Sheila's Post 2

I'm not too into reading and/or writing poetry. However, I did enjoy reading this. And I guess it was because I had an interest and felt that I could relate somehow.
I think it was interesting in how Cuvier is so excited to study everything he feels is science. Such as how he refers to everything as being beautiful blown up beneath the glass of his micro scope...the dazzling colors of insect wings. He brags about how few will ever see what he sees through his microscope. All seem to be pretty exciting things to study in the name of science.
Ahh, but then the sad reality! He refers to Venus as though she is nothing more than his little pickled science specimens in a jar.
I did like the way that Elizabeth Alexander flipped the script on Cuvier by giving Venus a voice and the opportunity to disect the scientist and place him in a jar.
I think it's interesting in how the attraction for Venus was her ample rear end. When the fact of the matter is that her people were not the only people with such voluptous body parts. If you view paintings, sculptures, drawings from their period and before. You will notice the round meatiness of especially the women and children depicted in the art. Robustness was seen as something beautiful and sensual.
However, I believe that we all know why it was so easy to obtain, enslave, and exploit Venus. The beautiful brown color of her skin and more than ample breast and rear end was her birth right blessing....but they were also the cause for the morbid fascination and her sad demise.
I believe she died of a broken heart. Not of a lover, but of the missed love for her family and home land.
From the film:
It's nice that someone thought to attempt to tell the story, but there were too many discrepancies. From why she traveled with her keeper, how she was treated, the trial, how she died, what happened to her remains, were those really her remains that were returned to Africa, etc?
I think the film was hasitly put together in an effort to make it appear that they genuinely supported her return to Africa.
S. Ramos Post 2