In 1981, Carl Carlton released the song entitled “She’s a Bad Mama Jamma" (She’s Built, She’s Stacked). His first verse states, “Her body measurements are perfect in every dimension. She's got a figure that's sho' ‘nuff gettin' attention. She's poetry in motion, a beautiful sight to see. I get so excited viewin' her anatomy.” I grew up listening to this song, but I didn’t really understand the degradation behind the lyrics. I, like many others, assumed it was a salute to the curvaceous figure of the black woman’s body; however, it wasn’t until years later that I learned how much other races fantasized, drooled over, and coveted the body of the black woman.
The black woman’s body has been used for entertainment, casual sex, and bearing children for centuries. The anatomy of a black woman can easily be compared to the varied choices available in a candy store. You can choose from short to tall, light skinned to cocoa chocolate, skinny to voluptuous, straight hair to wooly hair, brown eyes to green eyes, and the list of variations is limitless. I can’t think of another race that has this much variation. I am proud to be a black woman, but I am not pleased with how our bodies are viewed not only by other races but by black men as well.
History tells us that people use to come from around the world to view the bodies of black women, hence the concept of human zoos. Our bodies are exotic. It is natural for our race of women to have full lips, small waists, high cheek bones, big legs, bowed hips, succulent breasts, and round butts. What seems so natural to us seems so unnatural to others. I, myself, am a curvaceous black woman. My breasts are size 36DD; my waist is 33.5 inches; my hip circumference is 47.5 inches; my lips are full; my face is round with high cheekbones; my thighs are bowed, and my calves are plump and toned, yet none of this means anything to me. I am in the gym constantly. I want to make it go away! However, people are fascinated with my body. I often catch them gawking at me as I walk. I do not enjoy the attention as I am sure was the same feeling of my ancestors.
Needless to say, this is not the feeling of many modern day black women. A vast majority of them put their bodies on public display without charging a fee or reaping any benefits from degrading their temples of grace. They have become receptive to the attention and do not understand the struggles the women decades before them had to endure from being raped, filled with disease, and put on public display because another race(s) saw their bodies as a way to obtain financial growth and sexual gratification. I’m not sure what caused the shift or how it can be revoked, but I am positive that if more women knew and understood the dark secrets of the past pertaining to how the women of our ancestors were treated they would alter their desire of being victimized by society.
