The Black Feminist Teachings of “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill”
Why is black womanhood such a problem? Throughout history, the black female body has been used and manipulated for the service of others. However, when black women embrace and embody their womanhood for the benefit of themselves, it is seen as an obstruction to American society. Yet, what other than black womanhood embodiment, can truly resist the problematic ideas of black women’s sexuality, reproduction, and identity needing to be censored?
“The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill”, the debut album of Lauryn Hill, is extremely important in the realm of black feminism for those reasons alone. She’s challenging the preconceived notions of what being a black woman means, by giving an honest and realistic presentation of a black woman’s view on life, love, and sexuality.
What makes this album so important is that, while it serves as a black feminist text, it also touches on themes of love, faith, black motherhood, and the politics of pleasure. Lauryn Hill completely makes herself vulnerable, as she opens up about past relationships, along with feelings about her then-pregnancy. Her music served as an anthem to many, because not only was it so deeply entrenched in the works of black feminism, but it recognized the importance of the work it was doing throughout.
While the whole album is extremely special and fulfilling, “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” definitely has it’s stand out tracks. Songs such as “Lost Ones” (demonstrating the importance of loving, and realizing self-worth, which is a very important theme on the album altogether), “To Zion” (engaging the complex theme of black motherhood which is so important for the field), and “Final Hour” (speaking on the role of faith/spirituality within black feminism) all have themes that can engage with so many of the texts in our Black Feminist Thought class, along with other texts simply centered around Black Feminism. This embracing of black womanhood is rare and dangerous to many, and is the reason why it’s deemed as such. Instead of feeling like she has to censor who she is to be accepted by the masses, she instead seems to find pleasure in everything that she is as a black woman, and dares anyone to challenge her stance.
Like Black Feminism, “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” is very universal in it’s lessons, themes, and teachings. While the album is centered around the lived experience of a black woman, there’s something that everyone can take away from the album. Because of this, the album effectively tackles all the Black Feminist myths that populate the field, in an effort to minimize the importance of the scholarship that goes into it.
In 2015, the album was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” as it was entered into the Library of Congress, however, it can be argued that it’s all three. Listen to the words, the lyrics, and you can truly see how important this album is for so many. Listen to the emotion, both the pain and the happiness, that Ms. Hill demonstrates through her vocal range and lyricism. The lyrics on virtually every song encompasses so many of the important works from black feminist scholars (such as hooks, Davis, and duCille) and repackages them in something new and extremely familiar at the same time. This album puts the lives of black women directly into the space of mainstream audiences, and demands that that their humanity and femininity be given to them. Throughout the text of the album, she questions the preconceived notions that the listener has about black women, complicates the idea of embracing and embodying black womanhood, yet most importantly makes many little black and brown girls around the world realize that being a black woman is beautiful. “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” engages with the ideologies of black feminism and hip-hop feminism, because it works in helping to do away with the traditional values of feminism. It works in making sure that black and brown bodies can feel welcome and comfortable in the realm of feminism, all by being their black and beautiful selves. It throws ideas of censorship and the politics of respectability out the window, as “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” demonstrates that black women have voices, and they NEED to be heard.
