Selma CHOUCHANE Article Tamanrasset

Ichkalat journal E ISSN: 2600-6634 ISSN:2335-1586
Volume xx No xx Année :xx xx Pp(596 - 610)
The Outcast of Black Women from the Ideal Womanhood in

Sula, The Bluest Eye, The Color Purple, and Possessing the
Secret of Joy: A Comparative Analysis of Wifehood,
Motherhood, Beauty, and Purity
*
Selma CHOUCHANE
Department of English, Faculty of Letters and Languages, Frères
Mentouri University, Constantine, Algeria
[email protected]
Rec. Day : 15/09/2018 Acc.day: 13/05/2019 Pub.day: 15/07/2019
Summary:
This article aims at exploring the role of racism, sexism, and
classism in the outcast of black women from the ideal
womanhood in Toni Morrison’s Sula and The Bluest Eye and
Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and Possessing the Secret of
Joy. Using Patricia Hill Collins’ intersectionality and through a
comparative analysis, this paper explores black females’ gender
roles in Morrison’s and Walker’s selected novels and the extent to
which these roles fall outside the traditional standards of
womanhood, which are mainly related to women’s roles as wives
and mothers and to their purity and beauty. The study concludes
that racism, sexism, and classism make the black woman the
antithesis of the ideal woman.
Keywords: racism; sexism; classism; black womanhood;
stereotypes.
Introduction
Women’s roles, throughout history, are related to a number of
social expectations which shape their status as true women. From
the Victoria concept of The Cult of True Womanhood to the post-
WWII Ideal Womanhood, women’s characteristics and roles
remain tightly wedded to motherhood, wifehood, purity, and
beauty. Toni Morrison and Alice Walker are among the pioneers
of contemporary black women writers who seek to reclaim the
*
Selma CHOUCHANE. [email protected]
596
University Center of Tamanghasset / Algeria ‫ اﳉﺰاﺋﺮ‬- ‫اﳌﺮﻛﺰ اﳉﺎﻣﻌﻲ ﻟﺘﺎﻣﻨﻐﺴﺖ‬
African American identity in general and black womanhood in

particular.
Sula,1 The Bluest Eye,2 The Color Purple,3 and Possessing the
Secret of Joy,4 bring together the complex and difficult issue of
black womanhood within the intersecting oppressions of race,
class, and gender. The four novels illustrate the way the
hegemonic meaning of womanhood and the negative images of
black womanhood enhance black women’s invisibility. Therefore,
this paper aims at exploring the way racism, sexism and classism
shape black women’s gender roles and to what extent these roles
fall outside the traditional meaning of womanhood.
Many studies have investigated the issue of black womanhood
in Morrison’s and Walker’s selected novels. Some of them have
relied mainly on exploring black females’ negative images. For
instance, in “Identity Crisis in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye
and Sula”, Chiara Cecchini describes Hannah and Sula as jezebels
who use their sexuality to control men. She describes Eva as the
communal matriarch with a focus on her egoism as both
bloodmother and othermother. She has also depicted Pauline as
the mammy who abandons her family and leaves her community
for a white family.5 Also, Jakira M. Davis has discussed the
negative image of black girls’ ugliness in The Bluest Eye by
focusing on the damaging effects of colorism on Pecola 6
However, other studies have taken a different approach by
looking at the ways Morrison’s and Walker’s black female
characters challenge the negative images tightly linked to black
womanhood. For instance, Khamsa Qasim et al. describe Eva as a
strong mother, not a matriarch and Sula as an adventurer due to
her rebellious behavior. They also describe Pauline as a strong
woman not a breeder because she refuses to show pain when she
gives birth to Pecola.7 Likewise, Fardosa Abdalla claims that
Pauline is neither the mammy nor the matriarch. She argues that
Pauline is not happy and kind in the Fishers’ house as the mammy
and that her violence and aggressiveness with her family are
justified by her ugliness which is unique and irresistible.8
597
The previous studies have relied mainly on racism and/or

