Answer to Question #270614 in History for Njabs

Question

Discuss how Sarah Baartman became a symbol of ideas of race held by Europeans in the 19th century, and how this promoted racial and gender discrimination

Answer 1

Baartman, a Khoisan lady from South Africa, emigrated to Europe in the early 1800s; it's unknown whether she did so voluntarily or was forced. Showmen took her around Europe, forcing her to sing and dance in front of hundreds of white bystanders in an unpleasant and demeaning show. Baartman was occasionally hanged in a cage on stage while being poked, prodded, and touched while naked in these displays. Her bulging buttocks, which were caused by a disorder called steatopygia that occurs naturally among people in arid parts of southern Africa, were described as grotesque, lewd, and vulgar.

She also had enlarged labia, a physical trait dubbed a "Hottentot apron" by some. Both became racial symbols, and many more women from this region of Africa were smuggled to Europe for white enjoyment. Baartman's features were exoticized because they differed so significantly from mainstream conceptions of white feminine beauty. In addition to being criticized and shamed in the West, her plump and curvy form was advertised as the "most correct and flawless manifestation of her race." It is impossible to deny that Baartman's image is founded in a tradition of slavery, unwitting servitude, and colonialism. The same white gaze that fetishized Baartman's body as exotic and blatantly sexual propagated the stereotype of Black women as sexually promiscuous, lewd, and hypersexual. While Baartman may not have been allowed to keep the money she received for ogling her, today's Black women can aspire after her body type and profit from it. Baartman's body, which was formerly mocked by an invasive white gaze, is now profitable - as long as these ladies are okay with being objectified.