Hottentot Minaj

This is a photo of Sara Baartman, also colloquially known as the Hottentot Venus. In 19th Century Europe, she was exhibited as a "freak show" where white Europeans marveled at the (alleged) size and shape of her buttocks. So what does the Hottentot Venus have to do with Nicki Minaj?  The commonality is that Minaj embodied the past stereotype of the Hottenton Venus of the 21st Century on last week's Saturday Night Live.

I am often astounded at the way in which the mythology of Sara Baartman continues manifest itself in media, but in this instance on TV.   The media personality Nicki Minaj performed on SNL this past weekend and participated in one of the skits: The Bride of Blackenstein.  Clearly meant to riff on Blaxploitation films of the 70s, Minaj, as the title character, is reduced to the shape and size of her ass.  While watching this clip, I could think only of the Hottentot Venus (although her "sisters" in black stereotypes, Sapphire with a side order of Jezebel, are also present.  (Sapphire is a loud, emasculating and controlling black women, while the Jezebel is sexually insatiable. Interestingly, one of the first images that is displayed when one searches "sapphire black women" is Omarosa, of The Apprentice fame.)

What almost makes one forget the touches of other stereotypes present in the skit is the incessant close-ups (and accompanying "booty pops") that reduce the Bride of Blackenstein to her ass, much like the Hottentot Venus.  In addition, the video makes it clear that this round, black ass is not to be understood as the hegemonic construction of beauty, but rather lust.  Toward the end of the video, the Bill Hader dons verbal blackface in order to express his appreciation for the Bride of Blackenstein's ass which is then juxtaposed against the ass shot of Kristen Wiig's character (and the accompanying "sad" music) we epistemologically "know" that there is sexual value placed within the Hottenton Minaj's ass -- in other words, for white men, the Bride of Blackenstein is who you fuck, but Kristen Wiig is who you marry.