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Sara Baartman: The Tragic Exploitation of a Black Woman

Feb 23, 2023 | 0 comments

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Feb 23, 2023 | Essays | 0 comments

Mokgadi Caster Semenya is 800m athlete from South African, a 2016 Olympic gold medalist as well as the 2009 world championship women in the category of women 800m she was born in 1991. Serena Jameka Williams is a professional tennis player from America who is currently ranked at position 2. And has been dominant in the tennis holding position 1 for the first time in 2002, and she maintained the number one ranking for 186 consecutive weeks (Fishman, 2017).According to Peters (2017), Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama served as the first lady of the United States, she is also a layer, a university administrator as well as a writer. She is the first black American first lady. Sarah Baartman, on the other hand, is a South African woman who was taken to England in 1815 and was used as an exhibit due to the sizes of her curves. She was from the Khoi community

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Serena Williams and her sister Venus have conquered tennis since the nineties when they first appeared. In spite of the dominance in the court, her accomplishment has constantly been overshadowed by the issues of gender and race. Martin (2017), article clearly sees this as the struggle that black women go through when they become successful, as this struggle is similar to that of Semenya whose accomplishment in the field has been overshadowed with the issues of race and gender . Baartman also shares similar predicament as she was taken forcefully from South Africa and taken into England to be used as an exhibit. This was due to the fact that her body was different from that of Scottish or Irish women. This gives a clear indication of how the whites considered the black women as a half human based on their physical appearance in which they considered as freakish. It is important to note that her exhibition brought in much revenue than any other during that time
Due to the fact that Serena William is well built and her race as black women the words that have been used to describe her has a masculinity in it and one could easily question her gender. The words like ‘aggressive’, menacing and threatening have constantly been used on her. In addition to this, words like tranny have always been used to insult Serena as it is a description of a woman who is not a real woman.

The level of the stereotype that black woman face usually override their achievement as the European have a mindset or have standardized beauty in a way that fits them and any deviation by a black woman. The description of Serena from Jason Whitlock as underachiever points out how the achievement of a black woman is downplayed considering Serena is currently ranked 2nd in the world and has been dominating the court since the nineties. Semenya on the other hand after conquering the 800 metres the IAAF had to leak her tests to the world to override her victory and much was said about her gender and race more than her achievement. The fellow athletes like Elisa Cusma referred to Semenya as a Man, this point out at the magnitude of the issue that she faced but it did not deter her from winning, she was determined.

The western world media has put a double standard in measuring or outlining the success of a black woman. Black women have to work hard and be overachievers for them to be considered as successful, the fact that the ability of Serena Williams was seen as not that fulfilling. Michelle Obama was not embraced well as a first lady, she was considered not to be socially appealing this is disturbing as we compare to the wife of President Kennedy whose known achievement was being the wife of a president and nothing else (Martin, 2017).

Both Serena and Semenya will continue to dominate in their respective field. but on the social platform and aspect, they will still remain to have issues courtesy of their race. The stereotype which has been created to body shame them even after proving their worth in their profession is unacceptable. Both Semenya and Serena’s body is symbolic of the way in which stigma act together to create assorted oppressions.

Michelle Obama has also faced the same predicament as questions of her body which according to the public opinion was of a human-ness just by a mere reason of being a black woman. Her position as the first black women in the white house as a first lady did not go well as she was constantly charged with epithets from being called a terrorist, to ape-like while others called her a bitter angry black woman(Peters, 2017). Just like Semenya, Serena and Baartman her achievements in life was overshadowed by her race and gender and this did not bring her down as she became even stronger advocating for equality and defended black women rights. She also owned up to her body

In conclusion, all the articles and personal stories of the 4 black women shows how black women have gone through a lot and even if she achieves something her achievement is usually clouded by her physical appearance. This has taken many centuries during the period of Baartman and to the current years where the stereotype is still there. If only Michelle Obama was white or Semenya or even Baartman was white they would be highly recognized and their achievement could have been speaking acknowledged across the world

References 

Fishman, J. M. (2017). Serena Williams.
Martin, R. (2017, January 16). Is Serena Williams the new Sarah Baartman? Retrieved from globalcomment.com/is-serena-williams-the-new-sarah-baartman/
Peters, W. (2017). Michelle Obama.
Roberts, M. (2011, January 01). My Liberal Identity:. Retrieved from transgriot.blogspot.com/2009/08/

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