Myths are not only fictional stories; as I learned in my first year seminar class,\u00a0myths can be anything that explains a social or cultural phenomenon. For my\u00a0fourth Time project, I wanted to explore a myth: Sarah Baartman. Sarah\u00a0Baartman was one of two women enslaved in an exploitative circus type\u00a0production, in which their bodies were shown to white crowds in Europe. Her\u00a0figure, curvy and large-framed, was fetishized. She was passed between\u00a0showmen and animal trainers and did not receive any of the profit made as she\u00a0was, effectively, property of her owner. She died at 26 years old. The mythology\u00a0associated with Sarah is this kind of exotification: Sarah\u2019s body, as well as all\u00a0black feminine bodies, are to be seen as abnormal, and owned by everyone\u00a0except themselves. They are to be fetishized, but the host\u2019s own sexuality is\u00a0suppressed and restrained.<\/p>\n
With Baartman swimming in the back of my mind, I thought about another myth:\u00a0Venus. Since second grade, I have studied art history and find that in all the\u00a0classes I have taken, I am perpetually drawn to the renditions of the birth of\u00a0Venus. However, in being a black woman myself, I realize that my attraction to\u00a0these works is complicated. They depict what beauty standards hold to be\u00a0supreme beauty: white flesh, soft curves, blonde hair, and a thinner frame. I am\u00a0the opposite. My skin is brown, my body is carved and shaped in the mold of my\u00a0mother (and her mother), and my hair is dark, coarse, and tightly curled. When I
\nwas younger, I struggled to grapple with this; I wanted to be more to \u201cthe\u00a0standard.\u201d My video project is an illustration of my journey through art education,\u00a0white schools, and white beauty standards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":8752,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[79],"class_list":["post-8751","student-work","type-student-work","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-time","tag-composition"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n