Fall 2005 Conversations Lecture Series

Friday, September 23, 2005 at 4:00pm

Ms. Yaba Blay and Ms. Kaila Adia Story, Doctoral Candidates in African-American Studies-Temple University

“Performing Venus~From Hottentot to Video Vixen: The Historical Legacy of Black Female Body Commodification”
Free & Open to the Public

Lecturer Bios

Kaila Adia Story (M.A., Temple University; B.A. Women’s Studies DePaul University) is a doctoral student in the Department of African American Studies at Temple University. Her research interest include but are not limited to Black Feminist, Africana Womanist, and African Feminist theories, Black women and Body Image, Black gendered and sexual identities, and Black gender socialization. Her dissertation research investigates Black women and the unique and combined influences of socialized explicit and implicit aesthetic racial preferences and internalization of the “thick”/”full” figured beauty standards as a basis for understanding body image and body image satisfaction. As well as looking investigating how Black women’s gendered and sexual identities have been constructed for them historically, from the “Hottentot Venus” to the current image of the “Video Vixen”. Kaila has also taught undergraduate courses in Introduction to Black Women’s Studies, The Black Women, Mass Media and the Black Community, and Gay & Lesbian Lives.

Yaba Amgborale Blay (M.A., Temple University; M.Ed., University of New Orleans; B.A. Salisbury State University) is a doctoral student in the Department of African American Studies at Temple University. Her research interests are related to skin color politics and the subsequent aesthetic practices of African Diasporan communities. Her dissertation research investigates the phenomena of skin bleaching among Ghanaian women and seeks to interrogate the various dimensions for which skin bleaching has implications. More specifically, the study aims to situate the analysis of skin bleaching within the broader psychological, sociocultural, health, economic and political contexts within which it takes place. Yaba has taught undergraduate courses in African Aesthetics and Mass Media and the Black Community. Her current case study on skin color politics entitled “Pretty Color ‘n Good Hair: Creole Women of New Orleans and the Politics of Identity” will be published as a chapter in the forthcoming edited volume “Blackberries and Redbones: Critical Articulations of Black Hair/Body Politics in Africana Communities.”