The Objectification

I was born a beautiful black woman with many curves.

I grew up in a place where money was scarce and times of hardship were plentiful.

I never imagined becoming a human circus act.

I traveled places I have never been with men I have never met before.

I was exploited, taken advantage of, and mostly lied to.

I was not capable of understanding.

My body, my temple, my safe place was taken advantage of by these men

My beautiful black body was no longer my own.

It belong to someone else and that person was not me.

'Hottentot Venus’is what they nicknamed me.

You would think that they would give me a name worthy of the woman

I was a human zoo exhibit.

They just saw me as some form of entertainment.

Men showed me off around Britain as some type of unusual creature.

I was sold to a Frenchman who furthermore took advantage of me.

He failed to prove to the people that I was beautiful just like everyone else.

I was forced to work in intensive pressure for a little over a year.

I must admit that I did dabble into alcohol and prostitution to support myself relieve myself of much of the stress.

I didn’t appreciate myself and my curves hips became more of a curse than a blessing.

I thought all women were gorgeous despite their ethnicity or size.

I died, and my body was analyzed for quite some time.

My body was put on display for people to view publicly

Perhaps there were somethings that I could not understand.

Some people were absolutely fascinated by my appearance and some were absolutely disgusted by the site of me.

I lived a hard life but in no way was my illiteracy responsible for the injustices committed against me.