LOLA JACOBS ASSIGNMENTS © 2024
HSY1511
ASSIGNMENT NO: 03
YEAR: 2024 (SEM 1)
PREVIEW:
QUESTION 1
Sarah Baartman became a symbol of the ideas of race held by Europeans in the
19th century, promoting racial and gender discrimination. She was a Khoikhoi
woman from South Africa who was taken to Europe in 1810 by a British doctor, who
exhibited her in various shows and circuses under the name "Hottentot Venus."
Baartman's physical features, particularly her buttocks and genitalia, were
considered unusual and exotic by European audiences, who were fascinated by her
appearance.
, LOLA JACOBS ASSIGNMENTS © 2024
CHOOSE ONLY 2 QUESTIONS
Q1
Sarah Baartman became a symbol of the ideas of race held by Europeans in the
19th century, promoting racial and gender discrimination. She was a Khoikhoi
woman from South Africa who was taken to Europe in 1810 by a British doctor, who
exhibited her in various shows and circuses under the name "Hottentot Venus."
Baartman's physical features, particularly her buttocks and genitalia, were
considered unusual and exotic by European audiences, who were fascinated by her
appearance. This fascination with her body contributed to the development of
pseudoscientific theories of racial difference, which posited that people of African
descent were inherently inferior to Europeans.
Baartman's treatment in Europe was exploitative and dehumanizing, and she was
subjected to constant scrutiny and objectification. She was also forced to participate
in sexual acts on stage, which reinforced the stereotype of African women as
sexually promiscuous and available. Baartman died in 1815, and her body was
dissected and displayed in museums and medical schools, further perpetuating the
idea of African people as exotic and different from Europeans.
The exploitation of Baartman and the ideas that she came to symbolize were
indicative of the racism and sexism that characterized European society in the 19th
century. These ideas were used to justify colonialism and the subjugation of non-
European peoples, as well as to reinforce gender hierarchies that favored men over
women. The legacy of Baartman's exploitation and the pseudoscientific theories of
race that emerged from it continue to be felt today, as they contribute to ongoing
debates around issues of race, gender, and representation.
The information in this paragraph is based on the following sources:
• Stuurman, S. (2014). Sarah Baartman and the Hottentot Venus: A ghost story
and a biography. The Journal of African History, 55(1), 1-22.
• Gilman, S. L. (1995). Black bodies, white bodies: Toward an iconography of
female sexuality in late nineteenth-century art, medicine, and literature.
Critical Inquiry, 21(2), 381-415.
