The Bodies of Sarah Baartman, Michelle Obama, Caster Semenya, and Serena Williams

Social Sciences
Student's Name
Institutional Affiliation
Instructor
Date
Task 1
Michelle Obama, Sarah Baartman, Serena Williams, ad Caster Semenya comprise some women who have faced discrimination due to their appearance. The story of Sarah Baartman and how she experienced racial disturbances is shocking. She was the most influential African American woman during the historical period. She was exposed to a European culture that completely unaccepted her nature. She passed through sexual harassment and racial injustices due to her origin.
“The Life and Times of Sarah Baartman” is a film describing Baartman as a woman from a small Khoisan community of the Khoi Khoi tribe. She was a strong tribal African woman, but the Europeans stripped her of everything, and she was not taken seriously in Europe. The Europeans associated her with a circus act that onlookers could not stare at. She was tortured through social and scientific stereotypes and even placed in a cage. These circumstances contributed to her death at a tender age (Mackie, 2022). Hottentot Venus was a phrase used to describe Baartman, implying that she was useless and didn't have any value as a human being. The use of this terminology was meant to scare and devalue her.
Task 2
In the history of the colonial experience, women's life was associated with brutality and humiliation. The European perception of blacks, especially women, was clear evidence of cultural inferiority that caused racial differences. A high level of racism in this region shaped the use of a particular language that was a cornerstone representation of African women's bodies. This affected even African women in Diaspora. The body of a black female was perceived as a location for the forbidden, unspoken, hypersexual, and monstrous acts to be redeemed before the public. Comparing the language applied to describe Baartman and black women, one can note that the terms used were similar as they undermined the black people.
Task 2a
The body of Mitchelle Obama has been serrated with many questions regarding its humanness when placed on the table for dissection. In comparison with Barack Obama, it is argued that their bodies are not similar. This indicates that gender has a significant role in differentiating a person’s appearance. Women are seen to be more repulsive in their appearances than men. Michelle’s body is viewed as a representation of black womanhood. While in the United States, she occasionally faces particular attacks concerning her body. She is also exposed to a culture that cannot bear true imagination. Despite being the first lady, many people did not accept her.
Some of the racist ratings she has experienced range from having an ape-like body, being a terrorist, bitter-angry black woman, and President Obama's 'baby mama.' Her appearance equates her to her enslaved forebears regardless of the current modernity. Her blackness distinguishes her, acting as a landscape where Americans inscribe their frustrations about emerging blackness power.
However, despite the names, Michelle has succeeded in disrupting the fixed lens and language by owning her body. She unconditionally claims her body is beautiful, whole, and black without shame...