What Are The Stereotypes In Hott-En-Tot

The human body has always been idealized in society. From cultural expectations to body image stereotypes, women of all centuries have struggled with the need to fit the idealized mold of the prefect wife, adoring mother, and even the ideal woman. Renée Cox, a photo and mixed media artist, is one of the most controversial women to incorporate the body into her work today. In Cox’s work Hott-En-Tot (Robertson 107), Cox shows the relationship between her own culture and the stereotypes that it projects onto the body. Cox created Hott-En-Tot in 1994. Cox, being born an African- American woman from Jamaica, often uses her own body image for her work. The subject matter she strives to create in her images often reflects the stereotypes of a black woman’s body. By using herself as the model for her pieces, she not only strengthens her message of self-love but also cultural-love. Clothed or naked, Cox attempts to spread a

With her work, Cox grasps inspiration from the works of art that have come before her and challenges to world to see them through her eyes. For example, in her series The Discreet Charm of the Bougies (Renée Cox), one photo presents Cox in the stereotypically upper class women character, surrounded by extravagant furnishings, décor, and even a white female servant. Cox even takes it a step further into the history of religion with It Shall Be Named (Renée Cox) by displaying an African- American man in frame of a cross. Cox sees room for improvement in history and challenges her viewers to recognize it. Art such as Hott-En-Tot involving body image and cultural discrepancies has become wildly more accepted in society. More and more people are starting to realize the importance and beauty realism has to offer. For example, Nickolay Lamm in his What Barbie Would Look Like As A Real Women (Nickolay Lamm 2013)