Bettina Judd

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Bettina Judd is an African-American interdisciplinary writer, scholar, artist, and performer.

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Early life and education

Judd was born in Baltimore and raised in Southern California. [1] She received her bachelor's degree in Comparative Women’s Studies and English from Spelman College in 2005, her master's degree in Women's Studies from University of Maryland in 2007, and her PhD in Women's Studies in 2014, also from the University of Maryland. [2] Her dissertation, Feelin Feminism: Black Women's Art as Feminist Thought , is an analysis of how various oppressions that affect black women are felt, and makes the assertion that Black Women's creative process and output is a site of feminist and womanist thought. [3] She has named her early poetic influences as: her grandmother (a poet and a mathematician for the Department of Defense), her mother, and Maya Angelou. [4]

Artistic and scholarly career

As a poet, Judd has been a Cave Canem fellow in 2007, 2008, and 2011. [5] Her poems and other writings have been published in literary magazines, journals and anthologies including but not limited to as Torch, Meridians [6] , and Mythium, the latter which nominated her contribution for a Pushcart Prize. [1] [4] [7] Judd has received fellowships from the Five Colleges, The Vermont Studio Center, and The University of Maryland. [1] [4] [7] As a singer, she has performed for audiences around the United States and the World. [1] [4] [7] She is currently Assistant Professor of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle. [8]

In 2013, Judd's manuscript for Patient., her first book of poems, won the 2013 Black Lawrence Press Hudson Prize. [9] Patient. was published by Black Lawrence Press in 2014. Broadly, the collection is a poetic analysis of scientific racism and the evidence 19th century medical experimentation on black women that built the modern day practice of gynecology. [4] [7] Throughout the text Judd draws on her own experience with the medical industry, and the ways that she has personally experienced the dehumanization that she speaks of throughout her writing. Furthermore, she also uses her writing to draw attention to the stories of black women whose lives have been stolen through this scientific racism, such as Henrietta Lacks.

The collection alternates between the point of view and voice of a modern-day speaker, a black female researcher who finds herself confronting racist and sexist microaggressions in the face of a gynecological emergency, and the "ghost" voices of Anarcha Wescott, Joice Heth, Lucy Zimmerman, and Betsey Harris, the real life black female subjects of experimentation by J. Marion Sims, typically regarded as the father of modern-day gynecology. [4] [7] [10] The collection also inhabits the voices of other historical black women who were subjected to experimentation and exploitation such as Saartjie Baartman and Henrietta Lacks. [11] The collection was partially inspired by Judd's own experiences at a teaching hospital. [10]

Judd has said of the themes and speakers of Patient.: "I do want to humanize these women. I wanted to tell their stories, or at the very least, allow for an audience to hear that they exist so that the next question could be: 'Well, what is their story?'....Who gets to survive and tell the stories of Black women?....A few of the women I write about are enslaved. They were meant to disappear behind the legacies of the white men who owned them. That fact, the very fact of erasure is something to be examined. So I write in “their” voices, but they sound very much like the sympathetic present day Black woman researcher who is researching them. This sympathetic researcher is understanding her story through their story. That is a tragedy, but it is a way to them, and it is a way toward her healing." [4]

On February 16, 2016, Judd, along with historian Vanessa Gamble, were guests on an edition of NPR's Hidden Brain Podcast titled "Remembering Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsey: The Mothers of Modern Gynecology" [12] where she read poems from Patient. and discussed its subject matter.

Related Research Articles

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Anarcha-feminism, also referred to as anarchist feminism or feminist anarchism, combines anarchism with feminism. Anarcha-feminism generally posits that patriarchy and traditional gender roles as manifestations of involuntary coercive hierarchy should be replaced by decentralized free association. Anarcha-feminists believe that the struggle against patriarchy is an essential part of class conflict and the anarchist struggle against the state and capitalism. In essence, the philosophy sees anarchist struggle as a necessary component of feminist struggle and vice versa. L. Susan Brown claims that "as anarchism is a political philosophy that opposes all relationships of power, it is inherently feminist".

Lesbian feminism

Lesbian feminism is a cultural movement and critical perspective, most influential in the 1970s and early 1980s, that encourages women to focus their efforts, attentions, relationships, and activities towards their fellow women rather than men and often advocates lesbianism as the logical result of feminism.

Womanism Social theory

Womanism is a social theory based on the history and everyday experiences of black women. It seeks, according to womanist scholar Layli Maparyan (Phillips), to "restore the balance between people and the environment/nature and reconcil[e] human life with the spiritual dimension". Writer Alice Walker coined the term "womanist" in a short story, "Coming Apart", in 1979. Since Walker's initial use, the term has evolved to envelop varied, and often opposing, interpretations of conceptions such as feminism, men, and blackness.

Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical, fictional, or philosophical discourse. It aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. It examines women's and men's social roles, experiences, interests, chores, and feminist politics in a variety of fields, such as anthropology and sociology, communication, media studies, psychoanalysis, ecology, home economics, literature, education, and philosophy.

Socialist feminism rose in the 1960s and 1970s as an offshoot of the feminist movement and New Left that focuses upon the interconnectivity of the patriarchy and capitalism. However, the ways in which women's private, domestic, and public roles in society has been conceptualized, or thought about, can be traced back to Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) and William Thompson's utopian socialist work in the 1800s. Ideas about overcoming the patriarchy by coming together in female groups to talk about personal problems stem from Carol Hanisch. This was done in an essay in 1969 which latter coined the term 'the personal is political.' This was also the time that second wave feminism started to surface which is really when socialist feminism kicked off. Socialist feminists argue that liberation can only be achieved by working to end both the economic and cultural sources of women's oppression. Socialist feminism is a two-pronged theory that broadens Marxist feminism's argument for the role of capitalism in the oppression of women and radical feminism's theory of the role of gender and the patriarchy. Socialist feminists reject radical feminism's main claim that patriarchy is the only, or primary, source of oppression of women. Rather, Socialist feminists assert that women are oppressed due to their financial dependence on males. Women are subjects to male domination within capitalism due to an uneven balance in wealth. They see economic dependence as the driving force of women's subjugation to men. Further, Socialist feminists see women's liberation as a necessary part of larger quest for social, economic, and political justice. Socialist feminists attempted to integrate the fight for women's liberation with the struggle against other oppressive systems based on race, class, sexual orientation, or economic status.

Feminist archaeology employs a feminist perspective in interpreting past societies. It often focuses on gender, but also considers gender in tandem with other factors, such as sexuality, race, or class. Feminist archaeology has critiqued the uncritical application of modern, Western norms and values to past societies. It is additionally concerned with increasing the representation of women in the discipline of archaeology, and reducing androcentric bias within the field.

J. Marion Sims American physician and gynecologist (1813-1883)

James Marion Sims was an American physician in the field of surgery, both known as the "father of modern gynaecology" and as a controversial figure for the ethical questions raised in developing his techniques. His most significant work was the development of a surgical technique for the repair of vesicovaginal fistula, a severe complication of obstructed childbirth. He is also remembered for inventing Sims' speculum, Sims' sigmoid catheter, and the Sims' position. However, as medical ethicist Barron H. Lerner states, "one would be hard pressed to find a more controversial figure in the history of medicine."

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Patricia Hill Collins African-American scholar

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Anarcha Westcott was a female slave who was forced to undergo a series of painful experimental surgical procedures by J. Marion Sims to treat a combination of vesicovaginal fistula and rectovaginal fistula, without her consent or the use of anesthesia.

Dominique Christina is a writer, performer and social activist. She is a champion at the National Poetry Series and Women of the World Poetry Slam.

The Mothers of Gynecology Movement sprang out of criticism of 19th century gynecologist J. Marion Sims' experimental surgeries on enslaved women who were unable to consent to their surgeries. Their surgeries were often performed without anesthesia. His work has been described in the late 20th century as an example of racism in the medical profession. Though Sims had many patients, there are only three known patients of his: Anarcha Westcott, and two lesser known women, Lucy and Betsy, which have been described as the "mothers of gynecology" in the United States, to demonstrate the contributions of their experiences to modern medicine.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "About". Bettina Judd | Author of Patient. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  2. ↑ "Bettina Judd — Department of Women's Studies at Univ. of Maryland". wmst.umd.edu. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  3. ↑ A., Judd, Bettina. "Feelin Feminism: Black Women's Art as Feminist Thought". drum.lib.umd.edu. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Ziyad, Hari. "Gynecology Was Built On The Backs of Black Women, Anyway - An Interview With Bettina Judd". RaceBaitR. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  5. ↑ "Cave Canem | Fellows". www.cavecanempoets.org. Archived from the original on 2016-04-04. Retrieved 2016-03-05.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  6. ↑ Judd, Bettina (2013-01-01). "The Researcher Discovers Anarcha, Betsey, Lucy". Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism. 11 (2): 238–239. ISSN   1547-8424.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Crawford, Marisa. "ALL THE FEMINIST POETS: Bettina Judd". WEIRD SISTER. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  8. ↑ "University of Washington, Seattle's Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies website".
  9. ↑ "BLP  » 2013 Hudson Prize Winner!". www.blacklawrence.com. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  10. 1 2 charlotteash. "Review: Patient. by Bettina Judd". Zouxzoux. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  11. ↑ "REVIEW: Two Haunted Houses: A Review of Bettina Judd's "Patient." and Esther Lee's "Spit"". SOUTHERN HUMANITIES REVIEW. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  12. ↑ Staff, N. P. R. "Remembering Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsey: The Mothers of Modern Gynecology". NPR.org. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
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