Acquanetta: a name only American Culture can Create.

Acquanetta, also known as "Aquanetta" or "Acquenetta": it's not too common of a name but it had become common enough among Black Americans to gain signifigance. It's the name of a California town mayor. The name has also made its way to pre-internet television, appearing in dialogue on Martin, A Different World (at 3:12-3:19), and In Living Color. 

A Different World with Sinbad. One of these girls plays "Aquanetta." I forget which.

 

It's my mother's name.

Other Americans thought it was French or Spanish, but Black Americans saw it differently-- a "ghetto" name, a name with no origin, so to speak. However, "Acquenetta" is a unique "ghetto name". In many cultures, a name stands for a social position or a circumstance under which one was born. In contrast, "Ghetto names", while having the best intentions, have no source. They are “empty” names, yet "Acquanetta" stands apart, because the name suggests a origin that has not been explored. 

Was it adapted from mothers who used too much Aqua Net, perhaps? Believe it or not, the name existed 40 years before the hairspray's creation, not to mention many women bearing the name reached their 20s and 30s by that same time. So where did the name come from? I was dumbfounded until about 15 years ago, when I learned of this B-movie Actress:

Burnu Acquanetta (or Acquanetta Ross) was a former model and b-movie actress whose official studio career Universal Studios lasted from 1949 until she ended her contract in 1951. She played the usual “Jungle princess” roles often reserved for non-white actresses at the time, including the leading lady to the eponymous character in “Tarzan and the Leopard woman. Later she married once (or twice, the records are still not clear) and moved to Mexico and birthed a son who only lived to age four. Upon her return to the US, she retired in Phoenix, Arizona, where she eventually succumbed to Alzheimers in 2004. A B-movie Icon, her legacy continues in the namesake Alt-Punk Band “The Acquanettas” as well as her role in the Cesar Romero film Lost Continent, which found new life on Mystery Science Theater 3000.

This link explains Crow's obscure reference. I love the Bots.

According to Acquanetta's stage bio(s) she was either born in Cheyenne, Wyoming to an Arapaho mother and a father who was a)British Aristocracy B) French-Cherokee-british or C) or she was the “beautiful Negro screen actress Mildred Davenport” who was adopted by a black couple in Norristown, PA. By the time of her death, she maintained her Arapaho identity. Was she really an Arapaho or trying to pass for the sake of her career? Read these links for the rest of that story:

http://vintageblackglamour.tumblr.com/post/3707146792/b-movie-star-acquanetta-although-she-was-promoted
http://burnu-acquanetta.memory-of.com/Tributes.aspx

Her heritage remains unconfirmed in records, to say the least, but it’s not hard to understand why she zig-zagged on the matter in one-drop Jim Crow Hollywood. In a time when society determined your racial identity for you, it didn't matter how much Venezuelan, Arapaho or British blood you had, your African blood would legally override it. If an actor with partial black ancestry were to escape the limitations forced onto Black actors at the time, hiding that side of their bloodline would be an unfortunate but strategic option if they could get away with it. Nonetheless, this ambiguity didn't stop African american communities from embracing the actress as their own.

Where did Acquanetta get “Acquanetta”?

It doesn't take too much research to know “Acquanetta” is an obvious stage name. Basic linguistics knowledge can tell you "BURNu" and "AcQUAnetta" suggests more latin origins than Arapaho. Based on this Northern Arapaho dictionary, her name, in my best guess, would translate to Koohooxee teebi' ("The fire burns, the water is deep" ). Of course, that was a phonetic translation, but then, "Acquanetta" does look better on a movie poster.

How do I know that the B-movie actress serves as the source for this name? Elementary research, pure and simple.

When your first step in research goes right...

I'm not going to pretend that I conducted a statistical analyisis for this blog entry, but simple logic revealed that a lot of the women registered on public listings online had birth dates corresponding to the time period Aquanetta's career was at its peak (including the previously mentioned Fontana, California Mayor Aquanetta Warren).  Although these women were born in the 1950s, attention spans were slower than they are in today's overly saturated society, Films produced in the 1940s would've remained in the public consciousness for a good two to three years after their release. 

It's pretty obvious that she became an option for Black American parents seeking an alternative name for their baby girls. One particular Aquanetta, writer Acquanetta Gordon, Born in 1963, confirms Ms. Burnu as her namesake in her autobiography Echoes of an Angel (on page 3). The namesakes who were too young to correlate (represented by the young girls in the A Different World and In Living Color clips) may have been the result of their mothers receiving the name from a first or second generation namesake. The white woman in the episode of Martin was obviously a joke on ethnic group-associated names.

A generation of namesakes: how's that for a legacy?

So there you go, every woman and girl named Aquanetta/Acquanetta/Acquenetta: Your name has a history. It’s a new, weird, American pulp history worthy of an Ed Wood or John Waters tale, but a history you can tell your children. And if anyone criticizes a stage name namesake, just ask them if they have any friends named Madison, Wendy or (God forbid) Denaerys.

(c) 2015 The Gorgon Transplant/ Karla Holland

Hapshetsut would be proud...maybe.

