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Assignment 3

A women’s body and their physical appearance can easily give insight into how a certain culture operates. Observing how they dress and how they behave undoubtedly reflect the type of environment that they grew up in. However, can it also justify the superiority of one race over another? During the age of the New World, as Europeans started to set foot into foreign lands such as Africa, women were targeted upon as means of scrutinizing the “Other,” indigenous people that the Europeans encountered. They criticized the women for their shamelessness in how they dressed and how they behaved. This image became the representation of the whole continent, and all of Africa was deemed savage, inferior, and uncivil (2014:30). Ultimately, the supposed vulgarity of women and the country they represent was used to justify white supremacy. This shows an act of racism because the Europeans enforced judgments and assumptions based on their belief of superiority.

This is further exemplified in Jennifer Morgan’s book when she describes the work of Pieter de Marees and his view on Black women’s sexuality. De Marees talks of his voyage to Sierra Leone, which is a country in West Africa. He first describes the people as unclean, greedy, and lewd, among other things, and attacks on women by calling them lecherous and liars (2014:30). Then, he linked his view on women’s sexuality, which he deemed savage, to the whole nation and all the people of Africa. However, looking carefully into why De Marees declared them savage, it was nothing more than the feeling of unfamiliarity of experiencing a different culture. He called women shameless for their nudity and choosing to give birth in front of other people, including men and children (2014:30). This symbolizes African culture and portrays how they were raised and how they chose to live their lives. By no means should this signal any degree of inferiority or incivility. It was only through the eyes of self-absorbed Europeans where the idea of vulgarity and incivility was introduced, and Africans fell victim to the act of racism.

Discussion Question: Do you think there are still people who judge against a certain race because of their culture and how they live? If so, why do you think it exists?