Venus in the Dark

Blackness and Beauty in Popular Culture

Janell Hobson

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781040391679
• Topic: Sozialwissenschaften
• Subtopic: Nordamerikanische Literaturkritik

In this third edition of the classic cultural history of black women's beauty, Venus in the Dark: Blackness and Beauty in Popular Culture, Janell Hobson explores the enduring figure of the "Hottentot Venus" and the history of critical and artistic responses to her by black women in contemporary photography, film, literature, music, and dance.

In 1810, Sara Baartman was taken from South Africa to Europe, where she was put on display at circuses, salons, museums, and universities as the "Hottentot Venus." The subsequent legacy of representations of black women's sexuality—from Josephine Baker to Serena Williams to hip-hop and dancehall videos, to our favorite pop acts including Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Megan Thee Stallion—refer back to her iconic image. Via a new Preface, Hobson explores the continuing influence of Baartman's legacy through the contemporary marketization of black women's bodies; from popular music and pornography to advertising and presidential campaigns. A brand-new chapter analyzes fetishistic spectacles of the black "booty, " with particular emphasis on the rise in cosmetic surgeries, such as BBLs, and the different ways that twenty-first-century subjects have reshaped and redefined their bodies in an emergent global body politic.

This new edition of Venus in the Dark: Blackness and Beauty in Popular Culture is essential reading for students and researchers, as well those outside of academia interested in the subjects of black women and their beautification efforts.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Endorsements Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Preface to the Third Edition
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Re-Presenting the Black Female Body: An Introduction
• 2 Venus and the Hottentot: The Emergence of an Icon
• 3 The Hottentot Venus Revisited: The Politics of Reclamation
• 4 The “Batty” Politic: Toward an Aesthetic of the Black Female Body
• 5 Mirror, Mirror: Framing the Black Female Body for Still and Motion Pictures
• 6 Remnants of Venus: Evolutions of the Bootylicious Body
• 7 Shapeshifting: Re-Forming the Body (Geo)Politic
• Epilogue
• Bibliography
• Index