An Egyptian woman, Sisa Abu Daooh, recieved the highest award for motherhood for spending 30 years dressed as a man in order to provide for her family. Why did she do this? Her husband passed in the 1970s, leaving her a young widow with an unborn child to feed. With very few employment opportunities for women at the time (and no one willing to marry a pregnant widow), Sisa and her daughter faced starvation, so she did what she had to earn more.

Sadly, many parts of the world still fail in regard to women's rights so much that Sisa's story is actually common, even normal for some places. So far (as I'm aware), the crossdressing scenario has been depicted as both fiction and documented reality for US media.

One fictional scenario can be found in the 2003 film Osama. In the story, a young Afghan girl in the midst of taliban-controlled Kabul is forced to disguise herself as a boy (and redubbed "Osama") in order to work and provide food for herself, her widowed mother and grandmother. I won't spoil whether she succeeded or not.

Later I found a real life example in Albania, home to the (now dying out) tradition of the Burnessha, or "Sworn virgins". These women changed their legal status to "male" to serve as provider if they lacked a biological male in the family to do so. Because this choice is irreversable, the sworn virgins spend the rest of their lives living and socializing as men. Of course, social reform in the country in the past 50 years has allowed more opportunities for women, now rendering this practice obsolete.

While women in the US do not have to go as far as cross dressing to provide sustenance, but often in corporate or high stress settings, many women find themselves forced to become men on a more psychological level in order to succeed, such as suppressing their emotions, behaving more competitively and hiding all signs that can be interpreted as weakness.

Women in the US or other developed nations will never know what Sisa and the Burbeshha went through. I won't compare uncomparable circumastances but I do want to make one thing clear: Women should NOT have to become men to be recognized as human.

The Introvert Advocate: Is It Just Me? Identifying the Boundaries of Introversion

As an unapologetic introvert, I must speak up for the personality type. Thankfully, The Introvert Advocate provided an opportunity:

When I discovered that there was a word for my personality type, i.e. “Introversion”, I felt a weight lifted off of my shoulders. I no longer felt alone. Not once did I consider it a disorder, because it’s a personality type. Naturally, I started backtracking to every relationship I had in the past to look again with new eyes. A few memories made sense, some did not. As I continued my education, I began to put a few more pieces together. Life in general helped fill in the rest. To get to this this point I asked the critical question: Was it me? Well, I was surprised how little my introversion played back then, and what that has taught me.

Social Media and The Generation Gap

Social media is effecting social interaction and redefining the social skills of the generation growing up with the technology. To add to the mix, some baby boomers and many of their elders are still coping with the digital world’s impact on social interaction. Introverts have probably had one of their rants thrown in their direction, God knows I have. “She’s too quiet” ,“She needs to talk more” “You need to go out like other gals.” Don’t take it personally. Like homosexuality, cancer, and being an only child, it’s one of those statuses that has since lost their negative diagnosis and to which these generations must adjust their mindset. The may never understand how much social media has helped introverts’ social lives.

Culture

While we’re on the subject of social changes, I must point out on factor that has an impact on social skills regardless of technology – Culture. The way people express one another socially will vary among cultures and in a nation of immigrants, cultural clash will occur.  For example, Russians will not smile at strangers, which they find “insincere”, preserving such gestures for close friends. Japan’s entire social structure is shaped around introversion.  In contrast, United States is still an extroverted culture, so naturally, Japan is often portrayed in US media as “emotionless” negatively or “shy” positively. In return, their portrayals of Americans are boisterous loudmouths. Dont fret though (hehe, like my slang?), being an introvert can prove a pretty positive learning experience for both sides. For instance, while abroad in the Whitby, UK, I was mistaken for Canadian by a local couple because their perception of an American was more like a loud pushy Texan...



Continue reading this article at:
http://theintrovertadvocate.com/identifying-the-boundaries-of-introversion/

Is It Just Me? Identifying the Boundaries of Introversion

As an unapologetic introvert, I had to speak up for this misunderstood personality type. The Introvert Advocate gave me that opportunity:

When I discovered that there was a word for my personality type, i.e. “Introversion”, I felt a weight lifted off of my shoulders. I no longer felt alone. Not once did I consider it a disorder, because it’s a personality type. Naturally, I started backtracking to every relationship I had in the past to look again with new eyes. A few memories made sense, some did not. As I continued my education, I began to put a few more pieces together. Life in general helped fill in the rest. To get to this this point I asked the critical question: Was it me? Well, I was surprised how little my introversion played back then, and what that has taught me.

Social Media and The Generation Gap

Social media is effecting social interaction and redefining the social skills of the generation growing up with the technology. To add to the mix, some baby boomers and many of their elders are still coping with the digital world’s impact on social interaction. Introverts have probably had one of their rants thrown in their direction, God knows I have. “She’s too quiet” ,“She needs to talk more” “You need to go out like other gals.” Don’t take it personally. Like homosexuality, cancer, and being an only child, it’s one of those statuses that has since lost their negative diagnosis and to which these generations must adjust their mindset. The may never understand how much social media has helped introverts’ social lives......

Read the rest of this article at:
http://theintrovertadvocate.com/identifying-the-boundaries-of-introversion/