Have we changed?

      We can say that there's a difference in the way we treat black women from Sara Baartman to Lil' Kim or Nicki Minaj, but do we really? Throughout history, women have been sexualized and objectified. We have been treated like we are only here for the pleasure of men. Although us women have rights now, are we freed from all of the sexualization and objectification? Not quite. The only difference is how we're being objectified. White women, specifically, have gone from baby pushing housewives with no say in sexual matters to becoming independent, working class women who are also supposed to look like porn stars because let's face it, if you don't look good, you don't matter. okay, so maybe that was an exaggeration, but you get my point. Yes, we are more accepted into society and we are no longer only expected to have kids, but we are expected in so many ways to maintain beauty and secretly be amazing in bed without ever actually being in bed with someone before.

       While white women are being exploited differently, are we doing the same for black women or has that changed as well? As we saw with Sara Baartman, her body was picked apart, ridiculed, and desired all at the same time. She was compared to apes and orangutans. Have we really strayed from doing this though? Is sexualization for young black women the only way to be successful? Are these the only role models young black women should have? In rap videos, we see black women used for their bodies all time. The bigger the ass, the better. They're seen as sexually aggressive and only there for pleasure. Why aren't these women seen as strong or independent like the words in their raps claim them to be? Why is it that their body is center of attention for most music videos. They're dressed in either tight, see-through, or very little clothing at all. I never see a woman portraying her music to her words rather than to what is expected of them. This could be due to how we treat them in society. Black women are taught that their success will be through their bodies with these being the biggest role models they have. Although we have the wonderful Michelle Obama, there aren't a whole lot of her and they especially aren't as famous. Our society has pushed that sexualizing yourself will make you big just like for Baartman.

      Sex sells now, just like it did back with Baartman. People all over went to see, objectify, and touch her body just like they do now for music an music videos. We're showing young black women that they're bodies are their only means of success when we glorify this objectification. We haven't really changed the way we've treated black women over the years, it's just more popular and normalized now that we see it as liberating rather than being ingrained into our brains that black bodies are exotic and should be eroticized.