Unmasking the Stereotype of the Strong Black Woman in HBO’s Watchmen

The trope of the Strong Black Woman in fiction is based on an equally harmful stereotype, in which Black women are expected to perform a role that negates their own emotions, needs (both physical and psychological), in the service of caring for others. Similar to the Magical Negro, the Strong Black Woman protects her family and community, and even saves white people from harming themselves by sharing wisdom on how to be better people and/or through heroic acts of selflessness, often at the expense of their own well being and mental health.

In her 1998 memoir Willow Weep for Me: A Black Woman’s Journey Through Depression, Ghanaian-American author Meri Nana-Ama Danquah writes,

“Mental illness that affects White men is often characterized as a sign of genius. White women who suffer from mental illness are depicted as spoiled or just plain hysterical. Black men are demonized and pathologized. Black women are certainly not seen as geniuses — or even labeled as hysterical or pathological. When a Black woman suffers from a mental disorder, we are labeled as weak. And weakness in Black women is intolerable.”

To say that Angela Abar, in HBO’s Watchmen, has had a traumatic life would be a gross understatement. Her life is a mosaic of tragedy, grief, and sacrifice. For many women of color, her story is not an unfamiliar one. Being a woman of color in America means wearing a mask or several masks to deal with the cognitive dissonance of being expected to live in a cultural environment that refuses to accept or allow you to be your true self. The fact of your blackness makes the dominant white culture uncomfortable, so you must hide parts of yourself and develop a culturally accepted persona in order to survive under the tyranny of institutionalized racism. In his Two Essays on Analytical Psychology (1953), Carl Jung described persona as “a kind of mask, designed on the one hand to make a definite impression upon others, and on the other to conceal the true nature of the individual.”

Warning: Spoilers galore for HBO’s Watchmen. Read at your own risk.

Masks play an important role in season 1 of Watchmen, and the psychology of wearing masks is a recurring theme throughout. Masks not only hide the secret identities of costumed adventurers, but also allow people to step outside of the limitations of their true identities to indulge in aberrant behavior to accomplish things, good or bad, that influence the reality they live in. Unlike the costumed adventurers, many characters are wearing masks we can’t see until they reveal their hidden agendas and show their true faces.

Angela’s most obvious persona, Sister Night, is the superhero I needed as a young girl growing up in homogeneously white rural Pennsylvania. The only Black female “costumed adventurer” I saw on TV in the 1970s was Eartha Kitt as Catwoman, but she is a villain, not a hero. I developed a deep fascination with Eartha Kitt’s Catwoman, which I believe was the beginning of my obsession with villains and probably one of the reasons why I started wearing all black as a teenager. She was a strong, sexy, powerful woman who played by her own rules, and most importantly she was a woman of color.

Sister Night is a badass Black female superhero who kicks the shit out of racists and looks beautiful while she’s doing it. She isn’t just the superhero I needed when I was a little girl. She is the superhero I need now as a grown woman. She is a role model for girls and women of color. She is the archetypal Strong Black Woman. A symbol of empowerment with a darker truth just below the surface. Her strength itself is one of her masks; a placebo for her PTSD that comes with some unfortunate side effects.

A new study conducted by associate professor of community health sciences and epidemiology at the University of California, Berkeley, Amani M. Allen, explores whether different facets of being a strong Black woman, which researchers sometimes refer to as “superwoman schema,” ultimately protect women from the negative health impacts of racial discrimination — or create further harm.

In her article reviewing Allen’s study, “How the ‘Strong Black Woman’ Identity Both Helps and Hurts,” Kara Manke writes: “The stereotype of the “strong Black woman” is more than just a cultural trope: Many Black women in America report feeling pressured to act like superwomen, projecting themselves as strong, self-sacrificing, and free of emotion to cope with the stress of race- and gender-based discrimination in their daily lives.”

Angela feels pressured to act like a superwoman due to racial discrimination and the threat of white supremacists in her community. She has become a superwoman to deal with all the trauma she has endured as well as all of the responsibilities that rest on her shoulders as a wife, mother, cop, and masked vigilante. Time and again we see her sacrificing her own safety to protect others. For example, when a white supremacist shows up at Judd Crawford’s funeral with a bomb strapped to him, Agent Laurie Blake shoots him and triggers the bomb. Angela tells everyone to run while she drags the dead white supremacist’s body into Crawford’s open grave and pushes the casket into the hole just before the bomb goes off. While everyone is running for cover, including her fellow police officers, she places herself directly in harm’s way.