sexism as the main aspect(s) behind shaping black women’s
negative images. Also, they do not discuss the extent to which
these images discard black women from the traditional gender
roles. Hence, this paper seeks to provide a more understanding to
the various forms of oppression that many black women still face.
It also seeks to highlight the tension between the inability to
follow the traditional gender roles and the pressure to submit to
gender stereotypes in Morrison’s and Walker’s selected novels.
Therefore, the present study will shed light on the intersection
of the different forms of oppression and mainly race, class, and
gender as the main aspect behind shaping black womanhood. It
will also explore, through a comparative analysis, the extent to
which black women’s gender performances in Morrison’s and
Walker’s selected novels fall outside the traditional meaning of
womanhood. Moreover, to our knowledge, no prior studies have
investigated the paradoxical roles of wifehood and motherhood in
Possessing the Secret of Joy or deeply discussed the image of the
mule in The Color Purple.
In order to approach the concept of womanhood in Morrison’s
and Walker’s novels, Patricia Hill Collins’ intersectionality is
used as the main theoretical background. Collins considers the
way oppressions related mainly to race, class, and gender operate
simultaneously to shape the identities of individuals. She claims
that the white dominant group controls dominant definitions of
gender for the white women, the black women, and even the black
men. In shaping conceptions of femininity, the black women’s
situation is different from the white women. Black women are
typically dominated on the basis of gender, race, and class, while
white women suffer from gender domination but are privileged by
their race and often by their class as well.
Collins’ intersectionality gives greater recognition to black
women’s controlling images that help in distorting black
womanhood. She claims: “intersecting oppressions of race, class,
gender, and sexuality could not continue without powerful
ideological justifications for their existence [which make them]
598
appear to be natural, normal, and inevitable parts of everyday

life”.9 Intersectionality may for instance help shed light on black
female characters’ gender identity in Toni Morrison’s and Alice
Walker’s selected novels as it looks at the way the different forms
of oppression intersect to distort black womanhood.
In order to assess the extent to which black womanhood falls
outside the meaning of the ideal womanhood, the present paper
compares the traditional meaning of wifehood, motherhood,
purity and beauty with black women’s gender performances in
Morrison’s Sula and The Bluest Eye and Walker’s The Color
Purple and Possessing the Secret Joy.
1- Wifehood
1-1- The Domestic Wife vs. The Black Matriarch
Within the discourse of the ideal womanhood, wifehood and
motherhood are glorified as the purpose of a woman's being. The
ideal woman should be domestic. She has to remain within her
proper sphere, where she can play her ultimate roles as a good
wife and a glorified mother. The ideal woman should also accept
male dominance. She has to be submissive and show her
dependence and need for protection.
Both Morrison and Walker highlight the unhealthy marital
relationships in black communities. Black women in their
households find themselves obliged to submit to one of the two
imposed roles; either to play a secondary role in a patriarchal
family or to become the head of the household, when black men
abandon their duties. The latter is directly linked to the
stereotypical image of the black matriarch. According to Patricia
Hill Collins, the image of the matriarch is central to intersecting
oppressions of class, gender, and race. It is important in
explaining the persistence of black social class outcomes.10
The paradoxical images of black women as either domestic
good wives or head of the households is central in Sula. The
images of the ideal woman and the nuclear family strongly
influence the black community. Morrison creates Nel Wright’s
traditional and conservative family in contrast to Sula Peace’s
matriarchal one. The Wright family inherited the traditional
599
gender roles from one generation to another. Nel’s mother Helene

