Amanda Seales - Small Doses: Potent Truths for Everyday Use

Editor: Samantha Weiner
Designer: Sebit Min
Production Manager: Michael Kaserkie

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018958836

ISBN: 978-1-4197-3450-2
eISBN: 978-1-68335-494-9

Copyright 2019 Amanda Seales
Photography by Elton Anderson
Jacket 2019 Abrams

Emojis Apple, courtesy of Emojipedia

Published in 2019 by Abrams Image, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

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FOR NETS

These words come from experience, hope, and faith. You may not agree with all of them, but know theyre born from a pure place.

In a Womans Best Interest & Slaying in Spite of Sexism

WOMANHOOD IS BY NO MEANS EASY. I mean, its def got its perks, but the whole period thing is a drag, and we could all do without that pesky patriarchy and its pal, misogyny. Women are the shit! It has to be said. Weve made an entire existence out of proving that on a regular basis, in arenas welcoming or not, and I see no signs of stopping any time soon. We cant.

One thing I became aware of in my traveling recently through Africa and the Middle East is in every country that you go to usually the degree of progress can never be separated from the woman. If youre in the country thats progressive, the woman is progressive. If youre in a country that reflects the consciousness of the importance of education, its because the woman is aware of the importance of education. But in every backward country youll find the women are backward and in every country where education is not stressed, its because the women dont have education.

Malcolm X

As Malcolm states above, when women flourish, the community flourishes. Everybody wins. Why do you think the Black Eyed Peas added Fergie? Ruff Ryders brought in Eve? The Roots tossed around the possibility of making me a member because women have a way of elevating any previously predominantly male space. Some might say its the estrogen, or the natural nurturing, but I liken it to a different perspective being added that extends the vision beyond its previous horizon.

Full of life, figuratively, and in some cases, literally, we are vitality in human form. Even in the stories of religion, whether Eve with the apple or Durga with her trishul or Isis spreading her wings, women are simply not the falsehood that has been told throughout history, depicting us as weak, unable, and unworthy of education. Unfortunately, instead of this making more spaces for women, it fuels the fear-driven insecurities of those propping up the pillars of patriarchy, freeaakkss weak men out, and they then resort to acts of oppression and suppression in an attempt to dull our glow. The world over, women have been underutilized, disrespected, and battered in unique ways that intersect at the site of our gender, yet we have continued to rise.

Now, we find ourselves at a turning point in history, where, particularly in the west, though our rights to our bodies continue to be decided upon by rooms of soulless, melanin-less men in expensive muted suits and Fantastic Sams haircuts, we lean in, and grow our numbers, pushing the narrative to finally hold the pen in writing herstory. Daily we defy the degradation of being considered only for a reproductive purpose, or objectified for sexual pleasure, or vilified for independent thought. We actively disembowel proponents of body shaming, reclaiming our many shapes and sizes in their natural forms. We are raising the volume on having zero tolerance for abuse and mistreatment. We are educating the masses on rape culture and holding predators accountable. We are a movement.

That said, we are not a monolith. Once upon a time womanhood was measured simply by being born with a certain set of reproductive organs. Over time, as we have expanded beyond just our sexuality and gender assignments, we have come to see the broadness of its beauty, and the complexity in its actuality. No matter what type of woman you identify as, be it cisgender, trans, lesbian, queer, another label, or without a label at all, to speak about being a woman is to speak about all of these things from various points of marginalized society while being fully aware of your inner sanctum of supa. The most privileged women to the most forgotten have all been relegated to the back in one way or another to stand behind as patriarchy impedes their progress. For that you would think intersectionality would be a natural part of feminismthe fight for womens equality. However, feminism is still navigating its way through other obstacles of difference to truly be effective for the various types of women it should be speaking for. In the meantime, we must continue to speak for ourselves, and when that aint enough, join with others in bringing the noise!

I was on a red carpet once and an interviewer asked me, What do you consider your best body part. I could have said, My booty. Ive been told its nice and booties are all the rage. I could have said, My eyes. That always sounds poetic and like youre deep and whatnot. I could have said, My feet, then launched into the tale of overcoming my high-school-born caveman-feet complex. All would have been perfectly acceptable and somewhat predictable. To be honest, none of those occurred to me. I replied, My brain. She looked at me as if she had never considered that the answer could be something outside of a body part typically objectified, whether in adoration or with disdain. I watched as her face contorted from confused to intrigued to impressed. She high-fived me, and I was glad that it seemed like not only had she been presented with a new perspective on her question, but also a new perspective on how we women should view our bodies.

To some, when a woman is considered a classic beauty, it is based on Greek art. She is the modern-day example of what the artisans of classic visual art considered beautiful. To others, it refers to a certain symmetry of the features and how they align. To others its a reference to simplicity and timelessness. I get that, but at this point, in our neocolonial post-implant media-soaked society when I hear classic beauty its code for describing the features of women that the white guys with the most money think are pretty. They are driving the dollars to the companies that drive the media which drives the masses in how they are influenced to spend their dollars. If the Fortune 500 CEOs thought red hair and freckles were the cats meow, blond and blue-eyed would be demoted from the classic beauty standard to meh. My point is that beauty can be observed by men, but it is not and should not be determined by them. It has all kinds of definitions and truly is determined by each of us individually.