"Through dissemblance, these middle-class activist African American women sought to respond to and defend against the sexualized myths to frame themselves as “good women” and therefore gain access to the privileges of womanhood. But the privileges of white women were not based on an assumption of equality. They resulted from an ideology that saw white women as weak, pure, and needing male protection. The politics of respectability too often conformed to similarly dichotomous thinking about what is bad and good in women."
‘Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America’ by Melissa Harris-Perry
