The Venus Hottentot was a slave afflicted with elephantitis of the labia. Because of her physical abnormalities, and because she lacked the agency to shield herself from ridicule, she was paraded around the country as though she were nothing but a sideshow freak. Susan Lori Park's masterful play Venus is an emotionally packed telling of her story.
After the Venus Hottentot's death, her labia were preserved in fermaldehyde. Before the curtains open and during intermission, the tension is heightened as actors reinact the measuring of her vulva as scientists took it from glass jars and stretched it, just to make sure that even in death she could not retain her dignity.
