She is both flexible and hollow (literally and metaphorically) and that's what enables her to withstand both the winds of Hurricane Sandy, and the winds of abuse coming from the ill-informed anti-immigration advocates.
Construction of the Statue of Liberty
(Image by (From Wikimedia) Unknown author, Author: Unknown author) Details Source DMCA
She is in essence a powerful woman, confidently striding forward, comfortable in her power. As such, she is a great role model for young girls seeking to overcome the social conditioning that their talents are less valuable than the boys.
But it's her deeper background in the lore of the goddess-worshiping cultures of "pre-history" where her true value lies to Americans right now, I think. If more of us could wake up from the spell of the Christian church's mindgrip of patriarchy, and realize that for thousands of years "God was a woman" (Merlin Stone), it would allow us to access the freedom and great truth that comes when you tap the divine in female form.
The ancient Hebrews had their own version of the female half of divinity, but most of us never hear about Her, because like the early Christian church's promotion of women to leadership positions, these teachings were suppressed by some misogynistic bishops about 400 years after the death of Jesus Christ. Once the Roman imperial system was overlaid on top of the Christian religion, women were voted out, and patriarchy ruled supreme for the next two millennia.
Check out some of the early American advocates for women's rights like Matilda Joslyn Gage who wrote the prescient Woman, Church and State. Elizabeth Cady Stanton edited The Woman's Bible and was another who bravely pointed to the Christian church as the source for the fundamental patriarchal suppression in society. Radical stuff for many of your readers, I know, but it's nothing new.
'Liberty Displaying the Arts and Sciences, or The Genius of America Encouraging the Emancipation of the Blacks.' This painting demonstrates the early abolitionist movement which argued that the newly won liberty should be extended to slaves, too. The arti
(Image by Samuel Jennings , 1792 (Public Domain)) Details DMCA
Once you wake up to the fact that the Statue of Liberty is not an "it" but a "Her" and a "Goddess" at that, you can start to question your assumptions about why that word "Goddess" might bring up feelings of fear or suspicions in your consciousness. Is it because you were taught in Sunday school the same prejudices taught by the early Roman bishops trying to suppress all the pagan religions in favor of the new Christian patriarchal orthodoxy? Why did the early American patriots not feel this same fear or suspicion when they depicted their new nation as a goddess in all their early statuary and flags and state seals and newspaper mastheads?
Because they were better schooled in the classics and in symbology than we are today, that's why. She may not have symbolized anything to do with female empowerment to our patriot forebears, but at least they appreciated her power to inspire virtue and nobility of spirit, and yes, even inspire the newly minted "Americans" to be more compassionate with one another.
Lady Liberty is the American nation's version of a Mother Goddess. We can learn a lot that will help us in the future by acknowledging her as such.
MAB: Thank you both for sharing your insights.
Laura, I think it's odd that some feminists have been fighting for decades to "show that women are completely equal to men." Of course, I agree with equal human rights, and I certainly believe that any women should get equal pay for equal work. But even back in my hippie teen days, I was confused by fighting for equality, it always felt to me like a step down!
I grew up being taught the Bible stories, and how the world was created in Genesis. But it never made sense to me that a creator would create a lot of cool things, each one getting better and better, and then decide that the second-to-last creation was the most evolved!
As an artist, involved daily in the creative process, I live that creative process. I know what it is like to be in the creative flurry, making something and then improving it in the next iteration, and on and on until I finally feel like I have made it as perfect as I can...and then I rest for a while and look at my finished art before moving into the next creative cycle.
So it makes sense to me that the pattern I experience would be a copy of the pattern experienced by a Divine Creator, and that, therefore, the last iteration in a creative cycle would be the most evolved.
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