18-12-2021, 01:12 PM
"Predictably, Trump supporters produced a great number of images showing her (Hilary Clinton)with snaky locks,
but the most horribly memorable of them adapted Cellini's bronze, a much better fit because it wasn't just a head: it also included the 'heroic' male adversary & killer. All you needed to do was superimpose Trump s face on that of Perseus & give Clinton's features to the severed head.
This scene of Perseus-Trump brandishing the head of Medusa-Clinton was very much part of the everyday, domestic American world. You could buy it on T shirts, & tank tops, on coffee mugs, on laptop sleeves & tote bags, sometimes with the logo Triumph, sometimes Trump.
It may take a moment or two to take in that normalisation of gendered violence, but if you were ever doubtful about the extent to which the exclusion of women from power is culturally embedded or unsure of the continued strength of classical ways of formulating & justifying it – well, I give you Trump & Clinton, Persues & Medusa & rest my case."
Women in power.
Mary Beard
but the most horribly memorable of them adapted Cellini's bronze, a much better fit because it wasn't just a head: it also included the 'heroic' male adversary & killer. All you needed to do was superimpose Trump s face on that of Perseus & give Clinton's features to the severed head.
This scene of Perseus-Trump brandishing the head of Medusa-Clinton was very much part of the everyday, domestic American world. You could buy it on T shirts, & tank tops, on coffee mugs, on laptop sleeves & tote bags, sometimes with the logo Triumph, sometimes Trump.
It may take a moment or two to take in that normalisation of gendered violence, but if you were ever doubtful about the extent to which the exclusion of women from power is culturally embedded or unsure of the continued strength of classical ways of formulating & justifying it – well, I give you Trump & Clinton, Persues & Medusa & rest my case."
Women in power.
Mary Beard
in order to be old & wise, you must first be young & stupid. (I'm still working on that.)