This article is bad. As a South African I am offended. Please read this http://africasacountry.com/when-jezebel-w…

I refuse to believe that so many people agree with this white wash load said here. The story of Baartman represents the brutality of colonialism and slavery. Whether she willingly agreed to be the white man's figure of entertainment is irrelevant as it is irrelevant to mention Nicky Minaj and Kim use of their bodies…

Is it really more important that she be granted "agency" inside of the white supremacist, colonialist, woman-hating system that exploited her, than it is to condemn that system and acknowledge that her participation was due largely to her existence in a regime of colonial violence?

"But what is essential to remember…

Everything about this is terrible and you should feel terrible. Thanks for proving again that Jezebel is the epitome of white feminism.

This article is biased and oh so naive on so many levels. You state that Saartjie willing traveled to Europe on her own will based on the notion that she would strike it rich, and yet you also mention that it's impossible to say how much Baartman's own thoughts and feelings factored into her male superiors' plans to…

I think this is one of the most effed up articles I've ever read. Clueci tried to frame Saartjie's participation in a freak show as choice, and managed to write the largest article I've ever read without nuance.

Saartjie, a name given to her by COLONIZERS, was SOLD as PROPERTY to a man in a different country and then…

As a Khoi descendant and a South African, I find the comparisons you have made naive and offensive.I believe it is naive to think that Saartjie was a free woman, to be able to make the choice to wilfully exploit her body.She was a salve and illiterate,she could not have known what she was signing, she was obligated to…

This is such trash. I really wish white women would just stop talking about us and imposing their rudimentary ass analysis on matters they clearly don't understand. Just ignore us; it would really be preferable if this is the best "allyship" you can offer. False binaries between Baartman and Kim K, Nikki, etc are both…

Are you kidding me? You think that an article that begins with the following sentences is an insightful and well-written article?

There's some good general information in here, but the tone of a lot of it is very minimizing of just how brutal the environment was and how truly limited her choices were. Like, there's a section where the author says it was impossible to know fully Baartman's feelings on the matter, so instead the author is content…

Well that was probably one of the most misguided, nonsense, click-baity things I've read in a while from you guys.

Keep reaching for the stars Jezebel.

This glosses over the fact that she came to France because she was SOLD to a Frenchman.

It is and that's why I'm so uncomfortable with this title and and the article. Baartman was literally bought and sold by people. She was literally the property of people. Not to mention the fact that she died in abject poverty which shouldn't have been the case if she led this super glamorous life. Also, her testimony…

Is this written by a white man? I'm bemused and somewhat inflamed by it's insensitivity and lack of insight into what was obviously a case of misogyny and racism. You can hardly argue, that a woman in Baartman's position chose "her own subjugation". This article is a written essay in support of casual racism and…

This title is incredibly disrespectful. Calling her Saartje - which you yourself explain is a diminutive, "little Sarah" - is also incredibly disrespectful, along the lines of calling an adult black woman "girl." (Regardless of her height. An adult is an adult). Including illustrations of a woman's nude body THAT SHE…

we do know where it comes from. we're descendents of african women who've survived slave culture in the west being condemned and targeted for our "hypersexual" black bodies which were considered a vulgarity and to be hidden. We know that innately because we were raised by women who had to careful guard their black…

Exactly. This article conveniently forgets to mention that white women with big booties are afforded a beauty privilege at THE EXPENSE OF BLACK WOMEN. Black women are exoticized "freaks". After WOC suffer the burden of being the "exotic other", white women get to swoop in and reap the benefits that fetishizing from…

Naive? Really? Black people being tricked was commonplace during these times because they were desperate for freedom (and partly why slavery worked so well in this country, teach the slave to be loyal to the master and hate other slaves). When you're used to being ridiculed and being treated as a savage, sometimes…

Okay, that makes sense. I understand your tone—I was a bit taken aback, but I get how my question might have been read. I can understand it as a primer, but I feel like reading it I'm going to run into more arguments that go something like "Baartman was basically a 19th century Beyonce" or something. I don't think…

But see, Kim isn't black, and that's what I don't like about this piece. On the one hand, the author pays lip service to Kim/Selter's white privilege, yet at the same time suggests that Baartman's tragedy somehow applies to Kim or may serve as a cautionary tale, when that's the furthest thing from the truth given…