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Et tu, Aristophanes?

Women & Power: A Manifesto by Mary Beard

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My very Catholic and moderately conservative auntie gave me this book for Christmas, since I’m the loud feminist in the family, and I actually think it’s really sweet of her that she thought of me when she saw that.

I do feel like I’m cheating a bit for including this here though, it’s a very very short book, it’s the printed version of two speeches Mary Beard gave (I’ve heard of her through cultural osmosis but have never really come across any of her writings?) on how the image of women in Roman and Greek antiquity still influences the modern, western image of the same.

She does it very skilfully and especially the part about rhetoric enraged me. I work in academia and I’ve seen this happening SO many times: A female researcher presents a solid, perfectly sourced and plausible theory only to be talked down by men who SOUND like they know better, but it’s all just smoke and mirrors, they know how to talk in the way a researcher is SUPPOSED to talk, confident, standing tall, with a deep reassuring voice, while she is short, dressed in a way that makes her uncomfortable and with a high voice that only gets higher because she’s getting angry at a bunch of idiots attacking her work!

Due to its length the book only briefly touches a few selected points of course, all of which should and need to be expanded on, but the whole idea of how there’s no real archetype of what a powerful woman looks like and there hasn’t been in millennia, really hits a mark and I think it’s a great start and definitely provides food for thought.

“That’s an excellent suggestion, Miss Triggs. Perhaps one of the men here would like to make it.”

Women & Power by Mary Beard

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What do the Odyssey‘s Penelope and Elizabeth Warren have in common? One was told to shut up, the other to sit down, and thus both were denied the right to power and leadership in the form of public speech. Based on two of her lectures concerning women’s relationship with power, Mary Beard demonstrates in this book that attitudes from the Greco-Roman world are still prevalent.

This is a really short book, but there is so much thought-provoking information in it, and Beard is so succinct and clear in her argumentation that it almost doesn’t matter. There are two parts that stood out to me the most: The first is her discussion of the famous sculpture Perseus with the Head of Medusa by Benvenuto Cellini which shows the heroic Perseus holding up Medusa’s head in triumph while standing on top of the rest of her body. Ostensibly, this is just a statue of a hero that has just slain a monster, but if Medusa is seen here as a representation of female rage and empowerment that had to be cut down because her power was terrifying to men, the scene Cellini’s sculpture depicts becomes a chilling display of misogyny, and Beard’s argument for such an interpretation is compelling.

The second is her explanation that in the classical era, public speech was a, or maybe even the, defining attribute of maleness which conversely meant that a woman speaking in public, ergo a woman with power, was by definition not a woman, and furthermore, that a women’s power was illegitimate power. Beard points out evidence of this in the myth of Clytemnestra or the depiction of the goddess Athena. So, what is the solution? Maybe that women can’t win in this power structure that was developed by men for men, and that we need a different structure. There are, however, no easy answers, and Beard doesn’t try to give any because this is not what the book is about.

There are many more parallels that are drawn between ancient times and now, and they are enlightening and infuriating and depressing all at the same time. Beard also shares some personal experiences that make it clear that she really knows what she is talking about. It is not a book without flaws because I do think that there could have been more analysis regarding women that are or have been in power. She mentions Margaret Thatcher, Angela Merkel, and Hillary Clinton only briefly, but in my opinion, their situations warranted a closer look.

Still, this is an important and a great book that is not only very accessible and well-written, but also offers an unconventional angle with its references to the classical era. At one point, Beard writes that “when it comes to silencing women, Western culture has had thousands of years of practice.” One can only hope that it won’t take that long to overcome it.

There Are Always Two Sides to Every Story

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard

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In 63 BCE, the politician and lawyer Cicero gave four speeches against the senator Catiline whom he accused of being the instigator of a conspiracy to overthrow the government. Historically and probably unfairly, Cicero came out of this as a famous and brilliant orator who saved the republic while Catiline ended up dead and branded a traitor and a villain. This particular episode in the history of Rome, covered in the first chapter, sets the tone of the book and illustrates the problems that often arise in our interpretation and knowledge of events that occurred so long ago: If there even still exists a written account, it was often created by people with an agenda or their own particular conception of what happened, and hence can only be evaluated with caution. And if such accounts are lost or only partially preserved, they can only inspire guesswork and conjecture.

The book poses many questions in this vein, for instance, what is myth and what is the truth concerning the founding and early years of Rome? Especially in regard to this archaic era, there are only few definite answers to be found. Or, how important was it who triumphed in certain conflicts? Did it really make a difference that Caesar defeated Pompey and not the other way around? Wouldn’t Pompey have also become a dictator if he had won because due to the seemingly endless civil war the republic had broken down so much that there could be no other outcome than a dictatorship? What would have happened if Mark Antony had defeated Octavian? Would it have even mattered who sat on the throne of the empire during the first two centuries of its existence because it was just that stable of an institution? Was there really such a big difference, say between the reign of the ‘good’ Marcus Aurelius and the ‘evil’ Nero except their personal conduct, and even much of that could be fabrication?

