Beyond Bars and Bias: Unveiling Misogynoir and the Prison-Industrial Complex in Contemporary Black Women’s Literature

Author

Abigail MyersFollow
Abigail Myers, University of MississippiFollow

Date of Award

Spring 5-9-2024

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

English

First Advisor

Patrick Alexander

Second Advisor

Jaime Harker

Third Advisor

Angie LaGrotteria

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

This interdisciplinary thesis examines misogynoir through the lens of contemporary Black women’s literature and the prison-industrial complex, specifically centering on the literary work of Fannie Lou Hamer and Assata Shakur, both formerly incarcerated Black women. Misogynoir, a term coined by Black feminist scholar Moya Bailey, encapsulates the intersection of anti-Black racism and misogyny experienced by Black women, Black girls, and gender nonconforming people. This thesis unites the fields of literary studies, gender studies, critical prison studies, and African American studies to reveal Black women as affected by both misogyny and anti-Black racism in the contemporary prison-industrial complex and beyond. Drawing specifically from the work of critical prison studies scholars Angela Y. Davis and Victoria Law, as well as a range of scholars of Black feminist thought, this thesis argues that Hamer and Shakur’s literary works provide important insights into the experiences of Black women and gender nonconforming people with misogynoir within and beyond environments of incarceration. This thesis consists of two chapters, the first focusing on Shakur’s Assata: An Autobiography and the second on Fannie Lou Hamer’s oratory. The first chapter emphasizes Shakur’s counternarrative storytelling as a narrative approach that exposes misogynoir while also reimagining Black womanhood beyond its confines. The second chapter examines Hamer’s persuasive speeches, which convince her audience to care about the issues she presents as well as the individuals affected by them. Hamer’s oratory provides a compelling way to examine the intersection of anti-Black racism and sexism and incarceration while also providing an avenue of healing for herself and other Black women. The interdisciplinary analyses of these works expand critical understandings about how misogynoir operates while also demonstrating how Black women have long confronted and opposed it, and reimagined Black womanhood beyond its operation. The works of Shakur and Hamer continue to resonate in contemporary justice movements such as the #MeToo Movement and #SayHerName, thus demonstrating their continued relevance in twenty-first-century discussions of misogynoir and state-sanctioned violence.

Recommended Citation

Myers, Abigail and Myers, Abigail, "Beyond Bars and Bias: Unveiling Misogynoir and the Prison-Industrial Complex in Contemporary Black Women’s Literature" (2024). Honors Theses. 3155.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/3155

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