“Cora Unashamed,” a short story in The Ways of White Folks by Langston Hughes, is a story about the White Studevant family and the Black Jenkins family. Cora Jenkins is a housekeeper (to put it politely) in the Studevant’s household and the story discusses the way that she moves through life as a Black woman in the rural Midwest. Among many key takeaways, the biggest lesson that sticks out to me is the hypocrisy of the so-called “Cult of Domesticity” or “Cult of True Womanhood.” Mrs. Art is the embodiment of the perfect society White woman even though she is cold, judgmental, and ends up killing her own child because of her pride. In contrast, Cora is nurturing, loving, and strong in the face of the women that reject and mistreat her. Before we get into the story, let’s go to a quick history lesson about the Cult of Domesticity…
What is the Cult of Domesticity?
So what is the Cult of Domesticity or True Womanhood? According to “Cult of Domesticity: Definition & Significance,” in the 19th century, amidst the nationwide change brought on by the Industrial Revolution, Americans were searching for a way to maintain “traditional” values (1). They came up with the Cult of Domesticity or the Cult of True Womanhood. This set of ideals formalized the separation of roles between White women and White men (Black women and men were not welcome in this sphere since they were barely thought of as people). There are four main principles associated with the Cult of Domesticity – 1) Piety 2) Purity 3) Submissiveness, and 4) Domesticity. According to these principles, women were to “spiritually support her husband and family, raise good children, and protect morals of 19th century America” in addition to taking care of all domestic duties (1). Women were to occupy the private sphere of society because sociologists of the time proposed that “women [were] thought to be less intelligent but more nurturing than men” (1). Basically, the Cult of Domesticity is one big oppressive mess that aimed to keep White women in the home and out of the workforce and openly excluded Black women from “womanhood” in order for White males to maintain the status quo. If you’re not familiar with the Cult of True Womanhood, I highly suggest reading up (there are some resources to start with at the bottom of this post)! Now, let’s jump into how Mrs. Art demonstrates some of the downfalls of this so-called “True Womanhood” …
The Hypocrisy of the Cult of Domesticity as Demonstrated by Mrs. Art Studevant
In “Cora Unashamed,” Mrs. Art Studevant is the embodiment of the hypocrisy of the Cult of Domesticity. If women are supposed to be nurturing and warm, Mrs. Art was certainly not. First, she was ashamed of Jessie, her daughter, because she didn’t feel that Jessie measured up to her other children. The story states that Mrs. Art “was always a little ashamed of stupid Jessie… Mary, the elder, the teacher, would follow with dignity in [Mrs. Art’s] footsteps, but Jessie! That child!… She remained a plump, dull, freckled girl, placid and strange” (Hughes pg. 10). Instead of loving Jessie unconditionally and providing a safe space for her to grow, Mrs. Art was cold, judgmental, and harsh. In contrast, Cora loved having Jessie around and raised her like her own. As the story says, “It was Cora who nursed and mothered and petted and loved the dull little Jessie through the years” (Hughes pg. 11). The hypocrisy is represented by the fact that Black women are doing the actual mothering of White children while the White women are reaping the benefits of societal approval. Black women aren’t considered human enough to be treated with even basic respect and dignity, yet they perform all of the domestic duties of the house and raise White children as well as their own.
Furthermore, Mrs. Art valued her family’s reputation over the life of her own daughter. When Cora told Mrs. Art of Jessie’s pregnancy by a Greek boy, she flew “into uncontrollable hysterics… Crying and praying followed all over the house. Scandalization! Oh, my Lord! Jessie was in trouble” (Hughes pg. 12). This display of emotion ultimately resulted in a trip to Kansas City so that Jessie could get an abortion- which would be strictly forbidden under most Christian doctrines. Of course, Mrs. Art told everyone that they were on an “Easter shopping trip” (Hughes pg. 13) to save their reputation. When they came back, and Jessie looked sick, pale, and thin, she told another lie that “she had an awful attack of indigestion in Kansas City… She’s never been a strong child. She’s one of the worries of my life” (Hughes pg. 14). Mrs. Art had a choice here. She could have chosen to let Jessie keep the baby and organize a shotgun wedding to the baby’s father (as Cora suggested that Mr. Art would do if he had been home on page 13). She could have shown some love and understanding to her daughter who needed support in the scary circumstance she found herself in. Instead, she chose to risk her daughter’s life to save a little bit of face in the eyes of society. Her ambitions in marrying off Jessie to a well-to-do White man was more valuable than Jessie’s love of a small-time foreigner- even if he was a White foreigner. Mrs. Art was chasing the dream of True Womanhood and led her own child to her death- showing the lengths that White women would go to just to belong to High Society. It’s no wonder that many Black women rejected these ideals and formed their own meaning of womanhood!
