Black feminist theory

Three themes emerge in the history of Black Feminist Theory

1. The portrayal of black women as solely sexual beings and the consequent disregard for their voices and identities as anything other than white.

2. The efforts of black women to combat harmful stereotypes about their sexuality and the tangible impact of those stereotypes on their lives.

3. The development of a strategy of hiding one's true feelings and avoiding speaking out, known as the "culture of dissemblance" and the "politics of silence," among black women when it comes to discussions about their sexuality.

Hottentot Female

The Hottentot female most vividly represented in this iconography, is Sarah Baartmann (before 1790 – 29 December 1815), known as the “Hottentot Venus”. Baartmann was crudely exhibited and objectified by European audiences and scientific experts.

Hottentot Venus

Icon of the Hottentot Venus/icon of the prostitute

The essence of the black woman; the absolute difference/sexualized woman; reduced to her sexual parts

Evidence of racial difference (inferiority): as different from the European as the orangutan; a sign of the primitive.

Black Figures

Source of pollution

Illness of society/the diseased prostitute

Children of alcoholics

Concern with the prostitute’s physical features; signs at the lower end of the scale of beauty

Ideologically, these sciences reflected European males’ fear of difference in the period of colonialism and their consequent need to control and regulate the sexuality of those rendered ‘other’.

Thus, racial difference was linked to sexual differences to maintain white male supremacy during slavery.