Shake Your Groove Thing, right?

I just read the article Selling Hot Pussy by Bell Hooks. The main focus of this article is how the black female body is portrayed in the media. She first mentions the very graphic example of how the body of Sara Bartmann was dissected and put on display for all to see for five years. The primary sense of wonder was the buttocks of the women that drew fascination. Hooks then continued to talk about how the butt of a black woman is often the focus of the media. For example, she mentions how artist would paint black nudes differently than whites. She then goes more in-depth on an individual level of sexuality with singer Tina Turner and Arthra Franklin. I found that how Hooks example of Turner was very well done for she was able examples from both Tina Turner’s career while she was married to Ike Turner and after she left him. The article then ended on movie and advertising portrayals of women. 

The body of a black women truly is  representative often as a sexual object. For example, I have placed the music video for the song “Baby Got Back” by Sir Mix Alot. This song, very often played at high school dances, is actually very graphic. The video shows women moving their buttocks in very suggestive ways while the lyrics are about if on ones to be attractive, they must have “big buns”. This I feel walks hand in hand when Hooks talks about the song “Do the Butt”, which even is a big musical number in the film School Daze by director Spike Lee. In addition, in terms of music, I feel that the song by Destiny Child, “Bootylicious”, is a good example as well. It is about how the body is a sexual object and the measures that some women should take in order to be seen as attractive. Hooks mentions this also about how women, usually black, wear wigs to create a sexy persona. Lastly, notice a majority of the closer shots in general in films and television are on the mid sections of the singers.