A Feminist Intersectional Perspective On Symbolic Meanings Of Statues Of Women

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Monuments and Statues to Women: Arrival of an Historical Reckoning of Memory and Commemoration", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

A feminist intersectional theoretical perspective reveals that Western patriarchy's intersecting androcentrism and racism have been ideologically legitimated, promoted and sanctified by the great predominance of statues commemorating real, powerful white men, often on horses to promote militaristic masculinity, pedestalled to be looked up to literally and figuratively, and made from durable materials to last forever as timeless models of ideal patriarchal values and behaviors. Patriarchal white men have predominantly controlled the resources and political power required to block the erection of statues of real women and minorities, legitimating and promoting their social subordination, marginalization and cultural erasure. Most statues of women are of white goddesses or represent ideals of womanhood under patriarchy that are intended for real women to emulate. Diverse symbolic meanings of statues of ideal and real women from antiquity to the present are discussed from the viewpoints of people who erected statues and people who view them.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023   •
• Monuments and Statues to Women: Arrival of an Historical Reckoning of Memory and Commemoration

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow