Ladies of Liberty

 This post is intended mainly for my American readers as I know there are more than a few worries about what happens after January 20th.

In Milan last month I went to look for a statue that is said to be the (or one of the) inspirations for the Statue of Liberty. The statue is on the outside of Milan cathedral. I was worried it might take me a while to find as Milan cathedral is a colossus among places of worship (for centuries it was the largest cathedral anywhere*) and it has thousands of statues and carved figures. I've heard many numbers but they seem to be settling on 3400 statues, 700 other carved figures and 135 gargoyles. Potentially a long hunt, therefore. But I needn't have worried: the statue I was looking for is right in the centre of the main façade. (And if you're from the US, sorry for writing centre and not center but I learned my English in Britain and they can't spell ;-) )

Here she is:

 

Apart from leaning on a cross rather than holding a book, and holding an oil lamp not a torch, she is very like Lady Liberty, isn't she? She is "The New Law" sculpted by Camillo Pacetti in 1810 and stands just above the central door with her companion, "The Old Law", on the other side of the window.

 

It's easy to assume that Auguste Bartholdi* copied this statue for his Statue of Liberty. I'm a bit sceptical as there are genuine coincidences in art and I can't help feeling that Eugène Delacroix's famous painting Liberty Guiding the People (1830) is more likely to be the main inspiration:

Who can say? 

* St Peter's in the Vatican is larger but was built later and is a church not a cathedral (technical point). Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi also used the pseudonym Amilcar Hasenfratz. That's a way better name!

The point is that I did this sightseeing exercise because I am distressed about the state of liberty in the world at present and obviously in the USA specifically. All the US bloggers I read, especially Hannah, Stana and Marian, have made their worries about the trans community under Trump quite clear and I share those worries. 

I was brought up under pretty brutal ideologies: cultish religion and extremist politics. I have been coming to terms with this and pushing against it for 30 years. I will be offering some advice in the next few weeks on how to understand and fight extremists who have phobic agendas. I'm only a trans woman with a blog but maybe any little helps against the potential enormity of the chaos and instability that might come and that we are already seeing with ongoing nationalist and religious ideologies in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Brexit Britain, the South China Seas... 

That said, the self-absorbtion and general incompetence of the Trumpite top brass and the amorphousness and flexible living of the trans community may be saving graces here.

 

Shoutout

I promised Emily Shorette I'd do a shoutout for her blog, Emily's Virtual Rocket (https://emilysvirtualrocket.blogspot.com/) which is full of trans-related news. It's US-oriented, hence the relevance to this post.

Sue x