When I was reading the article on Julia Pastrana, I was struck by all the comments from her time of how she was a very smart, docile, and kind. They all spoke of her qualities that were consistent with what women of the time were expected to have. In other stories that we have read like Sara Baartman's they spoke mostly of the qualities that were "deviant." They never really discussed the "normal" qualities, at least not in public.
It seemed to me that Julia's life wasn't all that bad when she was alive. I do think that it was awful that her husband only married her so he could control her and the profits he would get from her, but it seemed that she loved him and was happy. When I got to that parts in the article about what was done to Julia and her son's bodies after they died absolutely revolting. The fact that she was carted around for over 100 years for people to gawk at her horrified me. She never truly owned her body and in her death she wasn't even given enough respect to be buried. They had to continue to profit from her appearance. The fact that her husband had her and their son embalmed so he could still profit from them is disgraceful.To further the atrocities placed upon her and her son's bodies were ripped apart by vandals. When I read that I was so sad and disgusted at the people who dared to do that.
They spoke so highly of her qualities as a woman when she was alive yet they didn't give her that same honor in her death. I am glad that she can't be viewed by the public anymore, but part of me still wishes that she and her son can be given the respect that they rightly deserve; to be buried together somewhere.
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