Aesthetic Blackness: Resilient Black women and the politics of race-making

This study explores how six self-identified Black women at a large post-secondary institution in the United States use dress as a tool of race-making that eschews negative tropes of Black femininity. In a world where racialized discourse exerts pressure to conform to a veneration of whiteness, these women deliberately curate their attire to embody what I term ‘Aesthetic Blackness’ – a celebration of Black beauty, style and femininity that defies the hegemonic stereotypes of Blackness. Their clothing choices do more than just resist negative images like the hypersexualized jezebel; they construct a vision of Black femininity that is distinct, powerful and consciously separate from whiteness. This intentional expression of Blackness through dress is not only an act of self-affirmation but also a complex participation in the racialization of their bodies. By embedding racialized notions of femininity into their everyday attire, these women contribute to the ongoing development and preservation of their racial identity and subjectivity. Yet this practice also complicates constructions of race, as it inadvertently reinforces the notion that race is a natural, embodied feature, rather than a construct rooted in inequality and oppression. This duality – dress as both a mode of resistance and a potential reification of racial myths – invites us to add nuance to the ways in which race and identity are performed and perpetuated.