This is really not a history book in the sense that it chronologically and systematically tells the important events of the first 1,000 years of Rome’s existence because it does that only in the broadest sense. The history is just the groundwork on which the true intention of the book is resting, and that is on one hand, the challenging of many popular myths and misconceptions, and on the other hand, a conversation about topics that are eternally relevant, like liberty and identity. In those 1,000 years, Rome went from a kingdom to a republic to a dictatorship to an empire, so questions of governance play an important role. There are chapters on the lives of women, slaves, the poor, and the average, although there is little known about them in comparison to the rich and powerful. Because of all this, I don’t think that this book is enjoyable for readers that do not have at least some knowledge of Roman history, as many important events are mentioned only in passing or chronologically out of sequence, in order to make a point in the greater narrative.

Otherwise, it is written in an accessible style and and littered with witty and pointed remarks. Beard’s enthusiasm for the subject is infectious, and I highly appreciated her unique approach to the topic because it is thought-provoking and well-reasoned even if I did not necessarily agree with all of her conclusions. The book is a welcome reminder that much of our knowledge of those ancient times is based on assumptions, and that having an open mind for different arguments is imperative. As Livy comments in his history of Rome: “I do honestly believe that no country has ever been greater or purer than ours or richer in good citizens and noble deeds…”, we can read in one of Tacitus’s works: “They plunder, they slaughter, and they steal: this they falsely name Empire, and where they make a wasteland, they call it peace.” It is, after all, a matter of perspective.

Good quick read

How Do We Look by Mary Beard

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When the more recent Civilization was shown on PBS, they edited it a bit from the British version because we can’t have nice things in America since we elected an orange. But they edited out much Mary Beard which is so not right.
Really not right.

So if you are wondering why Mary Beard wrote a book that functions as a companion to the series that’s why. The book is a look at how the viewer interacts with art. She focuses on ancient and religious art. There are some cool bits about the ancient world, and her comments about the statues of pharaohs are worthy of thought.
It is worth well quick read.

When other people keep making your point for you.

Women & Power: A Manifesto by Mary Beard

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I follow a ton of art historians, museums and academics on Twitter, and Mary Beard is one of my favourites. I genuinely love her tweets and have been surprised to see how many people are willing to troll her, and ignore her academic bona fides because she dares discuss sexism and diversity in the ancient world, not to mention being an older woman in an academic field (Classics) where almost all well-known presenters are male.

Beard, a Cambridge University Don, was most recently involved in a tempest about the distinct difference between her screen time in the BBC series Civilisations, versus the US-broadcast PBS version, Civilizations. PBS explained that the entire series was edited and produced by different teams, also noting that a more focused exploration of Christian art—and the diminishment of other religions’ contributions to art history—was to better appeal to the American audience, and was the reason Beard’s on-screen time and voice-over narration were reduced. It wasn’t her, they proposed, it was what she talked about that was unappealing to American audiences. It’s been pointed out that Simon Schama and David Olusoga, the two male series writers and narrators also discuss non-Christian art in their episodes, but did not suffer from similar edits in the PBS versions.

Could it be that Mary Beard, a woman of a certain age, with grey hair, sensible sandals, and a post-menopausal figure just didn’t rate as a sufficiently appealing and prestigious expert for a US audience? As a woman of similar characteristics, working in a equally male-skewed field (Futures Foresight), I can absolutely relate.

Though Beard’s Women & Power: A Manifesto might seem like an odd subject for a Classics professor, she is exactly the right person to examine millennia of misogyny and why women in modern times haven’t fared much better. This short tome is derived from two speeches she has given over the years, and together, her observations give ample historical evidence that women have always been excluded from discourse, and observes how present-day efforts to shift perceptions has been a centuries-long battle that must continue apace.

But, rather than writing a review that is actually longer than the slim volume itself, I encourage you to just read it. Beard has a witty, accessible writing style and she never lacks for a pertinent example of historical precedent which relates to present-day situations. It’s a deeply satisfying read.

✰✰✰✰

We have no template for what a powerful woman looks like, except that she looks rather like a man.

Women and Power: A Manifesto by Mary Beard

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This would be a fan favorite here I feel. Mary Beard’s book is slim by its very nature because it’s a transcription of two speeches given before and after Brexit/Trump. And you can feel that difference when you read them. Mary Beard is apparently a public intellectual and fixture in British television. Being American, I didn’t know this, but I did know her as a prominent historian. I read SPQR and I maybe reviewed it here (I forget what year I read it), and thought it was very strong and readable. So I won’t fault the essays here for how slight and slim they come across here. Instead what is captured here more so than in other essay collections I read is that while Mary Beard’s primary expertise is not in feminist theory but in classical history, but her clear command and total ownership over reading, historical fact, and classical literature adds depth and heft to her analysis of contemporary politics. All of that turns these otherwise not totally remarkable comments into brilliant little moments.

I also think the title itself as a manifesto is not quite right. Instead, it’s more of a pair of polemics.

Also, she spends a lot of time talking about another book I will get to soon Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, which speaks not only to how we understand women in power, but how we completely misunderstand the nature of power. She shows a good example that’s not all the alien to contemporary events and how we present those women. I don’t like Theresa May, but even I cringe at the way she’s treated in British media and by British leftists.

(Photograph: MMP Cambridge)



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