How the Torment of Saartjie Baartman Led to the Exploitation of Black Women in Modern Day Media
BY Chelsy Veras
Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve been made hyperaware of my body by my teachers, relatives, friends, and even strangers. They would tell me to “cover up” when I wore leggings and a tank top and they would constantly remind me of my “far too developed body.” Even before the age of 10, my body was a spectacle to the people around me. For the longest time, I thought it was normal for my body to be examined and judged by everyone. It wasn’t until I got older that I realized that the way I am perceived by society is an experience lived by most black women, which started hundreds of years ago. Under a patriarchy, black women are viewed in this manner from an early age and on because their history is full of pain and oppression. The history of the slave auction block and the life and death of Saartjie Baartman (also known as Sarah Baartman), a black woman who was displayed in a freak show in 19th century Europe, play a part in the way black women are portrayed in modern society and media. More specifically, this history explains why black women are constantly being examined, sexualized and exploited in the entertainment industry.
Ever since the beginning of black women’s lives in America, their bodies have been used as objects of sexual desire and their ownership used as an indication of someone’s power. The exploitation of a black woman’s body in America began during the time of slavery. Before they were bought by slave owners, the monetary value of black women varied depending on their level of attractiveness. In When Rape Was Legal: The Untold History of Sexual Violence during Slavery, Rachel A. Feinstein describes behavior that was considered normal when auctioning off slaves. Feinstein says that “white men in New Orleans were known to flaunt their wealth in front of other men by putting the highest bids on enslaved women they deemed the most attractive” (15). The literal value of a black enslaved woman depended on whether or not she was desirable to the men that were purchasing her for the sole purpose of boasting about their riches. Black women were treated like collectables to be judged, traded, and shown off. Owning slaves was already a sign of wealth in America. However, owning attractive women as slaves was everything a slave master could want at the time: free labor and inconsequential sexual pleasure. Black women were property and because they were property, slave masters did not believe that rape was morally wrong. They viewed black women as animals with no mind of their own. They were only bodies—bodies that weren’t theirs.
The exploitation of black women’s bodies did not only happen in America but Europe as well. Born in South Africa in 1789, Saartjie Baartman was the first black woman to be sexually trafficked. When Baartman was 16, her husband was “murdered by Dutch colonists…[and s]oon after, she was sold into slavery to a trader named Pieter Willem Cezar, who took her to Cape Town where she became a domestic slave to his brother, Hendrik” (Howard). There the brothers forced Baartman to travel with them and in their travels they sold her again, but this time to an exhibitor that displayed animals. At the age of 19, Baartman was put on display in freak shows and zoos in Europe because of her “fascinating” curvy figure and big buttocks. The watching public was mesmerized by her appearance and wondered how someone could have features that big; was she part animal? People tried to find answers to these questions throughout her life but even more so in her death. Baartman’s corpse was examined by scientists and “her genitalia and brain placed in jars—her body re-presented in cast form, her skeleton hung from a rack—and all were placed on display in a museum for decades—groped, leered, and prodded at by the watchful eyes of a paying public who came to see that ‘missing link’ between humans and animals” (Henderson 948). Baartman wasn’t viewed as a human but merely an experiment. The trapped life and public corpse of Baartman was caused by curiosity disguised as desire. Looking at Baartman challenged the European perspective of women’s bodies because it did not fit the white European standard of beauty and modesty at all; “[s]he was the icon of racial inferiority, black female sexual difference, and white curiosity” (Lomax 15). To the public, Baartman was a symbol of an otherworldly hypersexual creature when in reality she was a victim. Her identity was ripped from her and controlled by the dirty hands that put her in that cage and the invasive eyes that watched her. She was tortured in life and continued to be scrutinized beyond death; she died in 1815, but it wasn’t until 2002 that she was finally buried. Society’s fascination with the unconventional bodies of black women started with Saartjie Baartman but it did not end there.
