Concerning the study of peoplehood and their histories in the introduction of Imagined Communities, Benedict Anderson writes, “communities are to be distinguished, not by their falsity/genuineness, but by the style in which they are imagined,” (Anderson, 6). Thus, in offering an examination of the interplay between the sexual and racial contracts across many modern societies, Pateman considers the racial contract as one facet of the original social contract theory as proposed by Hobbes’ Leviathan. More, Pateman examines the interconnectedness of both the sexual and the racial contract as a means to consider their complex interrelationship today (Pateman, 135). Exploring the construction of race in the United States, Pateman writes, “Races”
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Europeans were able to distinguish African bodies from their own, often comparing and contrasting their features, bedazzled by the similarities of characteristics such as the raw flesh on the inside of a African that “looked exactly of the same colour with that of an European”, when Butchart cites Sparrman’s narrative of ‘negro flesh’ (Butchart, 56). Thus, the African body was produced through classifying, with limited scientific knowledge at hand; the African body was nothing but an exotic spectacle. Seemingly a part of their environment in which these African bodies inhabited, and they were subject to and for the benefit of European scientific inquiry at the time. Inevitably, “the blackness of (sub-Saharan) Africans became perceived, in itself, as a mark of lesser humanity,” (Pateman 138). This negative perception of the black body is prevalent in the circulation of slave auction posters during the American slave …show more content…
Pateman explains that in the case of female slaves, the work of the sexual contract is most apparent, “they were property, but it was their humanity that made their reproduction possible and made them sexually attractive to white masters,” (Pateman, 144). Female slaves were often subjected to rape by their white masters, often leading to the birth of ‘mulatto’ children, or, children of mixed race. Noticeably different in skin tone (i.e. its close resemblance to white skin) and hair texture, light-skinned slaves were favored and considered more desirable than slaves damned to their darker skin. Subjected to white ideals of beauty, many black females internalize the despair, self-loathing, and hatred for ones own skin instilled through the institution of slavery that is still prevalent today. Upon the end of slavery, and the emergence of free black bodies navigating White America, the black community has been stuck in the limbo of conforming or non-conforming to the negative images and perceptions perpetuated by the white world; or in other terms, assimilating or not assimilating to the role of black bodies in America. Therefore, society in their technical use of disciplinary power have characterized and produced black bodies to be both docile and delinquent— a crucial role in enabling the techniques of
Europeans were able to distinguish African bodies from their own, often comparing and contrasting their features, bedazzled by the similarities of characteristics such as the raw flesh on the inside of a African that “looked exactly of the same colour with that of an European”, when Butchart cites Sparrman’s narrative of ‘negro flesh’ (Butchart, 56). Thus, the African body was produced through classifying, with limited scientific knowledge at hand; the African body was nothing but an exotic spectacle. Seemingly a part of their environment in which these African bodies inhabited, and they were subject to and for the benefit of European scientific inquiry at the time. Inevitably, “the blackness of (sub-Saharan) Africans became perceived, in itself, as a mark of lesser humanity,” (Pateman 138). This negative perception of the black body is prevalent in the circulation of slave auction posters during the American slave …show more content…
Pateman explains that in the case of female slaves, the work of the sexual contract is most apparent, “they were property, but it was their humanity that made their reproduction possible and made them sexually attractive to white masters,” (Pateman, 144). Female slaves were often subjected to rape by their white masters, often leading to the birth of ‘mulatto’ children, or, children of mixed race. Noticeably different in skin tone (i.e. its close resemblance to white skin) and hair texture, light-skinned slaves were favored and considered more desirable than slaves damned to their darker skin. Subjected to white ideals of beauty, many black females internalize the despair, self-loathing, and hatred for ones own skin instilled through the institution of slavery that is still prevalent today. Upon the end of slavery, and the emergence of free black bodies navigating White America, the black community has been stuck in the limbo of conforming or non-conforming to the negative images and perceptions perpetuated by the white world; or in other terms, assimilating or not assimilating to the role of black bodies in America. Therefore, society in their technical use of disciplinary power have characterized and produced black bodies to be both docile and delinquent— a crucial role in enabling the techniques of