Racialized Femininities

The modern binary gender system is a historical product of colonialism, moderated and informed by whiteness. Therefore, people who are outside of modernity and coloniality experience gender differently than white people. Black and brown people’s genders are also marked and perceived differently than white binary genders because of the effects of racial stereotypes. Racialized femininities refers to the various manifestations and perceptions of femininity embodied by Black and brown people; the term takes into account how gender intersects with racism and colonialism. An examination of the racialization of femininities reveals how “true” femininity is defined by whiteness and how racism and colonialism rob or impose femininity on people of color to dominate and control them.