The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams
Meshell Ndegeocello and the 'problem' of Black female masculinity
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3138922 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Shana Goldin-Perschbacher (Stanford University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 471-496 |
| Publication date | 2013-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Popular Music (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0261-1430 • E-ISSN: 1474-0095 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0261143013000329 |
| OpenAlex | W2118509115 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 19 |
Singer, bass player and songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello has inspired a growing body of scholarship addressing her funky, political, 'othered' musical personae. Existing work celebrates Ndegeocello in the context of identity politics (most commonly feminist, Black Feminist/Womanist, Black Nationalist or Africanist). This tactic not only defies Ndegeocello's rejection of identity politics, but also oversimplifies her complex, sometimes divergent musical negotiations of selfhood. This article highlights the discursive tensions of engaging 'Black' with 'queer' with 'woman' with 'musician' by exploring her most contradictory performances of self, particularly those which other scholars argue are 'feminist' or 'queer'. Identifying a scholarly gap around Ndegeocello's strikingly conflicted performances of Black queer gender in songs about same- and opposite-sex relationships, this queer of colour critique explores manner and process over essence, articulating experiential, situational, non-linear and even incoherent perspectives. In doing so, it offers an affect-oriented, politically and musically attentive alternative conceptual frame to identity politics
Aesthetics · Art · Heteronormativity · Identity (music · Identity politics · Literature · Masculinity · Musical · Political science · Politics · Queer · Scholarship · Sociology · Critical Race Theory in Education · Gender Studies · Law · Music History and Culture · Race, History, and American Society
Music and society
Invisibility blues
Female desires
Constructing Masculinity
Female Masculinity
Black Queer Studies
The Witch’s Flight
Songs in Black and Lavender
From Zami
Some guy designed this room I’m standing in
Prophets of the Hood
Beautiful Bottom, Beautiful Shame
Belonging and detachment
Black (W)holes and the Geometry of Black Female Sexuality
Black/Lesbian/Bulldagger
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,33 |
| Citation span | 2014 - 2025 (12) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |