The story of Sarah Baartman is an incredibly disgusting
while equally amazing story. In Hottentot Venus it is thoroughly explained the
horrors that she must have went through due to the dreadful harassment from the
hands of the clamoring public. She was harassed sexually and from the standpoint
of deviancy in that she was so different from the “norm” and by nature we are
both curious of the deviant and afraid of it. She got the treatment that
countless others have gotten from being different from the norm, her situation
is different in that what made her deviant and a “freak” also made her sought
after my white European males to the point where her torture from the public
was worse than that suffered by others. Sarah Baartmans story is awful, the
pain she suffered was horrid, however the truly remarkable part of it all is how
she fought through it never letting it weigh her down; in the end she was
incredibly intelligent and made more of her life than many others who if found
in the same life would have folded and given up.
John Plevel
John,
ReplyDeleteFeeling both disgusted and amazed simultaneously (freaks are like "us," yet not like "us") is the exact response historical freaks shows sought to elicit from audience members, so it is interesting that you describe Baartman's story in this way.