Day 9: Black women have been sexualized since the beginning of time. We all are fascinated with things we can't have and the more we can't have it the more we want it. White women were jealous of this beautiful black women, white men were tempted to touch her and feel her body. This woman name is Sarah Baartman, an South African Khoikhoi women whose body was put on display in a museum during the 19th century. She was label a "freak show" for having large buttocks, wide hips, and elongated labia. Her features were heavily exaggerated in pictures to show how how "savage and wild" African Americans really are. She was compared to a monkey by white people. However, White men were fascinated with her body and treated her as an object or a piece of candy they wanted to have but couldn't. Sarah Baartman was forced to perform for white audiences she was kidnapped from South Africa and taken to France and London in 1810. She was forced to perform in 1814. She died in 1815 although the exact cause is unknown it could be pneumonia, syphilis, or alcohol however even after her death her brain, skeleton, and sexual organs were on display in a museum in jars until 1974. Even after her death, Sarah(Saartije)Baartman was still used as a form of entertainment, she was still mocked and ridiculed for her body. It wasn't until 2002, 187 years after her death, 28 years after her body display did the French museum give South Africa her remains after a lot of pressure from the South African government. The humanity of Sarah Baartman was destroyed she was nothing more than ass and hips to them however, not in this post Sarah Baartman was more than ass and hips she was a black woman with hopes and dreams. She was a daughter, a friend, a human. She was a human and she was capable of feeling happy, sad, scared and insecure. She had a voice and she among every black women is worthy of respect. Also I will not be putting a picture because I don't want her body to be on display anymore.

Somebody asked her real name and her real name is Saartije Baartman.