My reaction to Julia Pastrana was very mixed. I don't feel like she was sexualized, but I think she reveals a lot about the culture she lived in. They wanted to view her as sexual, but couldn't due to how hairy she was. I can't think of a better way to say it, but this topic kinda grossed me out. That is primarily due to the way we perceive hairy women (insert Russian swimmer joke here) in our society. Women are expected to be completely hairless, with the exception of the long, flowing hair that they are supposed to have on their heads. She was depicted as almost a neanderthal from the neck up but curvy and sexy from the neck down. Imagine the Geico caveman's head on Katy Perry's body. Sexual? I don't think so. That makes her husband's marriage to her so bizarre. There are things to make me believe that he actually loved her, but other things that make me think he was a no-account scum dumpster. He is, however, probably the only man who has ever been married to two (TWO!) bearded ladies. The concept, on its face, is extremely strange.
Jordan Nicholson
Jordon,
ReplyDeleteThe simultaneous feelings of attraction and repulsion are key to the exhibition of those labeled as freaks. Do you feel that the Bondeson reading helped to humanize Pastrana? Does her story help us to rethink why in Western culture hair on women is seen as freakish or "gross"?