RESEARCH:Saarjite Baartman (Historical aspect)

There was a young lady called Saarjite Baartman from Khosia in Southern Africa who had a body that became the main attraction at public spectacles in both England and France for over five years. Baartman, who became known as the “Hottentot Venus”, was brought to Europe from Cape Town in 1810 by an English ship's surgeon who wanted to publicly exhibit the woman's steatopygia, a word that refers to an extreme accumulation of fat on the buttocks. Her steatopygic appendage became the focus when she was exhibited naked in a cage in Piccadilly, England. Abolitionists tried to put an end to Baartman's public display of her body. She even shared in profits with her exhibitor.

The showing of Baartman's body continued even after her death at the age of twenty-six. Pseudo-scientists interested in investigating "primitive sexuality" dissected and cast her genitals and put them on display. Yes, that's right, her fat was put on display. Baartman, as far as we know, was the first person to be dismembered and displayed in this manner. Anatomist Georges Curvier presented her dissected parts to the Academie Royale de Medecine. Curvier concluded that her oversized genitalia was physical proof of the African woman's primitive sexual appetite. Long after her death, Baartman's genitalia continued to be exhibited at La Musée de l'Homme. In my opinion this shows that fat woman were adored hundreds of years ago, and they may well have been the original porn stars.