OPINION…FROM WHERE I SIT: The Pain Is Real

The stories of Sarah “The Hotentot Venus” Baartman, and Megan The Stallion, a rapper whose legal name is Megan Pete, exemplify society’s apathy for the traumas of Black women. Baartman’s story of her life placed on displayed in traveling freak shows in the 1800s sets a precedent for how society views and treats black women. Baartman’s legacy provides some background on where these ideologies come from, and Pete’s story provides a modern-day example on how these ideologies are still present.

The University of Pittsburgh’s Inequality Across Gender and Race Report stated that Black maternal mortality rates in Pittsburgh are higher than 97% of other cities. Society has a disregard for Black bodies in general, but it’s frightening to think of the disregard for them in their most vulnerable moments. The precedent that Black women are deserving of mistreatment is present in everyday life, as well as in the medical industry, which often results in a lack of adequate medical care.

The bodies of African American women are often oversexualized, sensationalized, and commodified. We are constantly treated as if we are disposable and are only here for society’s pleasure.

Baartman was brought to England from the village of Khoikhoi, located on the Eastern Cape of South Africa, after the murder of her husband by Dutch colonists. Baartman’s body was featured in freak shows in life and death beside animals due to her unusual skin coloring and abnormally large buttocks caused by steatopygia, a condition that causes excess fat around the hips and buttocks.

Baartman’s oppressors oversexualizing and exploiting her body created the narrative that these features deemed her ferine, and sexually insatiable. Baartman’s portrayal in these freak shows was so popular it created the collective idea that Black women were deserving of mistreatment and abuse.

Pete is known for her rap lyrics and motivational platform that promotes confidence, female sexuality, and empowerment in women. She has often been criticized for this, I believe, because we live in a patriarchal society that frowns upon women embracing their sexuality in other ways besides to please men or to entertain.

Pete recently had an encounter with gun violence where she later revealed that Rapper Tory Lanez, legal name Daystar Peterson, allegedly shot her. Pete was accused of lying by her peers, critics, and other celebrities. In order to disprove allegations that she lied about being shot, she went as far as posting her injuries to social media and hosting an Instagram live session where she stated how she felt mistreated by the police who responded to the incident. She explained that was why she remained silent on what happened.

Baartman’s suffering was also denied by the men who oppressed her and her audiences. She was allegedly coerced into signing a contract that stated she wasn’t being abused after the way she was being treated came into question. Baartman had to die for society to recognize the mistreatment she went through, and this still took some time.

I wonder if we as spectators to Pete’s art and life would have spoken differently about her trauma if Peterson would have killed her. Why do black women have to die for their pain to be real or at least acknowledged?

Story by: Alisha Tarver (ait5274@psu.edu)