A more modern example of black women’s bodies getting exploited can be found in championship record winning runner, Caster Semenya. After winning a gold medal in the women’s world championship in 2009, when she was 18 years old, Semenya was forced to take a gender test because the athletic community wondered why she looked so masculine. Semenya was forced to “undergo ‘gender testing’ while the world followed closely. The results, stating that Semenya is a woman…also reveal[ed] intimate details about her organs” (Orgeret 283). Curiosity mattered more than Semenya’s privacy and right to her own body. People’s opinions and theories had more power over Semenya’s body than she did herself. The fact that details about her organs were put on display to the public proves that not much has changed with the policing over black women’s bodies. Just like Baartman, Semenya was taken advantage of by an audience at a young age and treated like a lab rat. One of the only times the media celebrated Semenya’s image was when she was displayed more feminine in a magazine cover. In the text, “The Unexpected Body: From Sara Baartman to Caster Semenya,” Kristin Skare observes that the magazine cover consisted of a “picture of Caster all made up, sitting in a ‘feminine pose,’ holding her hands in a passive/posing way, showing off the sparkling nail polish, wearing a dress and a lot of jewelry” (292). This “feminine” look was contrasted with “a small picture of the ‘old’ Caster in running gear…presented in the corner, much like the ‘before and after’ pictures in the total makeover genre of women’s magazines…presented to show how much she has changed” (292). The general public saw this cover and felt like they could finally sleep in peace because there was no “mystery” concerning Semenya’s identity anymore. To them she was finally a “real” woman. Semenya’s identity was policed, controlled, and it therefore did not belong to her anymore. Both Baartman’s and Semenya’s identities were controlled because they didn’t fit society’s standard of femininity.
While many of us might not realize it because it’s become so normalized, we are constantly making a spectacle of black women’s bodies when we watch music videos. Many music videos depict mainly half naked black women with big hips and buttocks performing promiscuous acts. One example of this is displayed in the 2020 music video “Drankin N Smokin” by the rappers Future and Lil Uzi Vert, directed by DJ Esco and Sam Lecca. This video, which has 49 million views, consists of the rappers in a mansion with cash everywhere and countless amounts of nearly nude black women. While this is only one example, many videos are crafted with the same formula: cash, expensive jewelry, luxury cars, expensive houses and most importantly, curvy women to showcase the rapper’s riches. There is a clear connection between the value of a female black slave at the auction block and the way they are pictured today in these videos. Slave masters bought black female slaves and paid higher for the ones they found attractive to parade their wealth and power in front of their other male counterparts. Similarly, rappers flaunt their riches as well as naked black women in their videos to showcase their power. This is made evident in the music video to “Drankin N Smokin” when a half naked black woman is seen fanning Lil Uzi with a wad of cash while he plays poker (3:41). It’s obvious that there’s a power disconnect between the woman and the artist. The nearly nude woman fanning Lil Uzi while he gambles implies that she is only there to serve him and stand as proof that he has money and a higher status. Music videos that exploit women who have huge hips, large breasts, and big butts (which are typically afrocentric features) are perpetuating a sexualization similar to the one Barrtman was subjected to in her lifetime.
The objectification of black women in music videos isn’t only limited to rap culture, but also to pop music. This tends to happen when pop artists, specifically women, want to change their image from an innocent girl to a woman who can be rebellious and sexual. A prime example of this is Miley Cyrus, the child actor turned singer. She once starred in Hannah Montana as a country girl who lived a double life as a pop star. The show ended in 2011, and in 2013, Miley’s public image took a full 180. She began to rebrand herself by cutting her hair short, wearing more revealing clothes, and dancing promiscuously at every possible moment. In a music video with 950 million views, “We Can’t Stop,” directed by Diane Martel in 2013, Miley is only seen dancing sexually with black women. At one point, Miley is seen touching a black woman who is shaking her buttocks and later on, Miley is seen doing the same dance move with three other black women (0:44, 1:28). Whenever pop singers like Miley Cyrus attempt to break free from the stereotype of white innocence and be seen as more sexually active and wild, they always use black women in their videos as an indication for such a transition. This continues to perpetuate the idea that black women are promiscuous, wild and untamable. To push against the conventional idea of womanhood is not wrong. However, using black women to do so makes it seem like black women are the “other” and that they are on the wrong side of womanhood. In addition, it makes it seem like black women don’t have the ability to be soft, delicate, and innocent. Miley Cyrus left her 2013 “wild” persona and is now more of an edgy rockstar in 2022; this goes to show how women like Miley Cyrus exploit the image of a black woman and then dispose of it without realizing the damage it does to black women and girls all over the world.
