The following dissertation re-examines the masculinised history of the War on Drugs through a gendered lens, centring the Black feminine perspective, to argue that the interplay of gender with race affected the experiences of the War on Drugs. The acknowledgment of its inherent gender dynamics allows for the feminisation of the narratives and experiences of the War on Drugs. Previously, the racial definition of the War on Drugs spotlighted masculine narratives and voices due to the tendency to marginalise women in racial discourse. This work aims to combat this presumption through redefining the War on Drugs and its racial context through the dual experiences of discrimination accosted to Black women by their overlapping gender and racial identity. This work therefore aims to feminise the historical discourse of the War on Drugs, in terms of its construction and enactment, before shifting to focus to highlight how Black feminist protest culture emerged to resist and dismantle the War on Drugs and system of control Black women had been subjected to. Although there exists some discourse on Black women in the War on Drugs, there has not been extensive analysis of their overlooked experiences and histories. These experiences were forged by controlling images that defined and undermined Black womanhood – namely, the Jezebel, Welfare Queen, and Crack Mother. This work therefore explores the presumptions of Black women’s character and how they were placed at odds with gendered and racial ideology, making their social standing precarious and more liable to criminalisation in the War on Drugs. This dissertation therefore focuses on redefining the dominant, male-centric narratives of the War on Drugs through a gendered lens to uncover the heightened and disproportionate experiences of Black women.
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