For application number five, I will be discussing chapter two of Vénus Noir by Robin Mitchell, Entering Darkness: Colonial Anxities and the Cultural Production of Sarah Baartmann. Mitchell discusses the motives behind the commidification of Baartmann, claiming that it was due to repercussions of the French Revolution. “Historians generally agree that the Restoration saw enormous cultural and political changes that ultimately destabilized social markers such as gender, sexuality, and class” (Mitchell 55). Mitchell furthers her argument by introducing a secondary tension, the Haitian Revolution. The Haitain Revolution created a heavy focus on slavery and race within French politics. Mitchell believes that these large changes in he social and political climate of France, pushed for the symbolization of Baartmann who was “projecting so much of what was perceived as dangerous for French national identity—gender inappropriateness, class transgressions, and miscegenation” (Mitchell 54-55). Mitchell uses these cultural and political tensions to explain why the French would have felt the desire to commidify Baartmann; she was used as a vessel to understand and maintain the French national identity. 

Through the analysis of art and advertisements (which could possibly be considered political cartoons to modern viewers), readers are shown the ways in which Baartmann was portrayed with over-exaggerations and sexualization. For example, Figure 13 depicts Baartmann in an apron, which “has erotic meaning in association with a related figure of male desire and fantasy, the domestic servant” (Mitchell 74). The apron is used as both a sexual symbol and a symbol of Baartmann’s servant status, which furthers her objectification. The idea of the male gaze plays into Mitchell’s analysis, as men found themselves both aroused and appalled by Baartmann (as discussed following Figure 13). Similar analysis of French art and literature shows “ issues of potential miscegenation while reinforcing fears about corruption caused by the existence of blackness in both the colonies and the metropole” (Mitchell 75).