and we accommodate accordingly. Michael J. Rochon The Philadelphia Tribune When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost...is gaining nationwide acclaim for adding a fresh, idiosyncratic point of view -- the voice of a new generation -- to the oft-debated saga.
Word is, according to my boy, he goes through great pains to make silence and loyalty a helluva lot more lucrative than kissing and telling. "All I can tell you is that he treats her very, very well. The car, house, and living expenses are all taken care of -- plus an allowance in six figures a year. And Joan, are you ready for this? She's not the only one." What I couldn't get was how he would manage to keep his shit so on the low. As the old saying goes, Hell hath no fury like a woman pissed off. In addition to wreaking a little domestic havoc and tarnishing his image, any scorned mistress of his stood to make a bundle confiding the details of her heartbreak to the media.
This chapter is built up to convince the reader that good girls finish last but there's an about face at the end with it being said wait on Prince Charming to learn that he needs a "good girl" not a chickenhead". Sigh. I found more relevant to MY life in this 'hip hop feminism' than the loads of feminist theory treatise i read in college. I appreciated that JM kept the focus on how raising a woman's 'place' to of equal value as a man's to the interpersonal, daily what-can-be-going-down between me-and-him.
/ Curling up with a brand new book / Pages flipping past your nose / A cup of tea, warm in your reading nook / Mark your page before you doze... "I'm such a strong, militantly feminine person," she says proudly, "that I'm into it." When asked to explain the whys of it all, my mother's only comment was "God bless the child that's got her own." So while I collected poems, love letters, and flowers, my fellow ghetto princesses stuffed their closets with designer clothes, gold chains, and expensive sneakers. Estimated delivery dates - opens in a new window or tab include seller's handling time, origin ZIP Code, destination ZIP Code and time of acceptance and will depend on shipping service selected and receipt of cleared payment. Delivery times may vary, especially during peak periods.
"Not giving it up" until you've gotten at least one present and a few nice dinners. That amnesia-inspiring flirtation you reflexively bestow on a male traffic officer if you bust him stealing appreciative glances at your breasts. The power suit with the notably short skirt you save for meetings with those executive boys. At its essence, trickin' is a woman's ability to use her looks, femininity, and flirtation to gain advantage in an inarguably sexist world. A debut collection of impassioned essays, written in poetic, flowing prose, that consider a range of complex issues facing today's young, educated, and aware African-American women. A pioneering hip-hop journalist and award-winning feminist author, Joan Morgan coined the term “hip-hop feminism” in 1999 with the publication ofWhen Chickenheads Come Home to Roost, which is now studied at colleges across the country.
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