re: Twitter battle: are you #teamTaylor or #teamNicki?

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The lack of dignity that the African body and especially the African woman’s body has experienced over centuries, and continues to experience at the hands of the traditional European male gaze, is one that leaves me at a loss for words. This diabolical fascination with African bodies, seen as oversexualized and consequently immoral and vulgar in nature, is nothing short of atrocious. And it has been used to justify the greatest sins committed against African people and African places. That a piece can be written that depicts Sarah Baartman in the light of Kim Kardashian, and compares these two women in the same light would be laughable if it wasn’t down-right uncivil, and borderline cold-blooded.

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im Kardashian is many things, and we can talk about her sexuality in all its forms. We can disagree about all the feminists who want to swear up and down that what she does is sexually liberating – a claim I do not buy into. Indeed, Kim’s #breatktheInternet pictures became famous because what you have is a White woman’s (or at least a woman of Armenian descent who enjoys American white privilege) ability to wear Blackness without actually being Black; the mainstream acceptance of Black features occurring without actually having to see a Black body.

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Big butts, big thighs, tiny waists, and all the rest of them are not fascinations to Black people, to African people. They are not “trendy,” they are not things that are “in,” or things that “need to be brought back.” They have always and will likely always be a part of the legacy of those who came before us. We were not ashamed of them until we were taught to be ashamed of them; until we were subjected to violence and otherness. And even then, for many of us, the beauty of our features prevailed in our constructions and appreciation of women’s bodies. We have traditionally always been more inclusive of different types of women’s bodies. And in the face of a culture that chews and spits trends out in a matter of time, it is important for all women to know this.

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