King Magazine, Video Chicks and Sara Baartman

Before I start, there may be some who do not know the tragic story of Sara Baartman. If this is you, please view this video. This is not only important history, but it’s something that should color our lens as we look at the portrayal of Black women in the media.

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I recently got into a conversation about how Black women are portrayed in videos and popular magazines like Smooth and King and how it bothers me. Now, I’m no prude by any stretch, and I love a woman with a great body, but take note of the women that these media outlets choose to showcase and more importantly how they choose to portray them. You see Black women, typically with dramatically disproportionate and oversized derrieres, like Angel Lola Love, Buffy the Body and others posing with their butt front and center, and all up in the camera. Their faces and the rest of their body are totally relegated to the background and obscured by their ass. Now I know a lot of folks are thinking “what’s wrong with that?” Well, look beyond the ass to see the message that it projects.

There is SO much more to the beauty and the desirability of a black woman than just her butt. Her features, the texture of her hair, her skin tone...A sista’s bottom is only a part of the equation, NOT the sole aspect of it. The beauty and attractiveness of ANY woman goes far beyond one body part. Unfortunately, the media sources that push these images like to convey the opposite.

They are NOT about celebrating the beauty of the black female form, or highlighting the attractiveness of “curves” by showcasing these photographs. They are making a caricature of Black women, highlighting massive bottoms to convey the notion that the ONLY thing that makes a black woman attractive and desirable is her bottom....Its the exact same mentality that led to the exploitation of Sara Baartman a century ago, and its the same mentality that leads to the exploitation of young, insecure women of color willing manipulate their bodies for attention and "fame"...

When I look at these magazines, and EVERY picture of a woman features her turned around with her butt in the camera, it makes me think of the people who paid and looked at Sara Baartman like she was a zoo animal. If you are going to celebrate a woman as sexy and attractive, celebrate ALL of her. Do not compartmentalize her into components like a piece of livestock. Which is what happened to Sara, in both life…and death.