What is the symbolism of the stripper in "Battle Royal"? Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

The
"magnificent blonde" with the yellow hair of a kewpie doll" is simultaneously a
symbol of the oppression of the young black men in the groupshe becomes the tool of their sexual
humiliation and possible punishment, if they dare to return her gaze. She is also an object of
the white men's sexual exploitationthe white male spectators place her in the ring to arouse
their own lust and to arouse that of the young black men while also forbidding the young men
from expressing that lust.

In this scene, Ellison luridly illustrates the
sexual hegemony of white menthat is, the way in which they ensured their own sexual dominance
through the violent control of black male sexuality and exerted control over white female
sexuality through the promise of racial privilege. 

The blonde is a
caricature of femininity, with her heavily made-up face, and, as a blonde, an exemplary form of
white womanhood. In the era in which   was published (1952), the most
celebrated Hollywood...