The Black Woman Character Analysis

The Black Female Body in Venus and Intimate Apparel

Being a white female-presenting person lends its own perspective to the race and gender divide in our country. On the one hand, I face oppression every single day simply by virtue of walking down the street and being catcalled; or foolishly attempting to prove that I know something (anything) to a man who does not believe a woman can form her own coherent opinions. On the other, I have no way of truly understanding the effect of racial discrimination on anyone, because I myself am the discriminator by virtue of my skin color. It creates a minefield of understanding, because race and gender are so heavily linked. I am oppressed in one category and the oppressor in the other. For this reason, my consumption of media involving people of color is skewed heavily in favor of both sides. While reading Venus it was jarring to see how I could relate to these characters on so many fundamental …show more content…
They both have dreams; Esther to open up a beauty parlor and Mayme to become a concert pianist, but both are ultimately resigned to their current situations. “Let me tell you,” says Mayme gently, “so many wonderful ideas been conjured up in this room. They just get left right in that bed there, or on this piano bench. They are scattered all over this room. Esther, I ain’t waiting for anybody to rescue me. My Panama man come and gone long time now. It’s sweet that he write you but, my dear, it ain’t real.” Esther firmly believes that her Panama man George is her savior, her beacon of hope in a world that ignores her. He wrote beautiful letters to her, convincing her that she was valuable and beautiful when no one else had. As a result, when they get married, Esther jumps into the role of loving wife both feet first. She serves his every request, even when he asks to use the money she has been saving for her beauty parlor (which he then gambles