Buffie the Body: Post Modern Deconstructions of Black Female Physiognomy and Euro-Colonial Dehumanization in the Hip Hop Aesthetic

Hip Hop aesthetic is found in the rapper’s music, the late night videos blasted on B.E.T. (Black Entertainment Television), the clothing lines espoused by Madison Avenue sans the Paris runway and popular print media, often puts black women in positions of powerlessness and degradation.

A visit to my barber last year allowed me to see the degree in which some disempowered women might seek to rectify their own socio-cultural alienation and economic disenfranchisement. I half expected to see a sideshow bearded lady or a two-foot dwarf wearing a tuxedo, based on the wide-eyed stares of the men slowly passing a magazine between themselves. Being one of the elder patrons but also wanting to bond with the younger generation present I asked to see the magazine they were passing about. Admittedly, I had to take a double look to see if the image had not been photographically enhanced or altered. The smiling black woman (known to my barbershop brethren as Buffie the Body) posing in the scanty bikini looked familiar—like a person I had just seen in a book on the shelf at a local Borders Books.

Rachel Holmes’s African Queen: The Real Life of the Hottentot Venus tells the tragic tell of Saartjie Baartman, a black South African woman brought to London and Paris in 1810 and exhibited as a curiosity of nature. The young South African woman was paraded semi-and completely nude before groups of men that paid an entry fee and compelled to dance and walk about seductively showing off her overly large posterior. At this time in American and European history there was a Victorian fascination with African sexuality which cross-walked between colonialism and racial inferiority attributed to non-Europeans. By various accounts Saartjie or Sara Baartmann came of her own accord to Europe in search of financial prosperity.

Baartman, like many African women—particularly the Khoisan and Southern Africa—and their Diaspora descendants like Buffie Carruth a.k.a Buffie the Body had what the medical literature refers to as “steatopgyia” or excessive fat stores in the gluteus maximus. Some anthropologists have hypothesized that “steatopgyia” is a physiological adaptation that came about as a way for African women in the Savanna areas to adapt to food shortages—and essentially live off of stored fat cells in the stomach and hip area.

Baartman’s exploitation at the hands of her handlers eventually led to prostitution, alcoholism and then death. Her life was cut tragically short at the age of 26. She never saw her South African homeland again. Following her death, the body that had so awed and simultaneously delighted European male audiences was cast and stored in formaldehyde for scientific research. This is not to suggest that “Buffy the Body’s” fate will mirror the ill-fated one of Saartjie Baartman; however, the choices, decisions and situations that brought both women before the world might be similar.

Interestingly enough Baartman’s degraded description in the French press as slightly freakish and/or very unique is similar to that of Ms. Carruth, e.g. Buffie the Body as found in her barbershop literature and website. Of course in this day and time when so many opportunities are open to young African American women it would be more inspirational for this young woman to be known as “Buffie the Bold” or “Buffie the Brain” or “Buffie the Beautiful”. But in a free and democratic society it is easy to invoke the mantra “I can do and be anything I want.”

The new kid on the exploitation, money making bandwagon, exploiting African/Afro-Diasporal physiognomy and genetics in the mainstream is the rapper Nelly, who has a jeans and general clothing line called “Apple Bottom“. Of course in capitalist America there is nothing wrong with selling this clothing but I am skeptical of the marketing and exploitive tendencies of the originator. So, desperate for financial success are the “Apple Bottom” contestants, as was Saartjie (Sara) Baartman (e.g. the Hottentot Venus) before them, that they readily parade naked and semi-nude at the behest of their handlers, agents and men that might aid them.

For more information and commentary on Sara Baartman listen to Dede Hunt’s excellent Youtube presentation. Information about this youtube segment was given to me by the Serenitylife Blog

But only time and history will tell if Ms. Carruth and the other hip hop video models will be remembered by future generations as history remembers Sara Baatman today.