Cora Makes Her Own Meaning of True Womanhood
Cora’s character shows that the response of Black women to the Cult of Domesticity was to form their own meaning for Black womanhood. According to “Black Women, Mothering, and Protest in 19th Century American Society”, Black women were overtly excluded from “True Womanhood” on the basis that Black women “were expected to complete the same tasks as men, operate in a continual state of reproduction, replenish the slave economy, and operate as wet nurses and domestic servants for white women” (4). The situation for Black women once they were freed, did not change much since “even free women had no legal rights to their bodies, their children, their possessions, or, in fact, their freedom of movement” as described in “Cult of True Womanhood” (2). Because Cora lived in this space, her character continually dismissed the opinions of White people and lived her life according to her own moral barometer. For example, she fell in love with a White farmhand named Joe and ended up pregnant, but she was not ashamed of the child. According to the story, “Cora didn’t go anywhere to have her child. Nor tried to hide it. When the baby grew big within her, she didn’t feel that it was a disgrace” even though “she hadn’t expected to marry Joe, or keep him” (Hughes pg. 7). This shows that she valued the child’s life over any sort of reputation that she may have. Motherhood was more important to her than anything anyone said about her and her love for Joe. She loved her child and wouldn’t let anything anyone said tarnish that love. She loved Jessie in the same way. Being a sort of surrogate mother to Jessie “gave her a purpose in life, a warmth inside herself” (Hughes pg. 11). Black womanhood for Cora meant taking care of her family and caring for Jessie – a child whose mother neglected her. She did this despite how the Studevant family treated her. She did this despite the way that Mrs. Art dismissed her experience time after time. Love – not reputation – made her a woman that she was proud of.
Additionally, Cora was committed to living her truth rather than hiding away her emotions for the sake of society. Cora, whose child died of whooping cough as an infant, mourned the death of her child by cursing, yelling, crying, and had an obvious outburst of grief (Hughes pg. 8). She didn’t care if her cursing made the gravediggers uncomfortable. She didn’t care if people stared at her. She could not help expressing herself in that moment and any onlookers be damned! Similarly, when Jessie died from the abortion that Mrs. Art forced upon her, Cora was the one with the biggest emotional reaction. She called out the White women for killing her and her child. She called them out for the “pretty sermon” and a song without saying anything about poor Jessie (Hughes pg. 16-17). After being dragged out of the funeral, Cora “sobbed, great tears coming for the love of Jessie” (Hughes pg. 17). Similar to her own child, she didn’t care what the White women of society would say about her after her outburst. Her love for the child she raised from an infant (in place of her own) wouldn’t allow her to silently watch as her murderer went unpunished. Her confidence in speaking out shows that she valued her self-worth and womanhood far more than she valued the opinions of hypocritical White people. In fact, by excluding Black women from the Cult of Domesticity, it forced them to rise above the hypocrisy and “allowed black women to reject the system of American domination… and the traditional idea of womanhood; retain a sense of self-worth; and exercise self-efficacy” (4). Today, I believe that the Cult of Domesticity is still a dividing factor of women’s circles even if we don’t call it by name.
