�Where�s Oprah?! Kee-yah Bitch!�
Ed Wuncler III, The Boondocks


I heard about the �Naked Oprah Dress� Peggy Noland introduced this week. I summoned my inner Khujo Goodie and thought, �hail you say?!�

While I�m still in disbelief that Nolan believed or someone persuaded Noland that naked Oprah would be a good look, I also started thinking about other recent exploits/explorations of black women in the past week: Lilly Allen�s �Hard Out Here� parody video and kinky dress up of her husband�s nether regions as a black woman, Renisha McBride, and ole girl from Tennessee who shall not be named because her name wo� out.

Many brilliant folks have tackled the problematic interpretation of black women�s bodies as commodities and casualties to white voyeurism and fetishizing: Brittney Cooper, Carolyn Nedgar, and countless others in twitter feeds, Facebook threads, and the like. However, the naked and screaming Oprah dress struck a different chord with me. 


Frozen in a silent scream, this version of Oprah signified a much more painful realization of the lack of literal and sonic agency surrounding black women�s bodies, even as commodities.

Fred Moten�s theory of �sounding commodities� is useful in thinking through the silence and vulnerability of black women in the U.S. Sound commodities is the use of sound to think through black subjectivity as a capitalistic pursuit in addition to a cultural expression. Moten brilliantly situates Aunt Hester and her assault from Frederick Douglass� Narrative as an initial signifier of the implications of sounding blackness. In addition to the physical enslavement Hester�s beating suggests, her scream better signifies a lack of ownership over her body. It re-emphasizes her position as a slave, her pain and trauma becoming by-products/commodities of her bondage. I�d also like to suggest that Hester�s scream amplifies her otherwise silenced position as a slave woman, with little to no language available for her to relay trauma. Interpreting enslaved women�s silence as a form of discourse lends contingence to the historical and contemporary relevance of black women�s bodies as sonic and cultural commodities. For example, the screams of Patsey in 12 Years a Slave and Broomhilda from Django Unchained carry the unarticulated angst and racial anxiety of Hester�s scream into the present.  

The Naked and Screaming Oprah dress, however, adds another layer to sounding black women�s pain as profitable. Using Oprah�s likeness on anonymous naked black women�s bodies suggests the familiarity � if not safety � of Oprah�s position as a respectable black woman. Of course it�s okay to wear a respectable black woman, right? Noland situates Oprah as a �placeholder,� which is a loaded sentiment. Indeed, Oprah is the gateway to blackness for nonblack audiences. Her position pivots on her exceptionalism. Yet Oprah�s face on anonymous naked black women�s bodies complicates her position as a placeholder. Her popularity and wealth overshadow the complexities and anxieties of lesser known black women. Still, her wealth and respectability do not override the fact that she is sexualized.

Oprah�s physical imprint on the dress itself as well as the screaming position signifies the materiality of sounding black women�s bodies and presence. Yet even with the posturing of Oprah screaming, the scream is silent (and a screaming Oprah dress that really screams would be as painful as the screaming circumcision cake).

Returning to the hyper-sexuality of black women�s bodies, Oprah�s silent scream could be read to sonically relay the angst associated with white voyeurism, sexual drama, and abuse. The terror on Oprah�s face and the silent scream she relays re-emphasizes the lack of agency women of color are deemed to hold in the U.S. This is beyond problematic, as lessening agency is replaced by the increasing profitability � both the literal and cultural investment � of inflicting trauma on women of color�s bodies in the U.S.

In a few words? Ain�t nobody safe. Not even Oprah.