VENUSUNCHAINED
T
he year is 1914, the date 11th
March and the National Gallery
in London is manic with activity.
People look on aghast as police
drag away a woman, blade in hand.
That woman was Mary Richardson, a
militant suffragette, who had just taken
an axe to the famous Rokeby Velázquez
painting in a singular act of protest.
The mid 17th Century Spanish oil
painting of a nude Venus looking into
a mirror held by cupid was severely
damaged. Just another footnote in the
history books, along with the death of
Emily Davison and pictures of Emmeline
Pankhurst chained to railings?
Richardson said of the incident that
‘justice is an element of beauty as much as
colour and outline canvas.’ So, a century
on, has justice been achieved?
Well, in an obvious way it has. Women
in the UK can vote on equal terms with
men but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Since women were granted equal
suffrage in 1928, the feminist movement
hasn’t slowed down, it has just evolved.
The focus has shifted to campaigning on
a wider range of issues like reproductive
rights, family and workplace rights.
So, 100 years on from the butchering of
Venus, quo vadis the feminist movement?
Many would say there’s a long way to
go. Women get paid the same, right? And
there’s nothing stopping them leading
the same life as any man, right? Well no,
actually, you’re wrong.
Feminism has taken a somewhat
darker turn recently, getting down to the
root cause of a great deal of inequality
society’s inherent sexism. But rather than
taking axes to masterpieces, feminists
are now using the internet to make their
point. Like Laura Bates, founder of The
Everyday Sexism Project.
Set up in early 2012, The Project is a
website where people can a