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The “Batty” Politic: Toward an Aesthetic of the Black Female Body

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Janell Hobson
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Abstract

I assess representations of black women's derrieres, which are often depicted as grotesque, despite attempts by some black women artists to create a black feminist aesthetic that recognizes the black female body as beautiful and desirable. Utilizing a black feminist disability theory, I revisit the history of the Hottentot Venus, which contributed to the shaping of this representational trope, and I identify a recurring struggle among these artists to recover the “unmirrored” black female body.

Type
Research Article
Information
Hypatia , Volume 18 , Issue 4: Special Issue: Women, Art, and Aesthetics , Fall Winter 2003 , pp. 87 - 105
Copyright
Copyright © 2003 by Hypatia, Inc.

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