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From Rome’s ideal woman to Medusa and the Stone Butch: Challenging a conventional Classics curriculum
By UCL CHE, on 10 June 2024
by Poppy Shortmoor and Ella Bosworth-Gerbino (Department of Greek and Latin)
What was Rome’s ideal woman? Selflessness, sexuality, and dependency on men – these were the values that coloured the depiction of female characters in Roman epic, mythology, and elegy.
But this idealised helplessness of women in Roman literature is juxtaposed against their real economic liberties, where there was much more freedom and agency than is generally believed.
The mausoleum of Ummidia Quadratilla, a wealthy Roman woman whom we featured in our paper.
Our paper, titled “How the Economic Role of Roman Women both Challenges and Conforms to Literary Ideals”, focused on this juxtaposition, and was one of many presented at this year’s Greek and Latin Speaker Series, titled New Frontiers in the Ancient World.
The Speaker Series, organised this year by Mairead McAuley and Ronald Chiu, aims to diversify the curriculum and encourage students to explore new perspectives with regards to Classics.
Placing student work front and centre
Student participants volunteered to give a short lecture on a topic of their choosing within the themes of sexuality, gender, identity, race, and otherness.
After participants had their abstract approved, they independently researched and created their presentations over a few weeks. These projects covered topics like femininity in Sumerian literature, sexuality in Greek art, and feminist analyses of mythology and theatre.
A commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion is at the centre of this year’s Speaker Series. This focus allows for new topics not commonly discussed to be introduced to students, which hopefully will aid the process of broadening the wider curriculum.
Additionally, it highlights what students are interested in, fostering a more welcoming environment and allowing new perspectives into the discussion on the ancient world.
This interest in diversity was particularly evident in the wide variety of talks from other students. Not only were they able to explore their own interests, as we were, but also to illuminate topics that other participants might not have been aware of before.
Karen Guo’s talk “I petrify: Medusa and the Stone Butch” was a particular standout.
Bringing together contemporary queer theory and ancient mythology, she discussed parallels between the concept of the Stone Butch popularised by Feinberg in the late twentieth century, and the themes of sexuality in Medusa’s story.
Benvenuto Cellini’s Perseus and the Head of Medusa. Photo by Álvaro Rotellar on Unsplash
Mitigating historical bias on modern literary reception
Our own paper was illustrated through an exploration of the historic figures including Ummidia Quadratilla and other Roman women.
Together, we set out a rough plan of our presentation, then went on to conduct our research separately before combining our arguments.
Ultimately, we reached the conclusion that it is important – when studying classics – not to take literature as unequivocal, historical fact, due to its intrinsic links to the ideals of its time and culture.
This topic was particularly interesting to both of us, because, as women studying in a traditionally male dominated field, we understand the importance of recognising the impacts of historical bias on modern literary reception, and of highlighting female history.
Exploring student interests beyond modules
The Speaker Series gave us an opportunity to explore our subjects outside of the modules available in the Greek and Latin department.
Being able to investigate a particular area of Classics that we are especially interested in, we were able to develop a sense of independence within our studies. In particular, the Speaker Series allowed us to develop skills that we have not had much opportunity to exercise as of yet.
Additionally, as we both plan on going into higher education, this project has provided an invaluable introduction into a more self-directed line of study, giving us skills that will no doubt be useful in our educational journey.
Poppy Shortmoor is a second year ancient world student who is planning on doing a masters in economic and social history and is particularly interested in the economy of the early Roman imperial era. Ella Bosworth Gerbino is a 2nd year French and Latin student who is planning on going into teaching and is interested in the modern reception of classics.