Angela is always wearing a mask even if she isn’t in her Sister Night costume. In fact, she’s been wearing many masks every single day of her life since she was a child. But “Strong Black Woman” is the mask she wears the most. This is an accepted stereotype for Black women who must often work twice as hard as their white counterparts to achieve similar levels of success. In Black Skin, White Masks (1952), Frantz Fanon wrote about this psychological phenomenon, in which people of color must play the roles assigned to them by white culture, stating, “Whether he likes it or not, the Black man has to wear the livery the white man has fabricated for him”.

In episode 3, “She Was Killed by Space Junk,” we meet Special Agent Laurie Blake, a former sexy superhero (the second Silk Spectre) turned cynical FBI agent and sentimental ex-girlfriend of Dr. Manhattan, who ironically heads up the Anti-Vigilante Task Force. Before Crawford’s funeral, Agent Blake introduces herself to Angela and tells her she’s there to help solve Crawford’s murder. When Angela explains that she’s no longer a cop, Agent Blake says: “You know how you can tell the difference between a masked cop and a vigilante?” Angela says, “No.” Blake says, “Me neither.”

Agent Blake doesn’t trust people who wear masks. Much like people who have secret compartments in their closets, they have something to hide. In episode 4, “If You Don’t Like My Story, Write Your Own,” Agent Blake shares her thoughts on the psychology of wearing masks: “People who wear masks are driven by trauma. They’re obsessed with justice because of some injustice they suffered. Usually when they were kids. Ergo the mask. It hides the pain.” Her assessment makes Angela defensive and she responds by saying, “I wear the mask to protect myself.” To which Blake says, “Right. From the pain.”

Agent Blake is not wrong. The masks Angela wears conceal her true face and identity, which allows her to masquerade in the guise of “strong Black woman.” But the pain is still there. Allen’s study suggests that “in the face of high levels of racial discrimination, some aspects of the superwoman persona, including feeling an obligation to present an image of strength and to suppress one’s emotions, seemed to be protective of health, diminishing the negative health effects of chronic racial discrimination.” However, “other facets of the persona, such as having an intense drive to succeed and feeling an obligation to help others, seemed to be detrimental to health, further exacerbating the deleterious health effects of the chronic stress associated with racial discrimination.”

Let’s be clear. Angela becomes a masked vigilante to fight white supremacy. But is it a battle she can win? While we travel back and forth on a non-linear timeline in Watchmen, most of season 1’s story arc takes place in 2019. Episode 1, “It’s Summer and We’re Running Out of Ice,” opens with a tragic historical event that many people were unaware happened, in which the Black citizens of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma were massacred by a mob of white people, including the Klan. From May 31 – June 1, 1921, the residents of the Greenwood District were beaten and murdered, and then their businesses and homes were looted before being burned down. This systematic and premeditated destruction of lives and property ruined the thriving community that was known as Black Wall Street. Just in case you’re wondering, this wasn’t an isolated event. Similar incidents happened to other Black communities in the U.S. and some would argue it’s still happening.

Angela meets a mysterious man in a wheelchair who claims to have killed Crawford, and discovers that he is her grandfather after visiting the Greenwood Center for Cultural Heritage. DNA testing is conducted at the center to identify relatives of the survivors and victims of the Tulsa Oklahoma Massacre. Believing she had no living relatives, she is shocked to discover some of the missing pieces of her past, reaffirming her legacy of tragedy.

Her grandfather, Will Reeves, gives Angela a bottle of Nostalgia, an outlawed drug that puts memories into pills you take to remember your past. It is strongly recommended that you do not take someone else’s Nostalgia because of the potential for permanent brain damage. In episode 5, “Little Fear of Lightning,” Angela takes an entire bottle of her grandfather’s Nostalgia before being dragged away in handcuffs after admitting Will Reeves killed Judd Crawford.

Angela relives her grandfather’s memories and learns that wearing a mask is a family tradition. Will Reeves’ memories become her memories. There is a theory that trauma can be passed from generation to generation through blood. Genetic or ancestral trauma is the pain associated with extreme trauma, such as slavery, the Holocaust, and the systematic rape of women in extremist cultures that is passed from parent to child through their DNA. Not only is Angela carrying the weight of her own emotional and psychological trauma, she also becomes a literal vessel for the ancestral trauma of her family when she ingests her grandfather’s memories.

Soon after becoming a cop in New York City in 1938, Will Reeves learns that his uniform and badge do not give him the same authority as white police officers. After arresting a white man he witnessed throwing a Molotov cocktail into the window of a Jewish-owned business, he learns about a group of white supremacists called the Cyclops. He is kidnapped by three policemen who place a hood over his head, then beat and lynch him. Just before he blacks out, they cut him down and threaten to kill him the next time he interferes in “white people’s business.” When the hood comes off Will’s head, we see Angela’s face. She is experiencing all of Will’s pain and terror as if it were her own.