True Womanhood and You
This story is relevant today because there is still a huge divide between White women and Black women. White feminists have been under fire for decades because of the way that their activism typically excludes the issues of Black women and other marginalized voices. The “Cult of Domesticity” is still very much alive in the way that women are viewed and treated even if that’s not the name we call it. Back in the day, the primary sources of True Womanhood doctrine were women’s magazines and religious literature aimed at women and told them how to keep their home. Now, as proposed in “The Good Wife: How the Cult of Domesticity Still Reigns in the 21st Century”, “female-centric kitsch” like coffee mugs, t-shirts, wine glasses, and other mass-produced items “proclaiming that it’s ‘wine o’clock!’ and ‘don’t talk to me until I’ve had my coffee!’” are aimed at us since we “are still in charge of the home, only now it stresses [us] out” (3). Additionally, websites like Pinterest (where over 80% of users are female) have modernized the cult of domesticity to give us thousands upon thousands of ideas to make our homes perfect, our bodies perfect, our kids perfect, our style and makeup perfect to the point of exhaustion (3). “Cora Unashamed” was published in 1934, and women are still battling out how to be the perfect woman. We’re still ignoring and/or excluding Black women and immigrant women, and if we’re not ignoring them, we’re painting them as “welfare queens,” or “the help” or “that angry Black woman” or any number of stereotypes that are designed to keep White women at the top of the social hierarchy. We have to do better. We have to recognize that there is no “perfect” version of a woman. Women are human beings and therefore we are all flawed in our own ways. What if we put the focus on our talents as individuals rather than our flaws? What if we stopped judging each other for our decisions and moved into a more accepting culture of sisterhood? What if White women listened to and validated the experiences of marginalized women and became allies for those causes as well as their own? Easier said than done… I know. Fighting against thousands of years of men pitting us against each other is certainly a challenge, but it’s not impossible! The first step is for us to be aware. Be aware of when we feel ourselves judging another woman for ANY reason. Be aware of the images we’re taking in from movies, shows, and ads, and try not to allow ourselves to get sucked into the hierarchy they try to maintain.
Tell me what you think of the story, “Cora Unashamed”. My favorite thing about literature is that everyone sees something a little differently. I’d love to hear what you think!
RESOURCES
(1) Cult of Domesticity: Definition & Significance – https://study.com/academy/lesson/cult-of-domesticity-definition-significance.html
(2) Cult of True Womanhood – https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/not-for-ourselves-alone/cult-of-true-womanhood
(3) The Good Wife: How the Cult of Domesticity Still Reigns in the 21st Century – https://psmag.com/social-justice/the-21st-century-cult-of-domesticity
(4) Black Women, Mothering, and Protest in 19th Century American Society – https://jpanafrican.org/docs/vol2no1/BlackWomenMotheringAndProtest.pdf
“Cora Unashamed.” The Ways of White Folks, by Langston Hughes
Freedom Reader 
This story is beautiful in its enduring truth. Your focus on the Cult of Domesticity triggered me in a stunning way. I grew up lower-middle class and certainly didn’t have servants. I watched my mother raise eight children, keep an immaculately clean house, cook breakfast every morning for my dad, make sack lunches for all of us every day, and have dinner on by 5. She volunteered for church and our Catholic school, and maintained an active social live with many friends.
She absolutely was indoctrinated in the Cult of Domesticity with the characteristics of piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity. My three older sisters followed (kicking and screaming) in her footsteps. I did not. And my complete lack of shame around my inability to comply with the Cult of Domesticity confused my mother deeply.
While I was triggered by the Cult of Domesticity, the word that most grabbed me was “shameless.” I was reminded of the Ted Talk by Brene Brown called Listening to Shame (Ted2012). In it, Brene describes shame as the “swampland of the soul.” Feeling shame freezes a person, it says: “I am bad”, while guilt says: “I did something bad.” Shame stops a person in their tracks. It steals their courage to act.
“A conversation about race cannot happen without shame, because you cannot talk about race without privilege, and when people start talking about privilege, they get paralyzed by shame.” (Brown, Ted2012). I feel that much of what is happening today is paralyzation caused by shame. If you put shame in a petri dish it needs 3 things: secrecy, silence, and judgement. Empathy is the antidote to shame.
Cora was unashamed. She had her baby unashamed. Cared for her unashamed. And spoke truth to power at the funeral, unashamed. She was able to take meaningful action, while Mrs. Art’s actions were driven by shame.
How many are paralyzed by shame? Afraid to ask questions? Afraid to act? Afraid to recognize privilege? Afraid to acknowledge lack of privilege? And how long will we continue to feed this shame with secrecy, silence, and judgement?
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I think that’s a fantastic summation of the meaning behind the usage of “unashamed” in the story! I also agree that shame ultimately stops us from recognizing our privilege. I think this is done intentionally in order to keep us complicit in systems designed to help the wealthy continue getting wealthier and make the poor poorer. The people in power have used tactics like shame, intimidation, criminalization, and “other-ing” (among a multitude of others) to stop people from recognizing racism, sexism, homophobia, and other “isms” in order to protect their own self interests.
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Exactly. And the “people in power” are so good at it that even those not typically in power try to use shame as a strategy. It backfires. It stops us from talking to each other. It stops us from acting. We need to empower ourselves to use radical strategies like empathy. Cora changed the game by being shameless, so must we.
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What a world we live in when empathy has to be considered a radical strategy!
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