{"id":35368,"date":"2024-01-30T23:10:59","date_gmt":"2024-01-31T07:10:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=35368"},"modified":"2024-02-01T23:35:58","modified_gmt":"2024-02-02T07:35:58","slug":"the-madness-in-myth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-madness-in-myth\/","title":{"rendered":"The Madness in Myth"},"content":{"rendered":"

If I had to choose between fairy tales and myths, I\u2019d go with fairies – supernatural elementals that wear just the right amount of glitter, and hypnotize with the hope of magic. The stories I am most drawn to are those that take me out of myself, away from the realities of living in my little part of the world.\u00a0 I seek inspiration, tales that lift me up easy like fairy wings and carry me off into a forest of wonder. I know I must always return back to my daily \u201cto do\u2019s\u201d and my mess of thoughts and feelings. Still, the break away feels like a mini-victory I can hold onto while doing and being.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Myths, on the other hand, are a bit too – well – real.\u00a0 Myths make me feel too much.\u00a0 They connect on a deeper level, touching close to home. \u00a0The conflicts and struggles reflect my own, and can weigh down rather than lift my burdens.\u00a0 Yet, this is what Joseph Campbell suggests is necessary to break through thresholds. <\/span>\u201cThe problem of the hero is to pierce himself (and therewith his world) precisely through that point; to shatter and annihilate that key knot of his limited existence\u201d[1]\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Campbell makes an interesting distinction between myth and fairy tale that gives some insight as to why I tend to shy away from myth. \u201c<\/span>Typically, the hero of the fairy tale achieves a domestic, microcosmic triumph, and the hero of myth a world historical, macrocosmic triumph.\u201d[2]<\/span>\u00a0The levels of triumph in most fairy tales and myths are matched by equitable levels of defeat, but the defeat in myth can stir up the darkness in me, or as it\u2019s often referred to in today\u2019s culture – it can be a trigger.\u00a0 I suppose this is part of why myth is so powerful; it pokes at us, needles our subconscious, pushing us to ask critical questions when we see our reflection in the stories.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I\u2019m beginning my research into the health and wellness of Black women of faith in the nonprofit workplace, I think about the myth of the super strong Black woman. The story that created this myth is both historical and macrocosmic, built into the foundations of complex systems that stretch around the world. In America, this myth is detrimental to our health. For example, the myth suggests that Black women can take more pain than their white counterparts. This myth is backed up by research that finds false beliefs about biological differences between Blacks and Whites, \u201cpredict racial bias in pain perception and treatment recommendation accuracy.\u201d[3]<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

False beliefs like those found in the healthcare system are maddening, and are just one example of how Black women are the only heroines who are under constant threat of being defeated by their own myth.\u00a0 Campbell invites me to consider the meaning behind such inequity.\u00a0 \u201c<\/span>It has always been the prime function of mythology and rite to supply the symbols that carry the human spirit forward, in counteraction to those that tend to tie it back.\u201d[4]<\/span> I suppose finding a reason for why things are the way we are is somewhat comforting, but my spirit demands more than comfort. <\/span>So long as this myth holds true so close to home, if Black women are to carry the human spirit forward, then we must claim a better balance of victory versus defeat while serving this prime function.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The super-black woman myth is perpetuated in the real world in subtle ways. For example, \u201cYou\u2019re so resilient!\u201d should\u00a0 feel like a supportive affirmation. For me, it feels like a set up.\u00a0 This is poignantly expressed in flyers that were posted all around New Orleans during the recovery following Hurricane Katrina. The posters quoted Tracie L. Washington who served as co-director at the Louisiana Justice Institute in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. <\/span>\u201cStop calling me resilient. Because every time you say, \u2018Oh they\u2019re resilient.\u2019 That means you can do something else to me.\u201d \u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

In an interview on MSNBC, she explains further. \u201cWe weren\u2019t born to be resilient.\u00a0 We were conditioned to be resilient.\u201d[5]<\/span>\u00a0 If I lived in a faerie forest, where the cycle of resilience was untouched and allowed to grow as designed, I would appreciate these words as a compliment.\u00a0 But myth steals that warm, natural, divinely ordained place and shoves us out into the cold, unnatural world where we are conditioned to be super strong if we want to survive. For me, this challenge is mitigated through scripture, (Romans 12:2, John 15:19.) When faced with yet another “something else” it is God’s word that soothes my anger in response to the world’s expectation that I match the myth.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite how this myth harms, we are formed by the expectation of meeting the mythological standards. As a result, we <\/span>are<\/span><\/i> stronger. We’re burned out, mad, and riddled with dis-ease, but according to Campbell, we are placed in a unique position to break free. \u201c<\/span>Once we have broken free of the prejudices of our own provincially limited ecclesiastical, tribal, or national rendition of the world archetypes, it becomes possible to understand that the supreme initiation is not that of the local motherly fathers, who then project aggression onto the neighbors for their own defense. The good news, which the World Redeemer brings and which so many have been glad to hear, zealous to preach, but reluctant, apparently, to demonstrate, is that God is love, that He can be, and is to be, loved, and that all without exception are his children.\u201d[6] <\/span>As I live this myth, there may be moments when these words feel like too much glitter, but at the moment they offer a glimmer of hope that my offering to the body of research might help transform the narrative of the super Black woman, so that the heroine doesn\u2019t just survive her story but thrives in it.\u00a0 Her mission: to confront the myth and break through its limits.\u00a0 Some might accuse me of fairy tale thinking, but hey, a Black girl\u2019s gotta\u2019 dream.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

[1] Joseph Campbell,\u00a0The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1949).<\/em><\/p>\n

[2] Ibid.<\/p>\n

[3] Kelly M. Hoffman, Sophie Trawalter, Jordan R. Axt, and M. Norman Oliver, “Racial Bias in Pain Assessment and Treatment Recommendations, and False Beliefs about Biological Differences between Blacks and Whites,” <\/span>The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/span><\/i> 113 (April 19, 2016): 4296\u20134301.<\/span><\/p>\n

[4] Joseph Campbell,\u00a0The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1949).<\/em><\/p>\n

[5] Melissa Harris-Perry, “Unequal Recovery for Those in New Orleans,” MSNBC,<\/span> https:\/\/www.msnbc.com\/melissa-harris-perry\/watch\/unequal-recovery-for-those-in-new-orleans-515724355991<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

[6] Joseph Campbell,\u00a0The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1949).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If I had to choose between fairy tales and myths, I\u2019d go with fairies – supernatural elementals that wear just the right amount of glitter, and hypnotize with the hope of magic. The stories I am most drawn to are those that take me out of myself, away from the realities of living in my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":192,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[571,1],"tags":[3030,3031],"class_list":["post-35368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biography-drama-history","category-uncategorized","tag-josephcampbell","tag-myth","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/192"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35368"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35479,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35368\/revisions\/35479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}