After Russia invaded in late February, women and children left Ukraine by the millions in the world’s largest refugee crisis since World War II, forced to make the heart-wrenching decision of leaving their fathers, brothers, and husbands behind. Exactly three months later, a teenage gunman barged into an elementary school in Texas and killed 19 students and 2 teachers, leaving their mothers grieving and heartbroken. And now, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, effectively restricting abortion rights, times are looking increasingly bleak for women.
In the wake of the ruling, people posted messages on social media complaining of ghost cramps, nausea, and headaches. As Kelsey Ables of the Washington Post put it, “When I heard, my throat tightened and I suddenly felt heavier, like you might in a car accelerating too quickly.”
Almost immediately, scores of discouraging comments began to pile up, dismissing their feelings as “hysterical” overreactions. And yet, this is something all too familiar for women, having their feelings criticized and dismissed, “mocked or used against them, and considered a sign of weakness.”
In these challenging times, some found solace in a painting, titled “The Lictors Bringing Brutus the Bodies of His Sons” and painted by prominent French painter Jacques-Louis David in 1789. At first glance, one can only see its gruesome details, but once you look closely, a deeper meaning can be discerned.
To some, the painting represents an oft-repeated stereotype – Brutus, the man, watched stoically as the bodies of his sons, whom he executed for treason, were brought in, while the women “embodied the perils of letting feelings get the best of you.” But not for everyone.
For Ables, who was able to view the painting at the Louvre in Paris, it shows how the women, by giving their bodies in to their feelings of anguish, were being the ones protecting. By giving in, they were able to make a statement – that their bodies were their own.
“To me,” she said, “they represented the big parts of life that vanish with little ceremony — the door on your childhood bedroom closed for the last time, the friend you say goodbye to casually, only to lose touch for good.”
Through the painting, you can almost feel the scene – the lictors bringing in the bodies, the daughter staring at the sight of her dead brothers, the blood draining from her face, the mother lunging towards her sons.
She summed it up perfectly. “The painting tells a story about the body through the body. The story stretches from the muscular biceps of the servant in the corner, suggesting grief is a weight she has lifted before, to Brutus’s tense brows and bunched-up toes, struggling to maintain a bearable numbness.”
Then, she added, “there is a reminder: Your body, which feels so fully, is yours.”
Original article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/07/08/grieving-women-paris-painting/#:~:text=The%20grieving%20women%20in%20this%2018th%20century%20painting,His%20Sons%E2%80%99%20makes%20feeling%20the%20pain%20look%20brave
In the wake of the ruling, people posted messages on social media complaining of ghost cramps, nausea, and headaches. As Kelsey Ables of the Washington Post put it, “When I heard, my throat tightened and I suddenly felt heavier, like you might in a car accelerating too quickly.”
Almost immediately, scores of discouraging comments began to pile up, dismissing their feelings as “hysterical” overreactions. And yet, this is something all too familiar for women, having their feelings criticized and dismissed, “mocked or used against them, and considered a sign of weakness.”
In these challenging times, some found solace in a painting, titled “The Lictors Bringing Brutus the Bodies of His Sons” and painted by prominent French painter Jacques-Louis David in 1789. At first glance, one can only see its gruesome details, but once you look closely, a deeper meaning can be discerned.
To some, the painting represents an oft-repeated stereotype – Brutus, the man, watched stoically as the bodies of his sons, whom he executed for treason, were brought in, while the women “embodied the perils of letting feelings get the best of you.” But not for everyone.
For Ables, who was able to view the painting at the Louvre in Paris, it shows how the women, by giving their bodies in to their feelings of anguish, were being the ones protecting. By giving in, they were able to make a statement – that their bodies were their own.
“To me,” she said, “they represented the big parts of life that vanish with little ceremony — the door on your childhood bedroom closed for the last time, the friend you say goodbye to casually, only to lose touch for good.”
Through the painting, you can almost feel the scene – the lictors bringing in the bodies, the daughter staring at the sight of her dead brothers, the blood draining from her face, the mother lunging towards her sons.
She summed it up perfectly. “The painting tells a story about the body through the body. The story stretches from the muscular biceps of the servant in the corner, suggesting grief is a weight she has lifted before, to Brutus’s tense brows and bunched-up toes, struggling to maintain a bearable numbness.”
Then, she added, “there is a reminder: Your body, which feels so fully, is yours.”
Original article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/07/08/grieving-women-paris-painting/#:~:text=The%20grieving%20women%20in%20this%2018th%20century%20painting,His%20Sons%E2%80%99%20makes%20feeling%20the%20pain%20look%20brave
