Olympia's Maid Reclaiming Black Female Analysis

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In O’Grady’s essay Olympia’s Maid: Reclaiming Black Female, O’Grady criticizes the subordination of black female subjects in art. Culturally, art has constructed the identity of black females to be inferior compared to their white counterparts. As a consequence, viewers objectify black female bodies and tend to ignore the subject all together. “Olympia’s maid. Like all other ‘peripheral Negroes,’ is a robot conveniently made to disappear into the background drapery.” Rather than been seen a person in the drawing, she becomes an object viewers glance over. She is no more significant than the background. In fact, her inferiority is what highlights the nude body of her white female counterpart.