Mueller 1

Kelci Mueller
Professor Lo
Race & Social Justice
April 23rd, 2016
Women Portrayed by Malcolm X
In the Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley and Malcolm X, Malcolm tells
a wonderful story about his life from birth to right before he was assassinated. Malcolm
X tells lots of stories about him and girls he has met along the way. He definitely felt
strongly towards a few girls, but he did not always treat girls or women with a lot of
respect. Sophia, Laura, and later his wife Betty will be the main focus of to show how
Malcolm portrays women, although some minor roles like prostitutes and girls he danced
with will be included. Some of the ways I feel that he did not treat girls with respect are,
how he talked about prostitutes and drug addicts, how he describe white women, and how
he leaves Laura for Sophia, and his whole relationship with Sophia in general. Malcolm
had a lot of heart for his people in general but sometimes he was very disrespectful
towards some of the women in his life.
Lets start off with Laura. Laura is the lovely girl he met at his job working at a
drug store. She would come in every single day reading and shed eat a banana split. He
considered her a dignified Negro (Haley, 49) because she lived on the Hill in Boston,
and she is still going to school; honor student. He took an interest in her because she was

Mueller 2

herself and she wasnt faking anything. She started to talk about how she wanted to go
dancing but he didnt want to introduce her to that part of his life because he thought she
was too good for all of that. He finally did and when they got there, he ditched her during
the last hour to dance with some other girls because he didnt think she could do it in
heels. Malcolm thinks that she is too good to be introduced to a life in lindy-hopping but I
feel that is very biased because if she is too good, then taking her to one dance wont hurt
her because she has her morals, and if she was too good, she would stick to them.
Malcolm judged her as too proper and lady-like to be a part of his crowd. Then he finally
takes her to the dance and then ditches her because he thinks she cant win the
competition like another girl could because she was wearing heels. He put his wanting to
win over her having a good time. Later Malcolm learned from his friend named Sammy
the Pimp that when women are dancing, the look in their face shows the infallible clue
for determining the unconscious, true personality of women (Haley, 50). This tells
Sammy whether or not they would become prostitutes. Although this might have been a
way to rationalize his guilt for messing up her life, the fact that he would even consider
trying to guess who would become a prostitute by the way they danced, was completely
unfair to women. Just because women are great dancers, doesnt mean they will become
prostitutes later in life. What happened with Laura may have partially been Malcolms
fault but there was nothing he could do to prevent it from happening, even if he did have
a sixth sense for this kind of thing. Why it might be partially Malcolms fault is because
when he took her to these dances he was looking at other girls and sometimes just
ignoring her, especially when Sophia came along.

Mueller 3

Dont get me wrong, I do not believe Malcolm is a bad guy by any means, I do
understand why he treated or talked about girls the way he did. It was because it was a
social norm back in his time. But I am arguing this because if he wants equality for all,
that should include how he treats women as well. Sophia plays a huge role in Malcolms
life, from when he first met her until a few years down the road, she has been in his life in
some form or another. Malcolm first spotted her in the crowd the last night he took Laura
to the dance. He was immediately interested because she was a white woman at a
predominately black club. Sophia was also very vague when it came to answers, which
made him want to learn more about this mysterious white women. He took Laura home
early and then went and met her outside of the Roseland (the dance club). For months,
Sophia would pick him up and drive him around Roxbury. Malcolm used this as a way to
show off his white woman to all of his friends, they not only loved the idea of her, they
loved the status she gave all of them. It was when I began to be seen around town with
Sophia that I really began to mature into some real status in black downtown Roxbury.
(Haley, 53) Malcolm portrays Sophia as more of an object to gain status than as a love
interest. This causes Malcolm to only see women as a way to show off to his friends.
They wanted to steal my fine white women away from me. (Haley, 53), And I had her,
which was even better. (Haley, 53), these statements by Malcolm show that he also felt
he has ownership over Sophia, that nobody could steal her away from him. This is an
issue because he does not own her, she is her own person, and that mentality shows the
readers that Sophia was even more of an object to Malcolm than she already is. Even
later in the relationship after Malcolm moved to Harlem, he stated Even among Harlem

Mueller 4

Nergroes, her looks gave me status. (Haley, 66) he was still using her for popularity
among his friends. Malcolm did care for Sophia, she was just more of a status symbol
more than anything else.
Betty Shabazz was Malcolm wife, they married in 1958. Malcolm loved Betty,
there was no doubt about that. But there was a few lines that felt as if he was above her.
You know, she never would have dreamed I was even thinking about her. In fact,
probably you couldnt have convinced her I even knew her name. This implies that she
was so unknown, and he was so known, that she couldnt even guess that he was thinking
about her. He put himself on a pedestal, even though he has done a lot of good, having
that much say and power over people can get to your head. Shes the only woman I ever
even thought about loving. (Haley, 149) He is saying how he never even tried to care
about any of the other girls he was with, even though you talked about how much he
cared for them, he never truly did. Almost every women he has been with have been for
fun or for status and with that statement he proved that to himself.
Those women were the three that impacted him the most in his life but yet he still
thought maybe not necessarily poorly about them, but had some negative attitudes
towards them in general. There seem to be a higher code of ethics and sisterliness
among those prostitutes than among numerous ladies of the church who have more men
for kicks than the prostitutes has for pay. (Haley, 65) He is judging these women by how
many men they are sleeping with even though he doesnt know why.

Mueller 5

Malcolm X brought a lot change when it comes to the civil rights movement. He
inspired a lot of people to fight against inequality within America for blacks. But what
some people missed about Malcolm X is he still gave into societal norms such as the way
he treats women. Not only did he treat or talk about women he did not know with little to
no respect, the women who were most important in his life were also treated with little to
no respect. I can understand during those times it was thought that the man was the
dominant in the relationship but if he wanted to fight for equality, he should have fought
for equality for everyone, including women. I dont believe Malcolm is a bad person but I
think he wouldve been a lot more persuasive if he didnt treat women like he did.
Malcolm shouldve reevaluated the way he treated women while he was fighting for
equality for all.