Mary Beard delivers Alice Bacon Lecture
The annual Alice Bacon lecture, celebrating the achievements of inspiring women, resumed post-covid at the University of Leeds this autumn. Bacon, post-war Labour politician and Leeds’ first female MP, brought the experiences of working-class women into her politics and spent her life breaking barriers, reminding the public that ‘It would be a mistake to regard us as women MP’s, we are here to do all the work that a man does, and a little bit more’.
This year’s speaker was classicist, writer and TV historian Dame Professor Mary Beard.
By illustrating the culturally ingrained misogyny in historical and current society, using a plethora of classical references, Beard highlighted that the struggle for female empowerment and equality has always been difficult. But difficult does not mean impossible.
Beard, whose 2017 book Women and Power: A Manifesto sets out the long-term goal of changing the established power-structure, focussed in this talk on three encouraging pieces of advice.
She began by emphasising the importance of being optimistic and self-congratulatory about the changes we have already made. In the last century we have witnessed the success of women’s suffrage and seen three female Prime Ministers, even if one might not agree with their politics. This does not mean that all is solved, but it is important to recognise that there is an improvement to celebrate.
In my post-lecture exchange with Beard, she commended the current vogue for rewriting classical stories from the perspective of female characters, believing that they have already encouraged more young women to engage with the ancient world and adding that she hopes ‘men will read them too and think again about the classical tradition’.
Beard then stressed the importance of recognising the ‘misogyny spectrum that is all around us’. By being mindful of it, we can better understand how important it is to fight against it. She reminded the audience that even the most attuned and liberal minded sometimes fall into sexist traps. Beard gave the example of assuming that the female voice in a pilot’s announcement was that of a member of the cabin crew and not the pilot herself. That she herself had done this enabled the audience to further appreciate her overall sentiment.
A more striking example is that of Manchester Art Gallery and Waterhouse’s 1896 painting of Hylas and the Nymphs. The painting depicts a scene from classical mythology in an overtly sexualised manner, with the villainous nymphs enticing Hylas to his death. In 2018, artist Sonia Boyce, working with the gallery, temporarily removed the painting, provoking a storm of comments and criticisms. But, as Beard pointed out, the intention was never to remove the painting permanently, only to spark a conversation. And that it certainly did. The painting is now returned, but in front of it stands a display of comments from the public on what they think of both the painting and the decision to temporarily remove it.
This engagement shows that hiding these works is not the way to make progress. Instead, we need these works and we need to confront them. As Beard herself put it, ‘We won’t beat misogyny by hiding it or pretending it doesn’t exist’. We need these reminders of our past and what we are fighting against in order to maintain our efforts for the future. As Beard neatly summarised, ‘We won’t change the world from a safe space’.
The final piece of encouragement that Beard gave was that of the importance of resilience, which she described as an ‘unfashionable virtue’. Here she referred back to Bacon, who would ‘not be battered down’, and then to her own mother, describing a pub in the 1970’s in which hung the sign ‘men only’. Her mother drank defiantly under this sign until it was one day taken down. With this example, Beard reminded the audience that combating misogyny is not an easy task, but that we must be resilient enough to continue the fight with ‘all the weapons in our armoury’.
Although her rapturously received lecture did not shy away from the structural misogynistic challenges embedded in our world, there is no doubt that she left the audience feeling encouraged, inspired and, most of all, emboldened.
Featured Image Credit: BBC
