The Language Used to Describe Their Bodies Degrading and Disrespectful

The Language Used to Describe Their Bodies Degrading and Disrespectful
When describing an individual's body, especially a woman's, it is crucial to choose proper adjectives. This means that when doing so, decency must be paramount in the mind of the person undertaking such a duty. History is replete with accounts of people who lost the meaning of life after being subjected to unrelenting body-shaming. In all honesty, using indecent and belittling language to describe a fellow human being is the lowest one can stoop. Relating to this, some phenomenal black women have had to contend with this unfortunate and disgusting trend. In their wisdom or lack thereof, some people have used the most degrading epithets to describe these women, their remarkable exploits notwithstanding. It is unfortunate and disturbing that such racist slurs should have ample space in this time and age. The language used to describe the bodies of Baartman, Michelle Obama, Serena Williams, and Caster Semenya is almost similar to the word. Unfortunately, it is so for the wrong reasons. It is dehumanizing, oppressive, brutalizing, and meant to silence these women of substance.
In all the accounts of these phenomenal black women, I find the language used to describe their bodies degrading and disrespectful. Apart from Baartman, the other three have raced against all odds to achieve incredible feats. The case of Baartman is understandable in the context of the times and conditions she grew up in. Despite being born into a well-heeled family, going by the African standards of the time, she found herself in the shackles of slavery at a fairly young age. Her masters, being goaded by an unholy fetish, treated her in the most degrading of ways. After shipping her to Europe, they used all means to display her buttocks and genitalia to the public. Ostensibly, lore had it that Hottentot women were endowed with unique genitalia, which is what her insensitive masters sought to prove. I believe they did so because they relied on the misguided and racially inclined ideology. As such, they had absolutely no regard for her. Why should they regard a woman whose extraction was considered the missing link between apes and humans? (Chipembere, 2011). In this regard, the European masters felt she deserved no better treatment than an animal. To underscore their perception of Baartman, and according to Chipembere (2011), many regarded Hottentots as very stupid and brutal. According to "credible writers," they were also more of beasts than men. Some believed that her prodigious buttocks resulted from menstrual disorder, as is usually the case with female apes (Maseko, 1998). To me, this is the coarsest language one can use to describe a fellow human being.
Michelle Obama's case was no different despite the yawning difference between Baartman's time and hers. The language used to describe her was also degrading, dehumanizing, disparaging, and outright offensive. Many of her detractors, blinded by the notion of white supremacy and entitlement, cast her in the most disparaging of ways. They were also blinded by the rather shop-worn belief that a black woman's body was the territory of anyone who could see or access it. They held that it must be controlled and contained. Further, in total disr...