Talk:Saartje Baartman
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The article and its context suggest that there was something about this woman, perhaps her genitalia, that was considered highly unusual to Western eyes, but fails to describe what it was. I can understand even a Wikipedian author's desire to be discreet, but would appreciate learning what, if anything, made this woman a sideshow attraction, other than the fact that she was unusual to her observers as a Hottentot and that they could fondle her buttocks for an additional fee.
In an article by P.V. Tobias from South African Journal of Science in 2002 it says that nude paintings were done. "Cuvier arranged for her to be examined in the Jardin du Roi in March 1815. There, as Saint-Hilaire and Frédéric Cuvier (a younger brother of Georges) reported, 'she was obliging enough to undress and to allow herself to be painted in the nude.' So it appears that some people may have seen her genitalia, plus she had two children with a West Indian. The Tobias article also says she died Jan 1, 1816.