Character Analysis
For a book about equal rights for minorities, the way that Malcolm X's autobiography deals with women sure seems backwards. While Ella is an exception, these other three women exemplify Malcolm X's approach to women throughout the book, and it's not a nice one. But let's start at the beginning.
Laura
We might as well call her Lisa Simpson. Laura is a nerdy goody two shoes from the nice part of town. Malcolm says: "She had never been touched, I'm certain she hadn't, or even had a drink, and she wouldn't even have known what a reefer was" (4.26). In other words, she's the complete opposite of the hoodlum Malcolm is at that age.
Every time Malcolm sees her, her face is buried in some book. Eventually the two of them get to talking, and she is lured into dancing the Lindy Hop with him in front of everyone. She does great and it's obvious that she hopes it will get her closer to Malcolm and earn her some cool points, but he drops her for the next lady on the list.
Sophia
Most of what we know about Sophia is that she appears right after Laura's dance with Malcolm, she's rich, and she's pretty. Malcolm describes her like this:
Now at that time, in Roxbury, in any black ghetto in America, to have a white woman who wasn't a known, common whore was—for the average black man, at least—a status symbol of the first order. And this one, standing there, eyeing me, was almost too fine to believe. Shoulder-length hair, well built, and her clothes had cost somebody plenty. (4.76)
We guess, according to Malcolm, that's all that's important to know about her.
Moving along, here comes the last lady in Malcolm's romantic life.
Sister Betty X
Honestly, when we were reading Malcolm's description of how he met his wife, we thought we were reading a letter by a six-year-old boy. He writes:
This sister—well, in 1956, she joined Temple Seven. I just noticed her, not with the slightest interest, you understand. For about the next year, I just noticed her. You know, she never would have dreamed I was even thinking about her. In fact, probably you couldn't have convinced her I even knew her name. It was Sister Betty X. She was tall, brown-skinned—darker than I was. And she had brown eyes. I knew she was a native of Detroit, and that she had been a student at Tuskegee Institute down in Alabama—an education major. She was in New York at one of the big hospitals' school of nursing. She lectured to the Muslim girls' and women's classes on hygiene and medical facts. (13.88)
Yeah, he wasn't paying much attention to her except he was totally stalking her and knows everything about her entire life. He obviously just doesn't want to say that it was love at first sight. But it was, trust us.
Oh, and by the way, who proposes over the phone? It's obvious that Malcolm is not a romantic. Not just because he's shy, but it seems that he has a very particular view of women.
Role Of Women
We wouldn't have wanted Malcolm X for a boyfriend. We mean, look at what happened to Laura. She tried to get to know him, even fought with her family so that she could hang out with him, and he left her in a heartbeat for another girl. And what happened to her? This:
The next time I saw her, she was a wreck of a woman, notorious around black Roxbury, in and out of jail. She had finished high school, but by then she was already going the wrong way. Defying her grandmother, she had started going out late and drinking liquor. This led to dope, and that to selling herself to men. Learning to hate the men who bought her, she also became a Lesbian. (4.79)
Okay, we are pretty sure this isn't a typical reaction of a girl who's been jilted by a guy. But still, the point is Malcolm writes about her like she is just garbage he could throw away, despite having struggled with similar demons himself.
Does Sophia fare any better? Nope. Not only does he take all of her money every time he sees her, but he also abuses her. Malcolm says:
Always, every now and then, I had given her a hard time, just to keep her in line. Every once in a while a woman seems to need, in fact wants this, too. But now, I would feel evil and slap her around worse than ever, some of the nights when Shorty was away. She would cry, curse me, and swear that she would never be back. But I knew she wasn't even thinking about not coming back. (9.9)
Notice that there isn't even a trace of regret in that description. According to Malcolm, Sophia wants to be hit by him. You know, just like zebras like getting eaten by lions.
So far we've established that Malcolm X has treated the women in his life as disposable beings that he can abuse as he sees fit because it is what they want. Knowing that, you might be a little worried for Sister Betty X. But there has been a small change in Malcolm's understanding of women by this point. Before, Malcolm seems to see what he considered "woman's weakness" as a negative attribute. But according to the Nation of Islam, it is good and natural for women to be weak.
So by the time that he marries Sister Betty X, these attributes are not negative but positive. Think about the reasons why he praises her. Because she is silent, because she doesn't bother him when he comes home, because she will do anything that he asks her to do without questioning it. In other words, because she is completely subservient to him. It's no wonder that she only has one line in the whole book. But at least that's one line more than Laura or Sophia ever get.