...

"I didn't want to write a poem that said "blackness

is," because we know better than anyone
that we are not one or ten or ten thousand things
Not one poem" - Elizabeth Alexander 

from http://www.amazon.com/The-Venus-Hottentot-Elizabeth-Alexander/dp/1555973922

Anthony Appiah and Negotiating Identity...

from http://divergences.be/local/cache-vignettes/L400xH322/02_Evolution-581e3.jpg

Is the reoccurring image of sensationalized Venus Hottentot creating a new caricature for black femininity that extends beyond the 'Jezebel' sexualized minstrelsy? And if so, how do black women negotiate this image and hypervisability in American culture, particularly in regards to their images in digital environments?

The potential of a Venus Hottentot caricature and negotiations of black women's images in digital spaces can be explored in context of Anthony Appiah’s theories concerning societal norms as social scripts in Ethics of Identity. 

“In constructing an identity, one draws…on the kinds of person available in one's society... Collective identities… provide what we might call scripts: narratives that people can use in shaping their projects and in telling their life stories.” 

Conclusions...

from http://theseventhart.info/category/cinema-of-belgium/

Although, I have enjoyed many of the conversations pertaining to black women's images in popular culture, such as:

• Prof Amina Mama's Exhuming the Ratchet before it’s Buried
• The Crunk Feminist Collective's  (Un)Clutching My Mother's Pearls, or Ratchetness and Residue of Respectabilty and Ratchet Feminism
• Hannington Dia's Michaela Angela Davis looks to 'Bury the Ratchet' and others

It is important to clarify that my questions about black women's images are not rooted in ideas of respectability or philosophies of liberation within feminism. 

My questions are more about if and how these images resembling the sensasionalized Baartman may be representative caricatures of black women that are architectured and engineered for consumption for the masses.

And if the popular images of black women resembling the sensationalized Baartman caricature are becoming even further reductive than historically noted minstrels, such as the mammy and jezebel figures.  

Further Questions ...

from http://www.polar-ray.com/kbase/LED_Lighting_Dimming_Guide/LED_Lighting_-_Dimming_Guide.html

This research considers the influence of information architecture on the images of black women in digital spaces and the influences of these images of black women in digital environments in physical spaces. Some questions that I would like to continue to explore:

• Are the popular images of black women becoming monolithic rooted in a sensationalized Baartman caricature? A caricature that is even further reductive than other stereotypes?
  
  
• Considering the contrasts between self mediated images posted on social media  sites and the images that are generated in google searches pertaining to black women, what individuals or groups are searching for images of black women over the internet using broad search engines like google? And what do the masses desire to see when they conduct these searches? 

•  Are the self-mediated images of black women negotiating, rather than affirming or in some cases directly countering the popular images/caricatures of black women? If so, why? Protest? Agency? Current trends in heightened awareness of individualism?

• Does the repeated exposure to a Venus Hottentot caricature set unreal expectations for black women regarding the politics of physical appearances?  In kind, do they inspire insecurities in black women's body image because one may not be able to meet the physical expectation without engaging in methods of physical augmentation?

• Does the repeated exposure to a Venus Hottentot caricature inspire or in some cases concentrate the gaze of broader society on black women? And if so what are the effects of such gazes in the individual lives of black women? 

• Are the images that resemble the Venus Hottentot popularized by celebrities and popular televisions shows creating a monolithic expectation of black femininity that is being duplicated in order for black women to negotiate healthy and mutually beneficial relationships in their professional, personal, and in some cases spiritual lives?