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HARRIET ANN JACOBS
Harriet Ann Jacobs was an African-American writer who escaped slavery, her books address, question and highlight the brutal struggles of sexual objectification and abuse by white slave owners on women of colour. Threatened if not compliant, she was subject of the dominant control of her white captures regarding the black female's capacity to pleasure.
"The Black woman was depicted as a woman with an insatiable appetite for sex. She was not satisfied with Black men. It was claimed that the female slave desired sexual relations with White men."
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Dr. Edward Rhymes / Black Agenda Report
Harriet Ann Jacob's story has only been celebrated and gained valued recognition in recent times, due to the harsh reality of the matters content but also because of the crucial factor of acknowledgment and combatting a cause which is still relevant. Exposing the underlying truths behind women of colour in regards to the concept of being reducible to only appearance, encourages discussion when traced back to historical experiences. Jacob's brings to our attention the attitudes formed towards women of colour and the responses by those women themselves. She expresses mental resistance and ownership through the control she was under and from what is perceived from the outside gaze.
Fetishising a women of colour's body has been apparent since slavery, however it is still present today in our media and social relationships. A continual comparison and fascination is prevalent, forming a dismissed consumerist platform for these women to apply degrading factors to themselves as a sense of endearment from white males in a form of acceptance.
"The mistress, who ought to protect the helpless victim, has no other feelings towards her but those of jealousy and rage... That which commands admiration in the white woman only hastens the degradation of the female slave. "
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Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl / Harriet Ann Jacobs
Harriet Ann Jacob's book, "Incident in the Life of a Slave Girl" contributes ideas of white supremacy amongst the white wives of the slave owners. She addresses themes of purity and virtue but also the jealousy and cruelty inflicted on black female slaves due to their husband's diverted attention. Although these white women were in superior positioning to black slaves, their bodies were also regulated and disciplined however not to the extent of the females of colour who had no freedom with their bodies. Jacob's narrative brings to our awareness the objective to strongly contrast the so called "sexual willingness" and "availability" of black women, to the "modesty" and "decency" of which the white women beheld.
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in modern day society the body of a women of colour is placed in opposition of the white female body, always through the eyes of what is most desirable in order of appearance, an inequality that shaped our history and remains conscious still in contemporary culture.
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