Agency or Complacency: the Complicated Life of the Venus Hottentot In Suzan-Lori Parks’ Venus, readers are introduced to a fictionalized version of Saartjie Baartman, a woman who was smuggled into London from South Africa in 1810 to perform in a freak show (Elkins). In both the play and in real life, Saartjie (known as the Hottentot Venus) is subject to both degradation and dehumanization throughout her short life. Some argue that The Venus has agency over her situation when she is prepositioned
Sarah Baartman in comparison to her representation in our modern society, beginning in the course of the early eighteenth century. In my research, I will use Sarah Baartman as a means of showing how medical and scientific discourses work to construct images of sexual and racial differences. After her death in in 1815, her body was given to the comparative anatomist, Georges Cuvier, who dissected and preserved the body as an object of scientific research. The question of how Sarah Baartman was both
Africa around the 1700s. After becoming a slave by a Dutch Afrikaner, her name changed to Saartjie (means Little Sarah in Dutch.) As the story goes on, it explains more of Saartjie’s culture, which includes the grooming to be more desirable for marriage. In Khoisan’s culture, female massage their buttocks with special ointment so they will swell, and their genitalia are also stretched. Because of this, Saartjie becomes a physical curiosity and sexual fetish to her white master. Later on, the white
The Victorian freak show in Britain exhibited bearded ladies to dwarfs entertaining all classes of Victorian society. Furthermore, it encouraged the public to gaze at the ‘otherness ’ and to evaluate their meaning in relation to Victorian values and hierarchy. As Leslie Fielder argues the freak brings to life our most secret inner fears, ‘the freak challenges the conventional boundaries between man and female between human and animal’ . This essay will explore and analyze the treatment of racial
The thought of the circus sideshow acts seems like a hazy memory in the history of America. However, many television programs are recreating a modern version of P. T. Barnum’s freak shows. People today have the same curiosity or maybe even more curiosity than the people of the past to see these types of shows. The strangest part of today’s society is that there has never been a time when viewing the strange was so accessible. Therefore, my personal perspective is that freak shows still exist in the
Sarah Baartman Sarah Baartman, born in 1790, is an important aspect in African American History. She endured so many tribulations throughout her lifetime. Sarah is important because of the abuse she experienced, the way she was compared to an animal because of her unusual figure, and the legacy she left behind for this generation of Black people. The first reason Sarah Baartman is very important is because of the torture she experienced at the hands of racist “white people”. Baartman was considered
that the piece is not of admiration. The people in the print are not looking at Saartjie with appreciation, they are gawking at her as though she is a zoo animal. The man on the left is reaching out to touch Saartjie’s butt, like she is a forbidden creature. Saartjie is standing on a box as if she is a science experiment being presented for all to see. It is ironic how “beautiful” is in the title of this piece when Saartjie is being presented as an abnormality. The comments made by the observers are
and writing about not-so-socially-acceptable topics, Shawn Garrett writes that “many African-American audience members and critics were nervous, and even angry, about the way Parks told the story.” And some critics argued that the portrayal of Saartjie Baartman in the play actually objectifies the colonizers, rather than the intended focus being the heroine. But regardless of the people who opposed the work, Parks displayed a very unique perspective on the femininity and sexuality of African American
Saartjie Baartman’s exhibition is a prime example of this phenomenon . Saartjie was a young Khoikhoi woman from Southern Africa who was born in the late 18th century . The Khoikhoi people were given the nickname Hottentots by the Dutch who settled on their land. Saartjie Baartman was renamed “Sarah” or “Sara” when she was sold and relocated to London. Sarah had a naturally large bottom, full
When it comes to African Americans, women have always been an imperative part of our culture and our history. Over the course of history, African American women were frequently hated and shunned not only by the color of their skin but for having “nappy” hair and/or a large buttocks which in a sense puts us at the bottom of that hierarchy. When it comes to other races, people with straight hair or without a big butt were more commonly accepted as beautiful or more likely to be accepted before African
When it comes to representing other people, artists inevitably create biased work since we all have pre-existing notions about people, whether we’re aware of them or not. This can make it difficult to create responsible works of art; because these preconceived ideas often feel so natural to have, it’s hard to examine our own biases. We assume certain kinds of people are the default, such as cisgendered people, or we place values on our characters that aren’t universal. There are art works are made
freak show attraction throughout Europe in the 19th century. She was described to have huge hips, a huge backside, and huge labia lips. Not much is known about Saartjie but it has been reported that she spoke 4 languages and died at the young age of 25 years old. It was rumored there would be a biopic about her and Beyonce would play as Saartjie, this caused a lot of controversy and opened the door for a lot of criticism and backlash. Beyonce’s representatives shut down the rumor that she had anything
abuse and are assets, not individuals. Ian McLean author of “Reinventing the Savage” discusses specific examples of the people that lived in human zoos and what the exhibits were like. One particular person he mentions that was exhibited is Saartjie (Sara) Baartman a Gonaqua woman. He writes,
From the earlier forms of fetishizing over Saartjie Baartman in Europe, the dehumanization of black women as “mammies,” to Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s controversial Moynihan Report in 1965, African and African American female identity has been under the direct possession of white people. White Americans
The impact of domestic violence against women leaves a lifelong impact not only on the women but families and children. Violence against women has a major impact on the health and life expectancy of women. “These findings send a powerful message that violence against women is a global health problem of epidemic proportions,” Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General, WHO. The World Bank estimates that rape and domestic abuse account for 5 percent of healthy years of life lost to women of reproductive age
In the 1800s Europeans discovered Saartjie Baartman, a South African Bushman woman. They called her the Hottentot Venus and exploited her mainly because of her physical and cultural differences. Hottentot, Khoisan, San and Bushmen are all common names for the group of indigenous people of which she belonged. These people have been largely viewed by Western society as “savages who were part human, part animal” and considered to be “the lowest rung in the ladder of human development.” This unilateral
The Feminist Movement is said to be the promoting of equality and the empowerment of all women. Feminism should support women of color, poor women, transwomen, disabled women etc. However, history has shown feminism has supported Western ideologies and the issues of White women solely. Feminism was solely built for and around White heterosexual women. The issues of women of color have always been marginalized due to racism, classism, and sexism. Black feminism and Womanism are two theories that directly