The New York Times article How ‘The Birth of a Nation’ Silences Black Women exploits the absence of the perspective and narratives of female slaves. Although slavery was a horrid time for all black Americans, women undoubtedly had to deal with much worse conditions than men. While a racial construct separated black people from white people, gender constructs separated males from females. Gender stratification made women powerless compared to men and therefore easily susceptible to beatings and often rape by white slave owners. Although in Douglas’ narrative there weren’t really any female slave characters, he portrayed several vidid and horrific scenes of female slaves such as the beating of his aunt Hester in the very first chapter. Douglas stated he felt so traumatized that he himself felt as if he was the victim.   While rape among female slaves was quite common, it is often ignored today when covering this time period. As stated in the New York Times article,  in The Birth of a Nation while there are depictions of women being raped, the viewer does not see the female narrative but rather the tole it has on Nat Turner.  Similarly in the Douglas autobiography, there are scenes with women being raped but we only see how it affects Frederick Douglas. As views or readers, we really don’t get an accurate portrayal of how female slaves coped with these hardships. The conclusion I’ve drawn from the article is that it is hard for us as a society to anknowlge that the reoccurring rape among female slaves was at one point reality, therefore directors and authors often times find it easier to avoid it.