On his way back from being lynched, Will witnesses a violent attack on a young white couple. Briefly, he considers leaving them to their fate, but decides to help them. The tools that were used to terrorize him — the hood and the lynching rope — become his mask and allow him to become a hero. The young couple do not know a Black man saved their lives.

Later, Will wears white make-up around his eyes under his hood so that no one will know that he’s Black. His disguise is “white face.” He wears two masks to conceal his identity, because, as Agent Blake says in a later episode, “He had to hide who he was because white men in masks are heroes. But Black men in masks are scary.”

Nelson Gardner/Captain Metropolis invites Will to join The New Minutemen, and tells him that his alter ego, Hooded Justice, inspired them to put on costumes and fight crime. Nelson insists that Will continue to hide the truth of his blackness, stating that the rest of the Minutemen aren’t as “tolerant” as he is. After Hooded Justice joins The Minutemen he soon realizes he can’t count on them to help take down Cyclops, and is mocked by Gardner when he uncovers a plot to use mind control on the Black citizens of Harlem to inspire Black on Black violence. Garden tells him, “I’m afraid you’re going to have to solve Black unrest all on your own.” Will has no choice but to take down the white supremacist group on his own.

Angela wakes up from a coma that she has been in since taking the Nostalgia. Will’s memories are still tangled up with hers, and she is receiving treatment to remove his memories under the care of Lady Trieu. Soon after waking, Angela discovers several plots that threaten her husband’s life, which is further complicated by the fact that her husband is actually Dr. Manhattan.

Dr. Manhattan has been wearing a mask, too. In fact, he’s been impersonating a Black man who died in Vietnam, where he and Angela met. In episode 8, “A God Walks into Abar,” Dr. Manhattan wears a Dr. Manhattan mask when he introduces himself to Angela. He masquerades as himself because everyone thinks he’s on Mars, and he doesn’t want to be recognized. Even though he wears a mask, he doesn’t hide his identity from Angela and even has to convince her that he really is who he claims to be.

In order for Angela to have a relationship with Dr. Manhattan, he must pretend to be someone else. Despite the fact that Dr. Manhattan is one of the most powerful beings in the Universe, he takes on the persona of a mild-mannered house husband, placing Angela in the role of family protector. On the surface, they seem to have a relationship that is based on equality — they share parenting and discuss major life changes together. However, Angela is really in charge of the family. She is the primary breadwinner, and we see her as the physically and emotionally Strong Black Woman. She has taken on a more traditionally masculine role in her family, which is not uncommon for many Black women in America. While Angela is not a single parent, she still must shoulder the bulk of responsibility for keeping her family safe and financially stable. Even at home, when she should be able to take off her mask, she still must play the role of Strong Black Woman.

In episode 9, “See How They Fly,” Angela becomes a widow and a single mother after trying and failing to save Dr. Manhattan from being murdered. This particular episode of Watchmen was a statement about the Black American family. Although Dr. Manhattan was white and Jewish by birth and later blue after his accident, for the past ten years of his life, he was living as a Black man. I don’t know if you noticed, but there is an epidemic of death-by-racists in America that is affecting a shocking number of Black men and women. The choice to focus on a Black family in America in which the mother is literally a superhero and the father is murdered by white supremacists is not coincidental. Each episode of Watchmen has painted a portrait of the Black experience in America and unmasked white supremacy at every level of society. The show’s commentary on racism in America is relentless, unapologetic, and authentic. It uses stereotypes of blackness to unpack the harmful realities of racism — past and present — in America.

Beyond the epidemic of death-by-racists, there is a health crisis in America. Women of color are experiencing physical and mental health issues due to chronic racism. Their trauma and pain never goes away. It is simply hidden under a mask of strength in order to survive in a society that is slowly killing them one microaggression at a time. Because of her willingness to accept the role of Strong Black Woman, Angela genuinely believed she could save her husband. Once again, she risked her life to protect someone she loves even if it meant that she died in the process. But she doesn’t die. Her strength paid off. And although we can empathize with her pain and grief, we shouldn’t pity Angela Abar. She hasn’t lost everything. She still has her family, and for the time being, the white supremacists have been defeated.

Even though Dr. Manhattan is gone, he left a little bit of himself behind. In the final scene of the season finale, Angela eats the egg that contains his essence in a symbolic act of artificial insemination that heralds a transformation. What will happen to Angela? Will she be able to walk on water like Dr. Manhattan? We don’t know, because the episode ends before we see her foot touch the water. We are left with a feeling of hopefulness, excitement, and more questions than answers. Angela’s future is uncertain. What does seem certain is the fact that whatever happens, she’ll be ready to face it, mask or no mask.