The Neoliberal Politics of Black Women's Self-Help: Sisters, Suggestions, and Systems

我的研究考察了在社会危机日益加深的时期，黑人妇女自助书籍的生产和消费的政治。我们目前看到，黑人女性为黑人女性撰写的自助书籍有所增加。这些书包含(超级)积极的信息和指示，据称是为了帮助黑人女性应对阶级观念、性别歧视和种族主义的连锁挑战。她们鼓励黑人女性掌管我们的生活，沉迷于自我护理实践，并更好地管理我们的财务和关系。在自助行业作者多样性有限的情况下，BWSH图书的热潮似乎表明了一种进步的文化。然而，鉴于出版业的高度商业性质及其在投机资本主义中的作用，重要的是要批判性地关注这一最近的发展，并探索其背后的驱动力。更重要的是，确定这种自助子类型是否提供社会价值，特别是与黑人妇女解放有关的问题，这一直是黑人女权主义者的首要议程。结合以出版专业人士、BWSH作者和BWSH读者为主要参与者的民族志数据收集过程，我的研究借鉴了社会理论和黑人女权主义思想，作为衡量BWSH书籍和黑人女权主义敏感度之间的一致性(如果有的话)的理论透镜。我特别感兴趣的是揭示BWSH书籍的生产和消费在多大程度上代表了黑人女性社区中性别劳动和新自由主义主观化的场所。通过将黑人女性作为资本主义的主体，我分析了在新自由主义统治和资本主义的背景下，BWSH作者和BWSH读者在自我和女性气质的努力中所扮演的角色。罗莎琳德·吉尔和安吉拉·麦克罗比等后女权主义学者认为，自助内容，特别是针对女性的，是一种性别化的“自我技术”--这是米歇尔·福柯创造的一个术语，用来解释自我调节系统，即个人将特定的行为或条件强加给自己，以改变自己。根据这一逻辑，自助书籍鼓励人们为实现目标或理想而对自我大加抨击。与此同时，出版业依赖黑人妇女的劳动来编写需要黑人妇女更多劳动的书籍。因此，鉴于自助的商品化及其在资本主义制度中的嵌入，我的研究将BWSH的书籍作为种族资本主义新技术的一个案例研究。正如我的项目的副标题所反映的那样，我计划以三个主题来研究BWSH的书籍：姐妹情谊、建议和制度。确切地说，我试图探索新自由主义和种族资本主义(作为制度)如何通过分享和接受自助建议与培养黑人姐妹关系相互作用。换句话说，我关注的是BWSH图书的社会生活，以及这些图书的生产和消费与其解放潜力之间可能存在的紧张关系。这项研究将对(当代)黑人女权主义、种族资本主义和全球文化经济产生新的见解。

My research investigates the politics of producing and consuming black women's self-help (BWSH) books in a period of deepening social crisis. We are currently witnessing an increase in self-help books written by black women for black women. These books contain (hyper-)positive messages and instructions allegedly designed to help black women cope with interlocking challenges of classism, sexism, and racism. They encourage black women to take charge of our lives, indulge in self-care practices, and better manage our finances and relationships. With limited author diversity in the self-help industry, the upsurge in BWSH books seems indicative of a progressive culture. Yet, given the highly commercial nature of the publishing industry and its role in speculative capitalism, it is important to turn a critical eye to this recent development and explore the driving forces behind it. More so, it is crucial to establish whether this self-help subgenre offers social value, especially in relation to black women's emancipation which has been a foremost agenda for black feminists. Paired with an ethnographic data collection process involving publishing professionals, BWSH authors and BWSH readers as key participants, my research draws on social theory and black feminist thought as theoretical lenses for measuring the alignment, if any, between BWSH books and black feminist sensibilities.I am particularly interested in uncovering the extent to which the production and consumption of BWSH books represent a site of both gendered labour and neoliberal subjectification in black women communities. By centring black women as subjects of capitalism, I analyse the roles of BWSH authors and BWSH readers in the labouring of self and femininity against a backdrop of neoliberal governance and capitalism. Scholars of postfeminism, such as Rosalind Gill and Angela McRobbie, argue that self-help content, targeting women especially, is a gendered 'technology of the self' - a term coined by Michel Foucault to explain systems of self-regulation whereby individuals impose certain behaviours or conditions upon themselves to transform themselves. By this logic, self-help books encourage a belabouring of the self to achieve goals or ideals. At the same time, the publishing industry relies on the labour of black women to write books that demand further labour from black women. Therefore, given the commodification of self-help and its embeddedness in a capitalist system, my research analyses BWSH books as a case study in which new techniques of racial capitalism manifest.As reflected in my project's subtitle, I plan to research BWSH books with three main themes in mind: sisterhood, suggestions, and systems. Precisely, I seek to explore how neoliberalism and racial capitalism (as systems) interact with the cultivation of black sisterhood via the sharing and receiving of self-help advice. I am, in other words, concerned with the social life of BWSH books and possible tensions between both the production and consumption of these books and their emancipatory potential. This research will generate new insights into (contemporary) black feminism, racial capitalism, and the global cultural economy.