Redefining the Politics of the Body

So I am in a steady battle of coming in and out of the type of language and labeling I place onto my body and onto my struggle with this constant changing of my politics and sense of who I am within my struggle as a queer Black woman in this society.

Changing from the idea that I am "trapped" within a body that society, media, and this western/euro-centric worldview deems as other, hyper-sexual, inadequate, and without voice and womanhood to a language that separates the blame from that which I live and breathe in, to the actual root. Changing the notion that my body is the root to my oppression as it operates alone within society, detached from my being, allowing the placing of labels, meanings, and definitions to be carried with me without my sanction. Transforming those notions to a language that clearly identifies the actual source to which my struggle lies instead of using language that directs to my external being, my flesh as the outer layering of who I am.

I'm moving away from this siding of accepting this feeling and hurt that correlated with this sense of "trapped-ness" to a body that's constantly targeted with harmful images, messages, and misrepresentations of my Black womanhood, my queer identity, my "poor" socio-economic status, my African cultural aesthetics and retentions, etc.
However, I recognize that I am forced to move through society with these additional concepts of my being that are in opposition to the self-concept and perspective I hold for my own body and person-hood. I just wonder where and how the line be drawn to separate the two. Are the methods of resistance just not enough, as I am young woman who is in search of a higher level of consciousness of the matters that are going on around me, my community, and globally, yet in still, I struggle with finding a concrete grounding to loving myself within this body. What are the resistive methods that need to take place here? What are the solutions to building a barrier that will allow younger Black and Brown girls to be confronted with all that this society throws at them without the internalization of such? What does such intervention look like, and how do come to a place to hold our communities, families, educational systems, and ourselves accountable for doing this work?

As I've just begun putting together an interactive forum for middle school Black and Brown girls to receive the message of moving these questions to their conscious forefront, I hope to make the necessary connections of what can be done and in what ways we can make our efforts effective. Hopefully the writing and dialogue around this discussion will shed more light on ways to maintain our sirvival actions.

In Peace,

Ladi