In the “Images of Sara Bartman”, Yvette Abraham explains how Sara Bartman’s exhibition impacted the way black women were perceived in British culture during the 1700s-1800s.
According to Abraham, Sara’s exhibition created an image that Sara and all African women are hyper-sexualize to the point where people like her are viewed “savages” because they have different body types and British troops are trying to “civilize” them. Another thing that I found so interesting was that while white women were expected to be covered head to toe. Sara Bartman, on the other hand, is forced to dress in tight dresses that leave little to the imagination and shreds all the dignity that she has left. If a “fair country women” was showing her ankles or wearing little clothes, there would be an uproar but if it was Sara Bartman or any other black women it was acceptable to be nearly naked for everyone to see because she is viewed as a sexual objectification.
Even to this day, we still live in the mainstream culture that over sexualizes the female body. In social media, a lot of people have this mentality of having a big butt as something desirable body feature to have and often sexualized. However, there are many performers (Beyonce, Nicki Minaj,etc.) that do encourage women to empower themselves and be allowed to be sexual because you will take away the control of others and do whatever they see fit. https://sites.psu.edu/mycivicissuesblog/2016/04/07/the-fetishization-of-black-women-in-mainstream-culture-exploring-the-jezebel-and-mammy-black-female-stereotypes/
Overall, do you think that women in this time are still hyper-sexualized based on their race or what type of clothing they wear? Why?
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