Accomplishment and economic mobility is yet another theme.The original intention of this publication was to highlight the intellect and talent of black Americans,not to emulate the conventional construction of a capitalist patriarchal society,but to combat the commonsensical norm that blacks are professionally and intellectually incapable and inferior.Departments such as“Front Row”underscore professional,intellectual,and artistic accomplishments by placing scholars,noted corporate figures and entertainers on the forefront of mainstream society because historically,they were once marginalized and downplayed.Ebony is produced under the notion that American identity is established through the ability to be successful and the capability to withstand the internalized norm of incompetence that defined blackness.A parenting guide in the January 2004 issue teaches“How to prepare your child for success.”In the same issue,The“Brothers Only”column continues the theme with“A Roadmap to Success.”And“Sisters Speak”features the“Fruits of the Kingdom,”a deive historical analysis of how Martin Luther King was the preeminent“seed(that)was sown that became an oak tree in the modern civil rights forest”(Kinnon,January 2004,p.38)and incubated black female leadership.The feature references“disciples of the King”in an effort to accentuate central and otherwise unknown women“who also had a dream.”Even more significant than editorial elements in this reading of Ebony magazine is the methodical practice of addressing the intended audience.The potentially progressive content is supplemented with politically instructive tones that warrant a radical reaction or engagement.On the January 2004 cover a twenty-something Alicia Keys(R&B singer and pianist)offers the illusion of black liberation and social awareness.Keys is dressed in a black leather suit with an accompanying black leather cap,which is very reminiscent of the Black Panther Party,yet effeminized with an urban contemporary bent.In activist mode,she assumes an Uncle Sam-like stance,pointing in the direction of the reader.The reader is reminded of the plight of African Americans and the social and political consciousness that resonated with political rallies during the Civil Rights Movement.The message is enforced by Keys'stark stare and commanding pointed finger.
Ebony understands the concept of the sexual object and the male gaze.Below Keys'visible abdomen is a blurb communicating a story of black men and a recently introduced sex pill.The cover model's physical appearance juxtaposed with the political overtones is an attempt to bridge generations by recreating the agony of a now glamorized black power movement atmosphere and manipulating images and tendencies of a sexually liberated popular culture.In her attempt to center sexuality in the crux of the race revolution,hooks declares that black power and liberation literature reveals the manner in which“black women and men were using sexualized metaphors to talk about the effort to resist racist domination”(Hooks,1990,p.58).
Essence:A Testimony of Shared Experience
Scholars(Hooks,1990;Hamlet,2000;and Balkin,2002)agree that although language and rhetoric have always been a place of struggle for minority groups who live and work among the dominant culture,it is also a place of liberation and identification.For the Essence reader,testimonial rhetorical speech fused with an understanding of the spiritual importance of their history and ancestry,is the cultural artifact with which they identify to construct their identity.Essence's unified mode of direct address assumes that its readers share interconnecting ideologies about fashion,beauty,love,life,spiritual growth and self-improvement,and that they“buy into”the notion of a“spirit-led”life(Mc Cormack,1995,p.34).In the January 2004 issue,Susan Taylor's“In the Spirit”column encourages readers to acknowledge and experience God's light in their lives,“Our soul and psyche need breathing space-a respite from leaping from one-to-do to the next...Prayer,meditation,walking,journaling,spiritual reading,help us see clearly and hold depression and disease at bay.Moments free of work,worry,stress,and strain let our insight rise like sunlight.”In this conversational letter Taylor uses first-person to describe her spiritual insights and merges it with direct intimations on how readers might incorporate these self-discoveries into their personal spiritual missions.
The transformation,consciousness raising and empowerment potential of testimonial cultural rhetoric are employed here to not only connect with readers through shared experience and communal knowledge,but also to break stereotypical barriers that oppress and objectify the black woman.Permeating the psyche are images of an incompetent,hypersexualized,demeaning,unattractive and evil woman who occupies the very bottom rung of the socioeconomic and sociocultural ladder.Essence,with a spiritual manipulation of emotional,societal and political instruments that disenfranchise and disempower,takes the African-American woman and man,and many other women of color,on a spiritual journey through an identity movement beyond the socially unexpected.
