Blues, Black Feminism, and Jazmine Sullivan

So this piece is about three or four months overdue. It’s not easy drawing conclusions from historical context and connecting them to a present experience; however, it’s important and relevant to discuss Black feminism in music. I wanted to do it right. Like so many other fans, I was ecstatic when Jazmine Sullivan announced a new project. Of course ‘Stupid Girls’ and “Forever Don’t Last” had me hooked, and they made sense to the struggle she described in several interviews. However, when I first heard “Mascara,” the song confused me. Not that I know Jazmine personally (as I call her by her first name), I just didn’t imagine this piece being an extension of her own reality. Having limited knowledge of Sullivan's history, I can only imagine that the songs that she wrote for this album were not from personal experience but rather a social commentary on the lives of Black women. As I thought about the work in the context of Black women’s struggle, I quickly began to draw connections between Sullivan’s recent work and the tradition of Black feminism in blues music. In high school, I wrote a paper on Blues and Black feminism based on the book written by Angela Y. Davis called Blues Legacies and Black Feminism. In her text, Davis explores the use of music as a tool to revolutionize conversation about Black sexuality and independence. Although these types of conversations on sexuality were limited to men, blues and jazz musicians such as Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday brought to light the lives of Black women using what Davis calls an ‘ideological framework that was specifically African-American.” In the tradition of Black feminism, Sullivan displays Black women’s lives and highlights Black female struggle and triumph. As many Black female artists, she uses music in a traditional blues sense to promote Black feminism. This idea of modern Black feminism and the nature of blues music are more prevalent in her project than that of other artists because she moves from the monolithic stereotype of Black women to explore the reality of their lives. Sullivan uses the various experiences of Black women eluding through class and socio-economic status.  Sullivan explores triumph, pain, struggle, and independence for the Black women that sometimes is overlooked, ignored or categorized as demeaning and undesirable traits for Black women. Although a critic of the “social media behaviors,” she humanizes the experiences of these women for an audience while connecting herself to the experiences of other Black women.

Sullivan explores triumph, pain, struggle, and independence for the Black women that sometimes is overlooked, ignored or categorized as demeaning and undesirable traits for Black women.

Not only does Sullivan examine her own experiences and mistakes, but she exposes themes of collective struggle for Black women in negative relationships. By places herself in the role of various characters, she welcomes listeners to view these negative situations from the outside looking. As a result, she forces them to reconcile their own troubles as they correct the problems they see in these characters.

After some research and listening to an interview from The Read, my ideas were confirmed and I began this investigation on Blues, Black Feminism, and Jazmine Sullivan. In Davis’ work, she argues that female blues artists used music to humanize Black sexuality with “historical meaning and social and political resonances” in a post-slavery, post-Reconstruction society. Sullivan works in a similar context to re-humanize the lives and experiences of Black women in a society plagued by overt racist behaviors from authoritarian figures, by the re-emergence of Black protest/ movement, and by the open criticism of Black community especially of Black women by both outsiders and members of the Black community. Mainly, Sullivan uses satire as a tool of introspection for private and collective experience, discusses social pressures for Black women and explores the pain of ‘unfulfilled happiness’ for Black women. Finally, Sullivan exclaims triumph and calls for a reclamation of self for Black women regardless of their place in society or stage in recovery from pain.
One of the most salient themes that reoccurs throughout this project is the use of satire as a tool for introspection. Not only does Sullivan examine her own experiences and mistakes, but she exposes themes of collective struggle for Black women in negative relationships. By places herself in the role of various characters, she welcomes listeners to view these negative situations from the outside looking. As a result, she forces them to reconcile their own troubles as they correct the problems they see in these characters. One piece that satirically looks a collective experience highlighted in social media is “Mascara.” In this piece, she examines the ‘bad bitch’ culture. She moves from the monolith of Black women who value beauty, plastic surgery and expensive clothings and shows the complexity of their lifestyles. The character shares all the work she goes through for accommodations. On the flip side, she comforts herself through self-assurance. “Yeah, my hair and my ass fake. So what?” She reclaims her position in society by not only acknowledging the things she has to do for security but by saying she’s willing to do these things because having security reaffirms her place in an American society that values wealth and stability. Furthermore, “Mascara” serves as shield from outside world. It shields her from the reality of hardships in a racist and sexist society that limits her role to that of a disadvantaged Black woman. “Don't I deserve to be privileged? Don't I deserve to get the very best?” However, that security comes with a price of loneliness and harassment from other women. “Now, I know why you're looking at me like that. It ain't attractive when you're looking at me like that.” The character is very aware of the ways others see her, and she internally condemns their behaviors. Throughout Reality Show, Sullivan “ironizes and criticizes the woman even if she is the woman.” She forces women to re-examine their own relationships while offering understanding and compassion to their personal and collective struggle. Sullivan follows the tradition of blues/jazz singers to re-humanize Black women’s experiences by criticizing and uplifting these experiences and taking satirical look at members of the ‘bad bitch’ culture, which allows listeners to see themselves as the character.

I use the phrase "social pressure" to mean the pressures for Black women to fulfill dreams of happiness, membership in American society, and work as an antidote to the limited representation of Black women.

Sullivan’s work explores also the social pressure for Black women to be in relationships and stay loyal and committed in relationships. I use the phrase social pressure to mean the pressures for Black women to fulfill dreams of happiness, membership in American society, and work as an antidote to the limited representation of Black women. One of the most Blues-like songs on the album that follows that tradition of satirical looks at Black love and relationship is “Stanley.” In this work, she calls out the lovers names and demands respect while maintaining this love/ hate for her lover. She wants to remain in the relationship but hopes Stanley joins her in an American dream of commitment and fulfillment. Another song that examines the social pressures of Black women in relationships is “Veins.” “Veins” explores the addiction the character feels to her lover and to their relationship. She not only realizes the negative impact of the relationship on her life physically and emotionally, but she also expresses her fear of the end result- death. However, in the nature of the Blues tradition, she states her need for this relationship, her deep desire to make this lover the one for her forever. “Now I can't live without him ‘cause he's all that I breathe.” In this abusive relationship, the character clearly shares her experience and her need to stay in the relationship not only for her security (“You be holding me down.”) but also as a means of escape from social pressures such as those placed on Black women in the outside world. “Hold me close, while you take me away.” Take me away from a world that already hates and abuses me. Take me away from the reality that I’m invisible to everyone. In her text, Davis explains how this pressure or addiction to a painful relationship mirrors the struggle Black women faced from oppressive systems such as racism and sexism. “Veins” works to show the collective struggle Black women have faced for centuries with a metaphorical look at a damaging relationship. Sullivan uses the same technique as Davis expresses about Billie Holiday. Sullivan gives “the social roots of pain and despair in women’s emotional lives….a lyrical legibility.”
In addition to showing collective experience, Sullivan uses these works to express private pain and emotional struggle. As she has shared in several interviews, Sullivan exposes her experiences in a destructive relationship. One of the brilliant things that Sullivan does is fluidly move through collective vs. private experience in her music. Even though a song takes a look at an outside life in relationship to Sullivan, she uses small moments to highlight her private struggle. In a song like “#hoodlove,” she uses the life of a woman who loves a powerful drug dealer to express words that could account for her personal struggle. “I consider him a blessing, so I follow his lead and whatever he says.” Furthermore, “Brand New” has those same instances where words could relate to Sullivan’s personal struggle. “He's probably messing with them hoes, I know. That's so brand new.” In “Stupid Girls,” Sullivan explores the collective and private realms of male domination first by exposing the greediness of patriarchy but also by urging women to be careful as she has been a “stupid girl.” Sullivan’s work resembles the blues’ singers Davis explores in her text. Sullivan uses personal experience as a means to guide other women away from these relationships while fully understanding the temptation to stay in a negative and deconstructive relationship.

In “Stupid Girls,” Sullivan explores the collective and private realms of male domination first by exposing the greediness of patriarchy but also by urging women to be careful as she has been a “stupid girl.”

Although Sullivan dedicates a large amount of her work to exposing collective and private struggle, she works to show triumph for Black women. Most notably in her piece “Masterpiece,” Sullivan gives hope to those struggling with damaging and destructive relationships while freeing herself through the acknowledgement of her own beauty and triumph. “I hide no more. I can’t hide…Every part of me is beautiful.” Throughout the work and especially in this piece, Sullivan gives the listener freedom to claim ownership within her work. This directly follows a blues tradition where meanings work in the way of culture for collective use but can also have personal meaning. Sullivan uses hope and determination to allow listeners, those who are struggling, those who have triumphed and even those in between, to work towards freedom. “I'll share my picture with the world. “ This same freedom in expression gives Black women the power to tell their stories and encourage each other through Black feminism. Sullivan challenges women to reclaim their own agency and identity in this work. She leads by example as a Black feminist and an artist following the blues tradition.
Sullivan’s work is “a tangible expression of freedom” allowing Black women to share experiences in a multi-facet nature rather than the monolith assigned to them by society. She has “reality-orientated dimension” to her work that gives “secret allusions” that the audience understands and carries with them as they struggle and triumph. At the end of the day, it probably ain’t that deep but fifty plus years later, scholars will be analyzing her work to examine the lives of Black women in our time. In Davis’ text, a jazz critic wrote about Bessie Smith, “ she uses her art [to express] the spirit of her people, to whom she remain faithful all her life….Her message [is] mixed with pain, oppression, and the horrors [of a destructive society].” The same applies to Sullivan. She works in the tradition of Black feminism and blues to highlight the lives of Black women; good, bad, and in-between; giving us strength and voice in a repressive society.
Sources:
Jazmine Sullivan’s Reality Show
https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/d/davis-blues.html
Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday by Angela Y Davis