is the daughter of a prostitute. However, she has been raised by
her strict religious grandmother, Cecile, who makes of her a very
traditional woman. Cecile plans Helene’s marriage to her
grandnephew because she believes in the necessity of marriage to
preserve women’s virtue. In the same way, Helene raises Nel on
the two traditional women’s jobs; wifehood and motherhood.
Sula, however, has been raised in a household headed by her
grandmother Eva. In contrast to Helene, Eva is the breadwinner.
She is the authoritative figure and the one who names things and
persons. Eva’s non-traditional gender roles make her labeled the
black matriarch. Collins claims that the: “[a]ggressive, assertive
women are penalized—they are abandoned by their men, end up
impoverished, and are stigmatized as being unfeminine”.11 Yet, it
is important to notice that Eva’s assertive behavior rises when her
husband BoyBoy left the household and she finds herself in front
of big responsibilities towards her children. Thus, the image of
the matriarch rises primarily as a response to black men’s failure
in performing the traditional gender roles. Morrison describes
Eva’s husband as the one who “liked womanizing best, drinking
second, and abusing Eva third” (Sula 32).
Although the image of the matriarch is the outcome of the
intersecting oppressions of race, class, and gender, the black
man’s role in constructing the matriarchy thesis should not be
reduced. For instance, when Jude leaves the house, Nel, like Eva,
is obliged to give up the image of the traditional domestic wife
and play the head of the household’s role. Although Nel is far
from Eva’s authoritative personality, she is also a matriarch due to
her position as the breadwinner.
Yet, the matriarch is a powerful image for women’s
independence. Collins argues that ''the image of the Black
matriarch serves as a powerful symbol for both Black and White
women of what can go wrong if White patriarchal power is
challenged [...]. The matriarch or overly strong Black woman has
also been used to influence Black men's understandings of Black
masculinity.''12 Eva Peace shows her ability in filling the head of
600
the household’s role. She supports her family financially. She

even devotes herself for the well being of her children.
However, when BoyBoy comes back to town and visits her.
She does not know what she wants from him, “[w]ould she cry,
cut his throat, beg him to make love to her” (Sula 35. Emphasis in
the original). Eva’s controversial feelings show that she is not
enjoying her role as the black matriarch. For instance, her advice
for Sula to marry and have kids is very surprising. She claims:
“‘[w]hen you gone to get married? You need to have some babies.
It’ll settle you.’ […] ‘Ain’t no woman got no business floatin’
around without no man’” (Sula 92). When Sula replies that she
[Eva] and her mother live without men, Eva argues: “[n]ot by
choice” (Sula 92).
Eva regrets her status as the black matriarch and she, as Helen,
supports the traditional view of women’s domesticity. According
to Collins, “[m]any U.S. Black women who find themselves
maintaining families by themselves often feel that they have done
something wrong. If only they were not so strong, some reason,
they might have found a male partner.”13 Therefore, although the
black woman can enjoy her freedom within the head of the
household’s role, the image of the ideal woman remains so
powerful that black women could not escape.
1-2- Female Fragility vs. The Mule
Besides the image of the matriarch, the white upper-class
dominant group creates the mule stereotype. Collins defines the
mule as the woman “whose back is bent from a lifetime of hard
work”.14 She introduces the origins of the word “mule” which is
“mules uh de world”. The term has been first used in Zora Neale
Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. It defines black
women as the lowest creatures in the world. It is mainly related to
black women’s labor market and their victimization as
dehumanized objects and living machines.15
In The Color Purple, Walker presents Celie as “the mule of the
world”, because her husband, whom she called Mr. _____, forces
her to work hard and exploits her labor. At first, Mr. _____ wants
to marry her sister Nettie, but their father Pa refuses his offer.
601
Instead, Pa proposes him Celie. Chocked when seeing Celie, Mr.

