The metaphors of both the prostitute and feminist psychoanalysis’ the female eunuch as a way of describing Olympia’s maid’s positionality as a Black woman are used by O'Grady. The white body of Olympia is the only object of male gaze, and Laure’s inclusion is subconsciously critiqued through the reading of the white figure. In a damaging critique of the painting from when it was originally shown, Amedee Cantaloube describes as "a kind of female gorilla, a grotesque rubber figure surrounded by black, a monkey on a bed, completely nude."