Venus in the Dark: Blackness and Beauty in Popular Culture

About this book

Western culture has long been fascinated by black women but a history of enslavement and colonial conquest has variously labeled black womens bodies as "exotic" and "grotesque." In this remarkable cultural history of black female beauty Janell Hobson explores the enduring figure of the "Hottentot Venus." In 1810 Saartjie Baartman was taken from South Africa to Europe where she was put on display at circuses salons and museums and universities as the "Hottentot Venus." The subsequent legacy of representations of black womens sexuality-from Josephine Baker to Serena Williams to hip-hop and dancehall videos-continues to refer back to this persistent icon. This book analyzes the history of critical and artistic responses to this iconography by black women in contemporary photography film literature music and dance.