Black Sexual Economies by Davis Adrienne D.; BSE Collective Adrienne D.;

Author:Davis, Adrienne D.; BSE Collective, Adrienne D.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Figure 8.1: Ma Rainey. Photo courtesy Wikipedia Commons.

The flow, movement, depth, and texture of these blues dresses spoke, making flashy, genre-bending sounds. Low necklines and forgiving, ungirdled waistlines allowed Rainey's body to expand, the beading sparkling as her body shifted and drew breath to relay her songs. The adjectives used to describe her clothing—beautiful, rich—also were used to describe Rainey's voice; her dresses, then, are evidence of her sound and were, along with migration, sexuality, racial difference, gender subordination, black protest movements, and the unique sounds of a mobile delta, the structure that made black women's voices the representation of their generation and the histories of a classic blues genre. A dressmaker assisted in making this music, this history, possible; informed by both her manual and her creative skills, her faith and the love she had for her husband, Nettie Dorsey labored for the blues. The effort to hear Nettie's dresses gets us closer to an understanding of the bonds shared by women, their pleasures, and the alternative sonic, social, and epistemological strategies of resistance built by them.

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