deliciouskaek:

generalbriefing:

deliciouskaek:

deejaybird:

A Hottentot woman known as Saartjie Baartman  was lied to — told she would become wealthy if she showed up in Europe to be exhibited in a sideshow attraction in European circuses under the name of the Hottentot Venus. What was of interest to her viewers was her huge ass. It was depicted in European cartoons as so large that small children could stand on them. Little did she know she would create a fashion trend off the image of her body. As early as the 1650s the Dutch were fascinated with the South African Hottentot women. Since European men were attracted to all variations of the African Model of womanhood, the Bustle was created for European women. The Bustle covered nearly all of a woman accentuating the buttocks, waist, and bosom just like Saartjie Baartman. The Bustle was a staple of womens fashion from the 1830s to 1905.

Then she was sold to an animal trainer in France, where she continued to be a sideshow and still wasn’t given half the payment she was promised. She died alone, the French having grown bored of her.

Or did they? After her death in December of 1815, a cast of her genitals — the one thing she held to herself during her years as a sideshow attraction — was made and displayed in a museum until 1974. She was finally buried in her homeland after a great legal battle between Nelson Mandela’s administration and the French government, in 2002.

But those ladies up there got some cute outfits, though. 

While she never allowed her genitalia to be openly displayed, they required her to wear tight clothing, leaving little to the imagination and most definitely never providing the decency afforded the women to whom she was displayed.  

Right! But you’re forgetting what’s really going on here. Wealthy ladies + new fashion  = important.