“SHE WANTS THE BLACK MAN POST”: Constructions of race, sexuality and political leadership in popular culture

Abstract

Recent feminist scholarship on women in politics focuses in part, on the commodification of women's leadership and statecraft. A consequence of how globalising capitalism permeates political processes, this trend has grown alongside higher premiums being placed on political power and influence. The instrumentalising of leadership for personal and capitalist gain is especially pronounced in the global South, where the state becomes a pivotal means for groups to secure economic power. This Article critically assesses the conclusions associated with this state of affairs, asserting that women's entry into leadership, unless insurgent, has the tendency to include their capitulating to the neo-liberal and neo-imperialist status quo. What deserves fuller study is the ways that women, once in power navigate, practice or adopt authoritarian leadership styles: while black women in leadership may seem simply to be “wanting the black man's post”, a variety of layered practices complicate any clear cut conclusions about the impact of individual women politicians in statecraft. My analysis proceeds by examining one phase in the rise to leadership of an Indian woman to become the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago. Surrounding discourses and practices of black women's leadership in the African Diaspora are entry points for this discussion. Intersecting discourses of race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality are explored in media, popular cultural imaginaries and political positioning. Documentation via newspaper and campaign ads, ethnographic accounts, interviews and popular cultural texts are used to demonstrate the value of a multi-faceted reading of black women's leadership in the context of globalising capitalism and intersections of gender, class, race, ethnicity and sexuality.

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