dekstop: weblog

The Guardian recently had two fascinating articles in the context of race in their history section. First last week's 'Flesh made fantasy' by Rachel Holmes, about an early 19th century African showgirl in England, then yesterday's 'The fascist who 'passed' for white' by Gary Younge, on an influencial early 20th century American fascist and his secret mixed-race origins.

After a bit of further research and some writing I found myself confronted with an explosion of interesting side-topics, so for now I'll refrain from commenting on the latter. But both articles are recommended reading material.

Buttocks, Bums, Arses, Posteriors, Rumps

In Flesh made fantasy we're told the story of Saartjie Baartman, an orphaned African farm girl who emigrated to London in 1810 at the age of 21, lured by a white man's promise of wealth and a better life. She ended up spending her days as a showgirl and sideshow attraction (I understand the show mostly consisted of presenting her well-formed body in varying costumes) and died only five years later in Paris, possibly of smallpox.

Today she is most well-known in the first world as an iconographic cornerstone of exotism and sexuality, the latter attributable to her splendid posterior which apparently triggered all kinds of white man's fantasies in England's colonial society...

Theatre rendition of the Hottentot Venus, photographer unknown. Found on Cleveland Scene.

Full body cast, image found at The Afrikan Fashion Legacy by John R. Moore. Photographer unknown.

From the Guardian article:

Saartjie was not only the African woman most frequently represented in racially marked British and French visual culture, she also had less immediately visible influences on western art. [...] Saartjie's body cast was one of the inspirations for Matisse's revolutionary restructuring of the female body in The Blue Nude (1907), prompted by African sculpture and conceived, as Hugh Honour argues, "as an 'African' Venus [...]"

It's a fascinating clash of tales of imperial exploitation and appropriation, the creation of a modern Venus image, and the sexual fantasies of a 19th-century society. And according to John R. Moore's The Afrikan Fashion Legacy Baartman's body might be a possible origin for the Bustle, that Victorian dress with exaggerated posterior.

My favorite section in the Guardian article:

Bottoms were big in late-Georgian England. From low to high culture, Britain was a nation obsessed by buttocks, bums, arses, posteriors, rumps - and with every metaphor, joke or pun that could be squeezed from this fundamental distraction. Georgian England both celebrated and deplored excess, grossness, bawdiness and the uncontainable.

If you enjoy the Guardian piece you might be interested in a great 2002 article by Gail Smith, 'Fetching Saartjie', on "the historic mission to return the remains of Saartjie Baartman to South Africa", which also explores the curious fact that French scientists chose to preserve her body for future research by not only making a full body cast, but also preserving her brain and genitals -- they where especially fascinated by her elongated labia.

Links

• The Guardian: Flesh made fantasy
• Fetching Saartjie by Gail Smith
• Wikipedia: Saartjie Baartman

Related Reading

• Wikipedia: Steatopygia, "a high degree of fat accumulation in and around the buttocks"
• Google Search: elongated labia, an interesting peek at a topic on the fringes of pop culture.
• So I ran across an Elongated Labia Chick, random forum thread.
• Labiaplasty - please help me, random forum thread, different perspective.