Black women don’t just appear in stories; they carry them, hold them together. Time and time again literature asks Black Women to carry the narrative, stabilise, soothe and save the story. Fitting into the role so naturally that readers can simply glaze over the fact that it is labour. But this pattern isn’t just confined to literature.
The everyday life of Black Women paints the picture of this unrealistic expectation. In the workplace, around their families, friends and public life in general. How many of you have read The Color Purple? If you have then you know to sympathize with Celie, her emotional intelligence and endurance becomes the backbone for growth in the story, especially for men — to be able to heal and redeem themselves. Through out HER story, people constantly found motivation for their personal successes. This theme breaks barriers off page as well. On screen Black Women are often cast as the moral compass or the emotionally strong character, but it’s often masked with cliche and stereotypical humor. Like Ivy in Good luck Charlie, she had so much potential for emotional depth, just as much as Teddy did, but rendered to the background she was the best friend who listens. The girl who forgives her cheating partner, the never over bearing colleague. This emotional labour becomes the scaffolding that lets everyone else have a story arc.
In today’s society this is the cultural script. In real life, Black women are expected to be the ‘strong one’ in every room. The person who dissolves everyone’s crises while being denied space for their own. Being praised for resilience but punished for vulnerability. I mean, Love Island All star; Whitney’s catching all the strays from both the viewers and participants just for voicing her opinion and emotions. The label ‘Angry Black Woman’ is never far away from someone who comments on misdemeanors as they please. Always told to soften their tone. Endlessly patient, endlessly giving, endlessly composed.
In a constant circle of this initialed burden.
Fiction seamlessly slips into reality as they reinforce each other. When literature repeatedly frames Black Women as emotional anchors, it normalizes the idea that their primary function is to support others. As we move onto society expects Black Women to be unbreakable, fiction reflects that expectation right back. The loop is tight, almost unbreakable, the pressure unmountable.
It’s important that we recognize this pattern as modern day writers, break the pattern, when they give Black Women who put themselves first, refusing to carry everyone else’s emotional baggage, who are also allowed to be soft, selfish, chaotic, human. We can disrupt this convention that DEMAND that Black Women be the emotional backbone. If you’ve ever read Brit Bennett’s The Mothers, the push back is evident. Giving Black Women protagonist EMOTIONAL AUTONOMY not emotional servitude.
By acknowledging the emotional labour they serve both on and off the page, by having a cultural intervention, we can open the door to a possibility real life expectations, not unrealistic constraints that harm everyone in the long run. A narrative that opens space for narratives where black women’s emotions are not a service but a centre.