_____ says: “I ain’t never really look at that one” (The Color 8).
Pa tries to convince him: “she ain’t no stranger to hard work. And
she clean. And God done fixed her. You can do everything just
like you want to and she ain’t gonna make you feed it or clothe it”
(The Color 8). Surprisingly, Pa informs Mr. _____ that “[s]he
ugly [...] she a bad influence on my other girls [...] She ain’t smart
either [...] she’ll give away everything you own [...] She tell lies”
(The Color 8). Nevertheless, he concludes with “she’ll make the
better wife” (The Color 8).
Although Mr. _____ spends the whole spring thinking about
Pa’s offer, he ends up accepting Celie as a wife. Despite Celie’s
negative features, as described by Pa, Mr. _____ marries her for
two important features; she is not demanding and “she can work
like a man” (The Color 8). Collins discusses the way race, class
and gender enhance the contradictions between the dominant
ideology of womanhood and black women’s objectification. She
claims: “[i]f women are allegedly passive and fragile, then why
are Black women treated as ‘mules’”.16
Mr. _____’s/Celie’s relationship is similar to that of a
master/slave. Celie has to work inside and outside the house,
while Mr. _____ does not work at all. Harpo inherited these
paradoxical gender roles from his father. When Mr. _____’s sister
asks him to help Celie in bringing water, he replies: “[w]omen
work. I’m a man” (The Color 22). Later, Mr. _____ obliges him
to work with Celie in the fields, and due to his continuous
complaining about his hard work, Mr. _____ gives him wages.
Yet, Celie works hard and without any wages.
Hence, the image of the mule in The Color Purple is another
example of black men’s role in black women’s subordination. In
other words, by making Celie a mule, Mr. _____ not only
embraces the white ideology that seeks to subordinate black
women by discarding them from white women’s fragility but also
justifies their labor market victimization.
2- Motherhood
2-1- The Good Mother vs. The Black Mammy
602
The image of the good mother has always been related to true
womanhood. The good mother should be caring, protective and
nurturing. Among the different stereotypical images of black
women, the image of the mammy is the closest one to the image
of the good mother. While the matriarch is the authoritative,
aggressive female, the mammy is the one who has both virtue and
mother love. However, the mammy’s feelings are primarily
directed towards the white family for whom she works. Collins
argues:
The mammy image is central to intersecting oppressions of
race, gender, sexuality, and class. Regarding racial
oppression, controlling images like the mammy aim to
influence Black maternal behavior. […] Black mothers are
encouraged to transmit to their own children […] their
assigned place in White power structures.17
In The Bluest Eye, Pauline Breedlove represents the mammy
figure. She is obliged to work for the Fishers, because her
alcoholic husband, Cholly, abandons his duties. Pauline’s duality
is very significant in the novel. She is a good mother only in the
Fishers’ house. With her children, Pauline shows a totally
different image. She fails in providing neither love nor protection
to her children and specifically to her daughter. Pauline treats her
daughter badly unlike the way she treats the small white girl for
whom she works. The white girl calls Pecola’s mother Polly,
while Pecola calls her Mrs. Breedlove. Pauline’s failed
motherhood leads to the devastation of her two children. Sammy
runs away many times and Pecola is trapped in a vicious circle of
self-hatred and ends up raped and impregnated by her father.
The most significant example of Pauline’s duality is when
Pecola accidently topples the cobbler in the Fishers’ kitchen.
Pauline quickly punishes and beats her harshly. Then, she starts
comforting the little white girl with her lovable words. Pauline
internalizes the mammy image and proves that she is the obedient
domestic servant, “[a]ll the meaningfulness of her life was in her
work” (The Bluest 126). According to Collins, “[b]lack women
603
who internalize the mammy image potentially become effective