Another pop artist who is responsible for portraying black women in an exploitative manner is Ariana Grande. Ariana Grande, similarly to Miley Cyrus, was a child actor who became a singer. She used to play the role of Cat Valentine in the shows Victorious and Sam and Cat. Cat Valentine was a ditzy, bubbly, hypersensitive, childlike character. After Ariana stopped acting in 2014, she tried her hardest to reconstruct her image from a ditzy girl to a fully grown, promiscuous woman. And as she attempted to do so, Ariana slowly altered her physical features to appear more racially ambiguous. In 2016, she started using fake tanners to make her skin appear darker. In 2017, she allegedly got lip filler. In 2019, Ariana released her song, “7 Rings,” which has hip hop influences in the melody, and the music video got 1.2 billion views. It was directed by Hannah Lux Davis and shows Ariana outside of a house dancing with a bunch of women. As the video progresses, a black woman is depicted dancing sexually while another black woman holds her long braid (2:17). It is so very clear what Ariana is trying to accomplish: to change the public’s perception of herself from an innocent little girl to a fully grown woman, Ariana cosplays as a black woman. She paints her skin and injects her lips to develop features of a woman of color so the world can see her as a sexual “bad girl.” Flash forward to 2022, Ariana completely changes her aesthetic again. She appears to be three shades lighter than before and is wearing softer colors and more delicate makeup. She switches her race to whichever one can be the most beneficial to her and her career. She treated the image of black women as if it were a costume that can be thrown away and replaced. This isn’t an option for black women because they can’t switch to a race who’s stereotype benefits them; they have to live with the harmful one society gave to them.
Some may disagree and say that society does not portray black women as sexual, but rather that black women sexualize themselves. However, the people that say this don’t realize that some black women have to conform to specific stereotypes to be invited into certain spaces. In an interview of rapper Nicki Minaj with Joe Budden, she talks about what it was like being an up-and-coming female rapper surrounded by extremely successful male rappers. In the interview, Nicki talks about how she felt pressured to get plastic surgery at such a young age because the rappers that she idolized body-shamed her for not having a big butt. Earlier in the interview, Nicki also mentions how she was one of the first people on the internet to get ridiculed for getting her body done. She says “I was a lot of people’s guinea pig…[e]veryday I would go on [the internet] and it was some new made up story or bad picture [about me]” (“Nicki Minaj Speaks on the Truth Behind if She Got Surgery on her Body”). The image of a black woman is always public and put on a screen for everyone to watch and ridicule. She felt the need to alter the way she looked so she could fit the image that the people she looked up to idolized. It is also a huge possibility that Nicki has the amount of success she has because she sexualizes herself. Conversations about her body after surgery hurt her feelings, yet the controversy gave her an insane amount of publicity. Sometimes a black woman has to fetishize herself to obtain the things she wants. It is difficult to break out of a cycle you did not create.
The hardships faced by Saartjie Baartman and black women during slavery influence the way black women are treated and portrayed in the entertainment industry today. To shift the harmful portrayal and exploitation of black women in the media, we first have to educate ourselves on the dark history that led to this in the first place. All women are sexualized and subjected under a patriarchy, but the problems black women face are often pushed to the side or ignored. Allowing black women to be included in conversations about feminism opens up the idea of talking about the importance of acknowledging the intersectionalities between race and gender. Conversations like these also need to be had and upheld in academia and professional spaces in order for these issues to be taken seriously. The representation of black women in the media also needs some heavy changes. For example, instead of having black women be props or objects that are extremely erotic, they should be displayed as multifaceted people with real feelings and issues. In addition, the sports industry also needs to respect and stop the policing of the bodies of women. All these changes are necessary to empower and uplift black women and girls. Putting an end to the sexualization and exploitation of black women in the media will protect the innocence that so many black girls tend to lose before the age of ten. We need to protect our black women; it’s about time we do.
Works Cited
Henderson, Carol E. “AKA: Sarah Baartman, the Hottentot Venus, and Black Women’s Identity.” Women’s Studies, vol. 43, no. 7, 2014, pp. 946–959.,
Orgeret, Kristin Skare. “The Unexpected Body: From Sara Baartman to Caster Semenya.” Journal of African Media Studies, vol. 8, no. 3, 2016, pp. 281–294.,
Feinstein, Rachel A. When Rape Was Legal: The Untold History of Sexual Violence during Slavery. Routledge, 2018.
Vert, Lil Uzi. “Drankin N Smokin.” Youtube, uploaded by Lil Uzi Vert, 7 Jan. 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8FZXaBXJK0
Cyrus, Miley. “We Can’t Stop.” Youtube, uploaded by Miley Cyrus, 19 Jun. 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrUvu1mlWco
Grande, Ariana. “7 rings.” Youtube, uploaded by Ariana Grande, 18 Jan. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYh6mYIJG2Y
“Nicki Minaj Speaks on the Truth Behind If She Got Surgery on Her Body.” Youtube, uploaded by Do Better Clips, 09 Mar. 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1VLXkvC18w
Lomax, Tamura A. Jezebel Unhinged: Losing the Black Female Body in Religion and Culture. Duke University Press, 2018.
About the Author
Chelsy Veras was born and raised in the Bronx, New York and just finished her first year at
Fordham University. She is very keen on analyzing the social world around her which inspired
her to write this paper. In her free time she loves to be around nature and listen to music.