Lover of HOTTENTOT



A lot of people do not know the story of Saartjie (pronounced Shar key) Baartman. Therefore, it is my responsibility to share (just as it is all of our responsibility to share what we know with our community "educate the masses"). Baartman is also known as Venus Hottentot, hence the title of this post. Have you ever been referred to as a "hottentot" or heard someone else be referred to as such? Since Ive been familiar, I have used the term (used negatively). I recently subconsciously used the term at work speaking to a coworker. Speaking with him reminded me that I needed to share this story.

Introducing to some, and presenting to others, the life of Venus Hottentot. Born in 1789, in the country of South Africa, Baartman was a slave of Dutch Farmers. At the age of 11, Baartman was given the suggestion to travel to England to become a part of an exhibit. With the promise of money in her head, Baartman left for London in 1810. She along with one other lady, were exhibited through Britain throughout the 19th century.


Baartman was on display due to her physical features. In the nude, Baartman was made to.....
- gyrate her huge buttocks
- display her huge breasts
- display her elongated labia (inner lips)

Later, Baartman traveled to France for a 15 month exhibition. She became the subject of scientific paintings. Keep in mind that her features were considered "highly unusual" and she was also subject to physical and mental abuse during these exhibitions. She was not viewed as "sexy" or "beautiful".

Once the general public grew tired of her images and she was no longer the entertainment of exhibits, Baartman turned to drinking and prostitution for money. She died at the tender age of 26. It is uncertain if she died from smallpox, syphilis, or pneumonia. At death her body, once again, became the center of attraction. Her skeleton, genitals, and brain were placed on display in Paris.

It took years of petitioning to get Baartman's body back to South Africa, where she now formerly lays. She is now a South African Icon. the Saartje Baartman Centre for Women and Children, for survivors of domestic violence, was open in Cape Cod the year 1999.

What do you think of the story of Venus Hottentot, that dates back to the early 19th century? History sure does repeat itself doesn't it? Ya know the new infatuation with having a "big booty"......


Im not even knocking your hustle, if the shoe fits. Some chicks just naturally, have it. For those that dont, the video below will even help you out, if your feeling kinda down on yourself for lacking in that department.


The moral of the story is, history repeats itself. Don't let your infatuation or your view of self image lead you down a path of self-hate. And if you're not trying to hear that, at least cover yourself up and dont give the show away for free. (hint the new popular trend of booty crack hanging out the top of your jeans).

Just my opinion......Comments!

Comments

  1. I Agree!.. Althought I can admit myself that I LOVE a woman with a "bigger backside", but if i had a wife I wouldnt want her walking around with her butt hanging all out the back of her pants. Lol But what makes me mad is the fact some women glorify this, and these young girls coming up think its "COOL" to be "thick". So these young girls tend to purposely dress seductive to draw the attetion of these young men, and even in some cases Older men!. so that leaves the impression that most women with bigger butts are whores, hoes, etc.. which isnt true. I come from a family of Volumptious women, with Nice rear ends that have caused car crashes (literally lmao).. But they dont go around flashing what they have to get attention. So to all my young ladies out there with bigger butts my advice ..Hey, I love what you have, and I like how women embrace their features because back in the days of "Hottentot" it was a bad thing to look like that, So turning a negative into a positive is always good with me, BUT there's a THIN LINE between being beautiful and being a hoochie (as my grandmother would call it..lol) #imjustsaying -D. Carter

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  2. Great post! I learned something new today.

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  3. shirrelle, I've been waiting on this post for a minute now, thank you. ~KP

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  4. Guess I'm gonna come back and really comment on the subject since Shirrelle threatened my life and all. I am a man who loves women...the size of their rearend has never really been a factor for me because that's not what I'm really attracted to. But if you got it like that, cool...be sexy with ur big ass and all but don't where low riding jeans that show ur crack, unless you a stripper cause that's how you make ur money anyway. I think if you got it like that and you still have class in the way you dress and carry yourself; that's sexy. ~KP

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  5. WTH...this my my 1st time seeing this "booty pop" thing. once again another way to trick the naked eye or gain attention. come on ladies be you. if you got it you got it, if you dont you dont. be happy with yo-self...and if you got to get a "booty pop" to do so then...

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  6. Why did Thomas Jefferson risk his political career to translate an Afrocentric Classic into English?
    While serving as Ambassador to France(1785-1789), Thomas Jefferson seriously imperiled his political future by secretly joining with the noted anti- slavery poet and founder of ''the American Mercury", Joel Barlow to provide his friend C.F. Volney with an English translation of The Ruins: Or a Survey of the Revolutions of Empires, a translation from the French Les Ruines ou Meditations sur les Revolutions des Empires, published in 1796 by William A. Davis, in New York.
    The book has these thought provoking lines: "Those piles of ruins which you see in that narrow valley watered by the Nile, are the remains of opulent cities, the pride of the ancient kingdom of Ethiopia. Behold the wrecks of her metropolis, of Thebes with her hundred palaces, the parent of cities and the monument of the caprice of destiny. There a people, now forgotten, discovered while others were yet barbarians, the elements of the arts and sciences. A race of men now rejected from society for their sable skin and frizzled hair, founded on the study of the laws of nature , those civil and religious systems which still govern the universe. Lower down those dusky points are the pyramids whose masses have astonished you. Beyond that, the coast, hemmed in between the sea and a narrow ridge of mountains was the habitation of the Phoenicians. These were the famous cities of Tyre, of Sidon, of Ascalon, of Gaza, and of Berytus. "

    The Ruins of Empires by Count Constantine Francis Chassebeuf De Volney - Thomas Jefferson and Joel Barlow , trans.1793

    This is an admittedly radical work even by today's Liberal standards. Maybe that is why it took the University of Virginia 185 years to remember that Jefferson had given it not one, but two copies of his personally selected translations of Volney's work.

    One copy was presented to the Library of Congress just in time for it's 200th birthday. This translation of Volney's work is the same edition as the one Jefferson had sold to The Library of Congress in 1815, but which was sadly lost to flames in 1851.

    Mark Dimunation, chief of the Rare Book and Special Collections division at the Library of Congress, has called Volney's work an “important source,..”, “that influenced Jefferson's thinking”. Just think, “Afro-Centric Scholars” (Not an oxymoron) have been teaching for decades that this particular translation of this work is an important primary source. Its taken almost 200 years, but thanks to the ongoing deification of Thomas Jefferson, more mainstream scholars may finally work up the nerve to examine Volney's message in the exact words that President Jefferson chanced so much to pass along.

    Why did Jefferson do it? Did his Unitarian beliefs play any role? Did Sally put something in his tea? Thanx
    Viator

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