Exploring the Myth of the Hottentot The sexuality of the black woman has been constructed in society in opposition to that of the white woman. This objectification of the non-white body in Western culture has created a binary detrimental to both black and white women. The construction of the black female body as a vehicle of uncontrollable sexual desire has led many black feminists to promote a complete silence concerning their sexuality. These women have sought to erase the negative connotations surrounding black women as sexually predatory. However, they only lose their forum to discuss their sexuality as a positive force of empowerment. This binary which exists between the black woman as sexual being and the white woman as (non) sexual being finds its roots deep in history, perpetuated by strict Victorian sexual ideologies. The extent to which the European colonizers went to fetishize the African body, particularly the African female body, reached a point at which these bodies were exhibited in cages, and therefore, made to be almost relegated to subhuman, or animal status. One of the most unsettling and prevailing of these images is that of the African woman Saarjie Baartmann, known throughout the world as the “Hottentot Venus”. The Hottentot Venus serves as an example of the lowest depths of human cruelty. The oppression and exploitation of black women’s bodies and sexuality created a binary that still exists today. Starting with the early imperialism in Europe, racist ideologies were already being developed. In the Victorian age, the white woman of the upper-classes became the “ideal” from which all others became measured and inferiorized. Black women became symbolic of the corrupt and sexually immoral as juxtaposed to the white women’s image as virtuous, clean, and virginal. However, it is interesting to note that the hard-up white European patriarchal society seemed to have an almost taboo, perverse fascination with the very black woman’s body which they were supposed to see as dirty and spoiled. The construction of the black female as the very embodiment of sex led to the need for the European colonization of her. This led to the view of the black female as sexual animal in need of a “taming” by the leash of European mores. This was accomplished by exploiting and dehumanizing the black female body, as was the case of Saarjie Baartmann. The “Hottentot Venus” was exhibited in Europe as a fascinating attraction on the entertainment circuit. The European audiences came to gawk in awe at Baartmaan’s body, and what separated it from their own-primarily her buttocks and genitalia. Her body was compared with the bodies of animals, granting further objectification of the black woman’s body as ravenous, primitive, and sexually uncontrollable. Baartmaan’s being kept in a cage for the pleasure and fascination of the audience served to further the audience’s association between black women and animals. Even after Baartmaan’s death, the European anatomist George Cuvier who had endlessly prodded at her while she was alive, received permission to dissect her, as if she were a science project. Cuvier inspected her genitals, inside and out, refusing any part of her the chance of privacy, even in death. The story of the Hottentot Venus is sad, but what is even more tragic is the way this myth of the black female body has remained in society for so long. Looking at the example of the “Hottentot Venus”, it becomes clear that the construction of black female sexuality has been one based on the white, patriarchal European perception. The Hottentot was placed on display to satisfy the curiosity of the masses, who used her and her body as a point of departure from their idealized, virginal white woman’s body. In order to destroy this oppressive binary and the subsequent vision of black female sexuality as unrestrained and dangerous, black feminists have used the weapon of silence. This tactic of resistance to the outside construction of their sexuality did, to some extent, protect the black women; their silence separated them from the original model of black female sexuality-the Hottentot Venus. Sadly, though, this refusal to express their views on sexuality in an effort to deconstruct the Hottentot myth has cost black women a platform from which they can express their sexuality as a positive experience in their lives. Black women’s silence has remained, concerning sexuality-originally a defense against the objectification of the black woman’s body, it has become an unfortunate perpetuation of oppression. One needs only to look at the example of the Hottentot Venus. Through her, the European audience saw the black female as a body of sexual immorality, a caged creature displayed with no voice to speak, no mind to think, and no soul to feel. For if the audience would have seen these things, they would have been forced to see Saarjie Baartmann, not the Hottentot Venus, and any recognition of her as a human would have meant identification with her, and the subsequent realization of the depths of cruelty to which they had sunk. Therefore, black women’s choice of silence in regards to their sexuality only perpetuates the oppression and myth of the black woman as merely a body on display, with no mind, soul, voice, and freedom to express their sexuality as a tool of empowerment.