Page 31 - ARUBA TODAY

A31
PEOPLE & ARTS Wednesday 13 december 2017
Historian Mary Beard connects Greek myths and Twitter trolls

By JILL LAWLESS she explores how power,
Associated Press more widely, came to
LONDON (AP) — For Mary be defined as something
Beard, the image of Hill- wielded by men.
ary Clinton’s severed head “If you say to a group of
was the last straw. women professors, ‘Close
The Cambridge University your eyes and think of a
classics professor had been professor,’ what they will
pondering the influence of see is a guy,” she told The
the ancient world on mod- Associated Press. “I will.
ern political and public life And I’ll stop myself and
when she came across think, ‘Hey, hang on, what
mugs and T-shirts bearing am I doing here?’
an image from Greek my- “The real problem is what
thology: the hero Perseus is going on in our cultural
holding the bloody head of brains.”
the snake-haired monster Those brains, she says, bear
Medusa. In this version, Per- strong imprints from the an-
seus had Donald Trump’s cient world. The monstrous
face and the monster bore Medusa is just one exam-
Clinton’s. ple, appearing repeatedly
Beard was shocked both in art and satire. As well as In this photo taken Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2017, British author Mary Beard gestures during an
interview with the Associated Press talks about her new book ‘Women in Power’ in London.
by the brutality of the im- Clinton, female politicians Associated Press
age and “the domesticity including Angela Merkel and bought her lunch. gations against prominent “When I was an under-
of it. ... The idea that you’d and Theresa May have Beard says she was drawn men by women who are graduate we thought that
be sitting at your breakfast been caricatured as the to study of the classical often speaking out after if we got workplace nurs-
table and you’d have a serpent-haired Gorgon. world by “a sense of won- long periods of silence. eries, we’d be fine,” Beard
mug with Hillary Clinton be- Beard argues that such im- derment” that she still feels. Reviewing “Women and said. “Workplace nurseries,
ing beheaded on it.” ages draw little criticism. In But she doesn’t shy away Power” in The Guardian, equal pay and a few other
Beard asks how that an- contrast, when comedian from its dark side. Rachel Cooke said she practical things.
cient image ended up in a Kathy Griffin posed with a “Greek myths, early Roman might have found Beard’s “We were partly right —
modern political campaign fake severed Trump head, history is configured around argument “a bit strained a they were good reforms.
in “Women and Power ,” it prompted an outcry that violence against women,” month ago.” But it doesn’t solve the
a short but punchy book saw her fired by CNN. she said. “And I think we “But reading it in the wake problem.”
published Tuesday in the In an echo of the ancient need to get in there, get of the Harvey Weinstein The book suggests that, in-
U.S. by Liveright. image, online abuse aimed our hands dirty, face it and scandal, it seems utterly, stead of women trying to
The book explores the way at prominent women often see why and how it was.” dreadfully convincing,” fit into male definitions of
images and ideas from an- includes threats to rip out Reviewers have remarked Cooke said. power, society should re-
cient Greece and Rome tongues or cut off heads. on the book’s timeliness, The book is subtitled “a define what power looks
have burrowed the way “(It’s) the idea of cutting appearing amid a wave manifesto,” but it does not like. That, Beard admits, is a
into the Western collective off, not just the brain and of sexual misconduct alle- provide obvious solutions. giant task.q
consciousness — and how the beauty but the speak-
many of them are about ing organ of a woman,”
Beard, 62, is that rare thing: Chicago plans South Side gospel
keeping women in their Beard said.
place.
“When it comes to silenc- a celebrity academic. Her
ing women, Western cul- books are best-sellers, and museum, touted as 1st in U.S.
ture has had thousands of hosts popular TV series on
years of practice,” Beard ancient Rome and Pom-
writes. peii. CHICAGO (AP) — Orga- Architect Dirk Lohan the project, which is ex-
On the page, Beard is As a well-known woman, nizers say a gospel music adapted a design for the pected to cost about $32
crisp and authoritative. In she knows about online museum planned for Chi- project that would salvage million. He also donated $1
person, she is friendly and abuse first-hand. She has cago’s South Side will be the existing church walls. It million of his own money to
forthright. But she says she more than 166,000 follow- the first in the country. calls for a 45,000-square- the project that he said will
“became furious” while ers on Twitter, where her The National Museum feet (4180-square-meters) be the first gospel museum
working on “Women and willingness to tackle on- of Gospel Music will be facility with a glass-en- in the U.S. “He (Jackson)
Power.” line trolls has made her a built on the site of the Pil- cased roof addition. The understands the industry
The book begins with one heroine for many younger grim Baptist Church in the plans also call for exhibi- and the importance of
of the first works of Western women. Bronzeville neighborhood. tions, an auditorium and the history,” said Mara-
literature, citing a scene “It doesn’t feel particularly The church’s music direc- listening library. “We know beth Gentry, president of
in Homer’s 3,000-year- heroic to me,” she said. tor and blues pianist in it will bring international the National Convention
old “Odyssey,” in which “You have to do what you 1932, Thomas A. Dorsey, tourists,” said Don Jack- of Gospel Choirs and Cho-
Telemachus tells his moth- feel comfortable with. And was hugely influential in the son, founder of the Stellar ruses founded by Dorsey.
er Penelope to get back I didn’t feel comfortable genre, blending Christian Gospel Music Awards and “That he wants to do this
to her weaving because just blocking them and text with jazz and blues. former chairman of the for gospel music speaks
“speech will be the busi- turning the other cheek. “ And the church drew sing- DuSable Museum of Afri- volumes.” Jackson plans to
ness of men.” Some of the abusers con- ers such as Aretha Frank- can American History. “For open the museum in 2020
Beard argues that modern fronted by Beard have lin, Mahalia Jackson and Chicago to only have the in the month of Septem-
ideas about public speak- ended up apologizing. James Cleveland. DuSable Museum, in terms ber, which former President
ing are still shaped by its When Beard threatened to The church burned down of an African-American Barack Obama designat-
definition as a male thing. tell one troll’s mother what in 2006, leaving only the institution, it is really under- ed Gospel Music Heritage
In the book’s second half he’d tweeted, he said sorry exterior walls. served.” Jackson is leading Month.q