Misogynoir Transformed

A study guide of Moya Bailey’s 2021 book ‘Misogynoir Transformed: Black Women's Digital Resistance.’

This study guide was written and edited by Aimie Dormeus, August Welles, and Katya Zabelski

(Misogyny) = hatred of women, (noir) = Black

Moya Bailey’s 2021 book, Misogynoir Transformed: Black Women’s Digital Resistance, highlights the way that Black women have been and are the central targets, if not the sole targets, of misogynoir since colonization. Consequently, Black women are disrespected and berated in a myriad of ways through digital media and in the outside world. Black women act as the bullet and the shield for the Black community in several ways. Bailey uses the book as an opportunity to examine and explain misogynoir in its myriad of forms, but especially and specifically within a digital space that transcends into the real world.

Bailey makes several arguments within her book. Most consistently, she argues that Black women are often overlooked, sexualized, brutalized, abused, and made the butt of several jokes often stemming from their own community. And through the untrue and majorly unrealistic stereotypes and caricatures formed from the images of Black women, misogynoiristic representations allow for Black womens’ lives, bodies, and health to be easily ignored in society by all other races and genders. This is all while actively allowing for others to profit from enduring negative images at the expense of Black women. In Misogynoir Transformed, Bailey highlights several injustices towards Black women in digital media and how they transcend into the real world all while explaining her reasoning for the term “misogynoir,” which has now bled into the Black American and social justice lexicons.

Navigate our study guide using the table of contents below.

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