conduits for perpetuating racial oppression”.18
The image of the mammy distorts black motherhood which has
always been the site of black women’s resistance. Black mothers
used to raise their children and mainly their daughters on the
necessity of resisting the different forms of oppression. However,
by shifting the black mother’s nurturing towards the white family,
the dominant group does not only destruct the mother/daughter
bond but also repress black people’s resistance.
2-2- The Protective Mother vs. The Submissive Wife
In Possessing the Secret of Joy, Walker presents a new
meaning of the ideal womanhood which differs from the Western
one. Though the two concepts of womanhood intertwine in many
aspects as women’s submissiveness and domesticity, the ideal
womanhood in Olinka village is directly related to black women’s
bodies. In other words, the ideal womanhood is linked to the
traditional ritual of female genital circumcision, which is used in
order to remove what is considered masculine and, thus, preserve
the full status of the African woman.
Yet, female genital circumcision is used in order to control
black women’s sexuality. According to Collins, “efforts to control
Black women’s sexuality lie at the heart of Black women’s
oppression”.19 The ritual is also regarded as a way for resisting
the influence of white imperialists and Christian missionaries.
Thus, ethnicity, nation, gender, and sexuality intersect to shape
Olinka women’s lives.
For instance, Tashi’s transformation from a strong rebellious
woman to a mutilated broken woman is very significant. In the
beginning, Walker describes Tashi as a rebellious girl who tries to
enjoy independence and learn a new way of life. Her rebellious
behavior is clearly seen in her lovemaking with Adam in the
fields, which is considered a great sin. However, when the
Mbele’s detained leader sends a message to his people to make
them “return to the purity of [their] own culture and traditions”
(Possessing 115), Tashi abides to the leader’s call and joins the
Mbeles camp in order to undergo the surgery. Although the ritual
604
causes the death of her sister Dura, Tashi shows great courage and
determinism for her African womanhood. She tells her
psychiatrist Raye that she gives up her sexual pleasure in order
“to be accepted as a real woman by the Olinka people”
(Possessing 120-1).
Though Tashi and her sister Dura assume the responsibility of
following the illusion of the true African womanhood, their
mother plays the most important role in their devastation. Despite
the fact that she converts to Christianity and shows her opposition
to female genital circumcision, she cannot stop the ritual from
reaching her daughters’ throats. Her first daughter Dura dies, and
her second daughter Tashi lives with complex trauma and ends up
executed.
Within the context of the ideal womanhood in Olinka society,
Tashi’s mother finds herself in a controversial situation in which
motherhood and wifehood stand paradoxically. In other words, to
be good, obedient, submissive wife, Tashi’s mother should forget
her mother duties. Yet, if she chooses to be a nurturing, protective
mother, she will be a bad, rebellious wife. Tashi’ mother abides
the patriarchal laws, by allowing the continuity of the sexist ritual.
Thus, she proves her status as a good wife.
However, she is the antithesis of the good mother because she
lacks one of the most important virtues of motherhood which is
protection. Tashi recounts her mother’s ignorance: “[i]n truth, my
mother was not equipped, there was not enough of her self left to
her, to think about me. Or about my sister Dura, who bled to
death after a botched circumcision or about any of her other
children. She had just sunk into her role of ‘She Who Prepares the
Lambs for Slaughter’” (Possessing 272-3). Therefore, the
dominant group in Olinka village does not only control black
women’s sexuality but also breaks the mother-daughter bond by
making mothers maintain their own daughters’ devastation.
3- Female Purity vs. The Black Jezebel
Purity is also an essential component of the ideal womanhood.
Barbara Welter claims that the absence of purity makes a woman
''unnatural and unfeminine''.20 Purity creates rigid boundaries but
605
a woman within the boundaries gains the highest status possible

