As Roe is overturned, Kelsey Ables of the Washington Post describes how she turned to the 1789 painting “The Lictors Bringing Brutus the Bodies of his Sons” for solace.
On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Roe vs Wade that the United States Constitution conferred the right to choose to have an abortion. This decision struck down state abortion regulations and made abortion legal across the entire U.S.
However, on June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade, putting abortion rights back in the hands of states. Some states immediately made abortion illegal, other states have plans to make it illegal soon, and many other states will keep abortion legal.
Women across the country were devastated, with some reporting ghost cramps, headaches, and nausea. When Mrs. Ables heard the news, she reported feeling her throat tighten and that she suddenly felt heavier, “… like you might in a car accelerating too quickly.” Opposers of Roe said the strong reactions were hysterical, or overreactions. Mrs. Ables says, “For many women, this sort of criticism is all too familiar. We [women] are used to our emotions being dismissed, mocked, or used against us, considered a sign of weakness.”
This was why I was surprised to see her turn to Jacques-Louis David’s “The Lictors Bringing Brutus the Bodies of his Sons.” At first glance, this painting seems to only support sexist stereotypes. This is further bolstered by the fact that this painting was created as propaganda praising sacrifice on the eve of the French Revolution.
As the story goes, Brutus, after assassinating Julius Caesar and bringing in the new Roman republic, found out his sons were conspiring to overthrow the new republic and bring back the monarchy. He condemned them to execution, thus saving the republic at the cost of his own family. In the painting, the grieving women represent the perils of your emotions.
However, Ables wasn’t convinced that was David’s point, even after seeing the 146 square feet painting at the Louvre earlier this year. As she heard about the mothers of shooting victims and the calls to protect the women and children in Ukraine, “… those women kept coming back to me… I couldn’t help thinking that so often women, like those in ‘The Lictors’, are the ones doing the protecting – by bearing the emotional burden for everyone else.
“And when Roe was overturned,” she writes, “I found validation in their warrior-like approach to emotion — how the women in the painting made giving one’s body over to anger, shock and grief look not weak, but brave. How through the act of feeling, they seemed to claim their bodies as their own.”
Kelsey Ables has transferred a completely new meaning onto the 1789 painting “The Lictors Bring to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons” in wake of the overturn of Roe vs Wade. May society learn to no longer criticize emotion, but to accept it. As Ables writes, “If we take cues from this painting — where stoicism has been pushed to the shadows, leaving emotion in the light — we might revere not those who simply carry on with their duties in the wake of trauma and injustice, but those who interrupt them.”
Original Article: https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1657493098828x406846312015330750/The%20grieving%20women%20in%20this%2018th%20century%20painting%20have%20a%20lesson%20for%20us%20-%20The%20Washington%20Post.pdf
Supporting Articles:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lictors_Bring_to_Brutus_the_Bodies_of_His_Sons
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lictors_Bring_to_Brutus_the_Bodies_of_His_Sons#/media/File:David_Brutus.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roe_v._Wade
On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Roe vs Wade that the United States Constitution conferred the right to choose to have an abortion. This decision struck down state abortion regulations and made abortion legal across the entire U.S.
However, on June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade, putting abortion rights back in the hands of states. Some states immediately made abortion illegal, other states have plans to make it illegal soon, and many other states will keep abortion legal.
Women across the country were devastated, with some reporting ghost cramps, headaches, and nausea. When Mrs. Ables heard the news, she reported feeling her throat tighten and that she suddenly felt heavier, “… like you might in a car accelerating too quickly.” Opposers of Roe said the strong reactions were hysterical, or overreactions. Mrs. Ables says, “For many women, this sort of criticism is all too familiar. We [women] are used to our emotions being dismissed, mocked, or used against us, considered a sign of weakness.”
This was why I was surprised to see her turn to Jacques-Louis David’s “The Lictors Bringing Brutus the Bodies of his Sons.” At first glance, this painting seems to only support sexist stereotypes. This is further bolstered by the fact that this painting was created as propaganda praising sacrifice on the eve of the French Revolution.
As the story goes, Brutus, after assassinating Julius Caesar and bringing in the new Roman republic, found out his sons were conspiring to overthrow the new republic and bring back the monarchy. He condemned them to execution, thus saving the republic at the cost of his own family. In the painting, the grieving women represent the perils of your emotions.
However, Ables wasn’t convinced that was David’s point, even after seeing the 146 square feet painting at the Louvre earlier this year. As she heard about the mothers of shooting victims and the calls to protect the women and children in Ukraine, “… those women kept coming back to me… I couldn’t help thinking that so often women, like those in ‘The Lictors’, are the ones doing the protecting – by bearing the emotional burden for everyone else.
“And when Roe was overturned,” she writes, “I found validation in their warrior-like approach to emotion — how the women in the painting made giving one’s body over to anger, shock and grief look not weak, but brave. How through the act of feeling, they seemed to claim their bodies as their own.”
Kelsey Ables has transferred a completely new meaning onto the 1789 painting “The Lictors Bring to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons” in wake of the overturn of Roe vs Wade. May society learn to no longer criticize emotion, but to accept it. As Ables writes, “If we take cues from this painting — where stoicism has been pushed to the shadows, leaving emotion in the light — we might revere not those who simply carry on with their duties in the wake of trauma and injustice, but those who interrupt them.”
Original Article: https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1657493098828x406846312015330750/The%20grieving%20women%20in%20this%2018th%20century%20painting%20have%20a%20lesson%20for%20us%20-%20The%20Washington%20Post.pdf
Supporting Articles:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lictors_Bring_to_Brutus_the_Bodies_of_His_Sons
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lictors_Bring_to_Brutus_the_Bodies_of_His_Sons#/media/File:David_Brutus.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roe_v._Wade
