Thursday 20 April 2017

The Feminine Heroic - The Paris Review

In times with so such political unrest, with misogynistic themes and phrases rife, it is always so comforting to see women take the rains and steer so hope and humanity back into our mysterious, troublesome ways. I am very pleased to have, (although a small contribution) an image of mine representing some key values and themes in an article about "The Feminine Heroic", written by Megan Mayhew Bergman.

A little excerpt from the article here, "Perhaps some early eremitic women, as devout as they might have been, were not running toward Christ but away from life as it had become. If they needed relief, respite, communion with the divine, or a chance to play the protagonist of their own lives, they had to take great risks to claim it.

Times of hardship often demanded women step outside gender roles, such as the expansion of the American frontier, which resulted in heroic, physical pursuits by women. Willa Cather’s Alexandra Berson in O Pioneers! is independent and entrepreneurial. The world wars gave women opportunities to serve as nurses, ambulance drivers, and fighter pilots. The painter Romaine Brooks presented her iconic image of the heroic feminine in 1914: La France Croisée depicts her lover, Ida Rubinstein, as an ambulance driver, the city of Ypres burning behind her."

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