for a woman in society. It also manifests itself in the proper piety
and maternal love, which a woman imparts to her domestic
sphere.
Yet, the intersection of race, class, gender, and sexuality
subordinates black women and degrades them to the symbol of
deviant female sexuality. Collins states:
Heterosexuality itself is constructed via binary thinking that
juxtaposes male and female sexuality [...] Men are active,
and women should be passive. [...] Black people and other
racialized groups simultaneously stand outside these
definitions of normality and mark their boundaries. In this
context of a gender-specific, White, heterosexual normality,
the jezebel or hoochie becomes a racialized, gendered
symbol of deviant female sexuality.21
Unlike the ideal woman who should repress her sexuality, the
image of the jezebel casts black women as either sexually
aggressive or having excessive sexual desire. In both cases, the
jezebel remains central in black women’s controlling images
because it discards black women from white women’s purity.
In The Bluest Eye, Morrison stresses the importance of purity
in the black community’s view of the three prostitutes living
above Pecola’s house. One day when Claudia and Frieda go in
search for Pecola and they don’t find her, Maginot Line, one of
the three prostitutes, asks them to wait for her in her house. The
two girls’ reaction shows the society’s conventions. They reply:
“[n]o, ma’am, we ain’t allowed.” […] My mama said you ruined”
(The Bluest 102).
Although the three prostitutes are considered by both the white
and the black communities as ruined women, they still the only
mother figure for Pocola. Morrison introduces them as the most
confident characters in the novel. They are strong and self-
possessed. Unlike Pauline who fails in her mother duties, Miss
Marie, China, and Poland nurture Pecola with mother/daughter
conversations about love and relationships. Hence, they challenge
606
the traditional image of the good mother which has always been
linked to female purity.
Sula’s mother, Hannah, is also a black jezebel. Yet, she does
not use her sexuality for money, but simply refuses to live without
the attention of a man. Hannah “made the man feel as though he
were complete and wonderful just as he was” (Sula 43). In
contrast to the three prostitutes who hate all men, Hannah
glorifies patriarchy. On the one hand, she loves men and makes
them assert their manhood in her companionship. Thus, she
enhances their patriarchal attitudes. On the other hand, she fails in
her mother duties and, thus, she proves that the jezebel is the
antithesis of the good mother.
4- The Beauty Myth vs. Colorism
In both The Bluest Eye and Sula, Morrison sets a hierarchy of
skin color that works in opposite directions. In Sula, The Bottom
community sees the darkest skin as the manifesto of the true black
blood. In her description of Nel, Morrison claims that she is “just
dark enough to escape the blows of the pitch-black truebloods and
the contempt of old women who worried about such things as bad
blood mixtures” (Sula 52). However, in The Bluest Eye, the black
community adopts the white racist standards of beauty in which
the lightest skin is the most beautiful. This adoption is clearly
illustrated in the gifts that parents give to their daughters in
Christmas; “[a]dults, older girls, shops, magazines, newspapers,
window signs--all the world had agreed that a blue-eyed, yellow-
haired, pink skinned doll was what every girl child treasured”
(The Bluest 18).
The different messages sent through the toys have deep effects
on the young black girl’s construction/destruction of womanhood.
According to Lindsey, “[d]olls for girls, especially Barbies [...]
are standard gifts to children from parents. Not only are messages
about beauty, clothing, and weight sent to girls via Barbie, but
girls also learn about options and preferences in life”.22 By
offering black girls white blue-eyed dolls, black parents not only
legitimize the traditional racist standards of beauty but also
legitimize their daughters’ ugliness.
607
In addition to the binary of white beauty/black ugliness that

categorizes American society in general, Morrison describes the
binary of light/dark skin within the black community itself. This
color hierarchy is explicitly manifested in the geographical
division of the black society. The Breedloves did not live in the
storefront because they were poor, black and mainly because of
their unique ugliness. Collins argues:
Colorism […] is deeply embedded in a distinctly American
form of racism grounded in Black/White oppositional
differences. Other groups “of color” must negotiate the
meanings attached to their “color.” All must position
themselves within a continually renegotiated color hierarchy
where, because they define the top and the bottom, the
meanings attached to Whiteness and Blackness change
much less than we think.23
Nevertheless, though colorism is related to racism, it is deeply
gendered. In other words, though it splits the black community
according to skin color hierarchy, it exclusively subjugates black
women. For instance, Cholly and Sammy could fit with their dark
skin, but Pauline and Pecola are trapped into self-hatred. Collins
argues: “[r]ace, gender, and sexuality converge on this issue of
evaluating beauty. Black men’s blackness penalizes them. But
because they are not women, valuations of their self-worth do not
depend as heavily on their physical attractiveness”.24
Pecola strictly rejects her blackness to the point that she begs
God to make her disappear. She closes her eyes and imagines that
the different parts of her body are slowly disappearing, except her
eyes. She tries as she could to make them disappear but she fails
because “[t]hey were everything” (The Bluest 43). Pecola’s eyes
work as memory which gathers people’s admiration of Mary Jane,
Shirley Temple and Mr. Yacobowski, the store owner, who
hesitates to touch her hand when she gives him money. Her eyes
also remind her of the way her light-skinned classmate Maureen
Peel is privileged in both white and black communities. Although
Maureen’s has “both an unattractive canine tooth and signs of an
608
early disfigurement on her hands”, she is still considered

beautiful. 25
The prejudiced beauty devastates Pauline, Pecola and many
other girls and women whose physical appearance discards them
from the ideal meaning of womanhood. Nevertheless, Morrison
insists on the importance of the mother-daughter relationship in
shaping young black girls’ self-esteem. In contrast to Pauline,
Mrs. MacTeer implants in her two daughters the importance of
self-worth to resist and challenge the different forms of
oppression. Claudia and Frieda create their own model of beauty,
which is primarily based on loving and accepting the self.
Conclusion
The intersection of the different forms of oppression in Toni
Morrison’s Sula and The Bluest Eye and Alice Walker’s The
Color Purple and Possessing the secret of Joy discards black
women from the ideal womanhood. Black women find themselves
unable to follow the traditional meaning of wifehood which
enhances women’s domesticity and fragility. They are obliged to
financially support their families and, thus, labeled black
matriarchs. They are also assigned to do heavy work which makes
them regarded as mules or living machines. Moreover, they fail in
their role as protective mothers and their caring and nurturing is
directed towards the white family. They are also degraded into the
symbol of deviant female sexuality in contrast to the white
women’s purity. Finally, the beauty myth excludes them from the
frames of the ideal beauty. Thus, racism, sexism, and classism
make the black woman the antithesis of the ideal woman.
References
1
Morrison, Toni. Sula. London: vintage Books, 2005. Further references are
included as in-text citations.
2
---. The Bluest Eye. London: vintage Books, 1999. Further references are
included as in-text citations.
3
Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. New York: Harcourt Publishing Company,
1992. Further references are included as in-text citations.
609
4
---. Possessing the Secret of Joy. Florida: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992.
Further references are included as in-text citations.
5
Cecchini, Chiara. Identity Crisis in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Sula.
Diss. Wien university, 2008. Web. 8Jul. 2018.
6
Davis, Jakira. M. Colorism and African American Women in Literature: An
Examination of Colorism and its Impact on Self-Image. Diss. Oxford
University, 2015. Web. 20Jul. 2018.
7
Qasim, Khamsa, et al. “Black Women and Racial Stereotypes: A Black
Feminist Reading of Morrison’s Novels”. Language in India. 12:5 (2012).
Web. 15Aug. 2018.
8
Abdalla, Fardosa. “Resistance of Female Stereotypes in The Bluest Eye:
Destroying Images of Black Womanhood and Motherhood”. Södertörns
University, 2014. Web. 15Aug. 2018.
9
Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness,
and the Politics of Empowerment. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2000, p.
69.
10
Ibid., p. 76.
11
Ibid., p. 77.
12
Ibid.,
13
Ibid.,
14
Ibid., p. 113.
15
Ibid., p. 45.
16
Ibid., p. 11.
17
Ibid., p. 73.
18
Ibid.,
19
Ibid., p. 81.
20
Welter, Barbara. ''The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860,'' American
Quarterly 18.2 (Summer 1966). pp: 151-174. Colorado.edu. Web. 20 Apr.
2017, p.154.
21
Collins., op. cit., p. 83
22
Lindsey, Linda. L. Gender roles: A Sociological Perspective. 6th ed. USA:
Routledge, 2016, p. 80.
23
Collins, op. cit., p. 90.
24
Ibid., p. 89.
25
Bloom, Harold. Ed. Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye. New York: Infobase
Publishing, 2010, p. 43.
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Ichkalat journal E ISSN: 2600-6634 ISSN:2335-1586

Volume xx No xx Année :xx xx Pp(596 - 610)

The Outcast of Black Women from the Ideal Womanhood in

African American identity in general and black womanhood in

The previous studies have relied mainly on racism and/or

appear to be natural, normal, and inevitable parts of everyday

gender roles from one generation to another. Nel’s mother Helene

the household’s role. She supports her family financially. She

Instead, Pa proposes him Celie. Chocked when seeing Celie, Mr.

who internalize the mammy image potentially become effective

a woman within the boundaries gains the highest status possible

In addition to the binary of white beauty/black ugliness that

early disfigurement on her hands”, she is still considered

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