In March, Erykah Badu He was honored with the Billboard’s 2025 Women in Music Awards. The prize recognized Badu’s contributions to music, but it was her Fashion This stole the show. Done in collaboration with Texas designer, Myah Hasbany (Badu and Hasbany attended the The same institute), the “loot dress” looks exactly as the name implies. The meat tone dress had an exaggerated lower half, on a fashion of a large bunch with thighs woven in the game and a cone -shaped bust.
Opinions about the appearance were mixed, with some pointing out that the appearance resembled “Botched” BBL or “BBHELL”, As a user shared. Others investigated a deeper meaning behind the bulbous aspect, specifically in relation to the historical perversion of black bodies throughout history.
Was a tribute to Sarah Baartman the “Erykah Badu’s loot dress?
Badu emphasized a video by sharing his gaze, “a hippy lil. Rise of the Divine Female”-and the commentators became fast to resort to the similarities between Badu’s appearance and the appearance of the real life of Sarah Baartman.
Born in 1789, Baartman was a woman from Khoekhoe who was enslaved and forced to exhibit in “Freak Shows”, where she was inhuman parade in horrible conditions. It is believed that Baartman had a lipedema, a condition that causes an abnormal distribution of fat, particularly in thighs, calves and buttocks. Its appearance was mocked and ridiculed by the white masses, and even to death, it was not sure of the cruel gaze of the spectators. He died in 1815, but his brain, the skeleton and the genitals were preserved and shown to the Musée de l’Homme in Paris for 150 years. It was not until 2002 that his body was returned to South -Africa I could be buried in his hometown of Hankey.
The continuous exploitation of black bodies
The commercialization of black bodies from mockery to imitation ships is a well -studied and discussed phenomenon, but Badu’s dress, which many took as an unofficial tribute to Baartman, is undoubtedly the most visual in recent years.
Current cultural changes are in a tendency towards conservative ideals, thinness, whiteness and general anti-black, so Badu wears strokes while social iron is especially hot. It cannot be said with absolute certainty whether or not the Badu dress was an intentional commentary on the objectivation and subsequent ignoring of black bodies, but as is the case with most art screens, the planned message is often in second place in what culture decides to extrapolate as a true message. Badu has been settled as a fashion icon for some time – rightly receiving the CFDA 2024 fashion icon prizeBut this last company passes the track.
