WOMEN’S OPPRESSION AND WOMANISM IN SELF MADE:INSPIRED BY THE LIFE OF MADAM C.J WALKER 2020 SERIES

Abstract

Oppression of Black women is a significant issue to examine within various social and cultural contexts. One prominent figure who fought for the rights of Black women is Sarah Breedlove, known as Madam C.J. Walker. This study aims to analyze the oppression experienced by Sarah Breedlove in the series Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker (2020) using the oppression theory from Iris Marion Young in her book Justice and the Politics of Difference (1990), which includes exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence. Additionally, this study examines the concept of womanism as articulated by Alice Walker in her book In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose (1982), which emphasizes the strength, solidarity, and resilience of Black women. Aspects of womanism analyzed in this study include communal orientation, resistance, commitment to survival and wholeness, spirituality, and the love for women and women's culture. The data collected includes 67 entries related to oppression and womanism, with marginalization as the most dominant form of oppression (17 entries), followed by powerlessness (11 entries), exploitation (5 entries), cultural imperialism (6 entries), and violence (3 entries). In the aspect of womanism, resistance (14 entries) is the most prominent, followed by commitment to survival and wholeness (12 entries), communal orientation (6 entries), spirituality and connection to nature (3 entries), and loving women and appreciating women's culture (6 entries). The findings of this study show how Sarah Breedlove, despite facing various forms of oppression, successfully resisted these forces and celebrated the strength and identity of Black women through the values of womanism represented in her life.

Keywords: Oppression, Womanism, Madam C.J. Walker, Series, Black Women, Iris Marion Young .