Of Archetypes, Feminine and Otherwise
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I was intrigued by Willa Paskin's take-down of Naomi Wolf's latest in Harper’s Bazaar and entirely primed to read an annoying "absurd, overwrought, swooning love letter to Angelina Jolie, the woman who, in Wolf’s analysis, most fully embodies "having it all," as Paskin put it. But I think Wolf actually has a point. Jolie has managed to successfully create an archetypic persona, Wolf writes, "one that really, for the first time in modern culture, brings together almost every aspect of female empowerment and liberation." To put it more directly—she manages to successfully combine a vast array of different female archetypes that have historically been seen as being incompatible with each other.
Wolf writes:
So you can be respected as a symbol of goodness (Florence Nightingale, Mother Teresa) but not, obviously, be seen as sexual. You can have a hot sex life (Marlene Dietrich) but not at the same time be seen as a symbol of goodness. You can't get away with it. (Somehow, when an icon who was at once both a sexual being and engaged in good deeds died in a violent accident—Princess Di, of course—the story had a kind of terrible narrative inevitability.) You can take a lover—and even be a home wrecker—but not claim the hope of being seen as a good mom (Madame Bovary, Elizabeth Taylor). You can't get away with it. You can have money, fame, and a dazzling career, but you must surely be depressed, drug addicted, lonely, or self-destructive (Jacqueline Susann, Marilyn Monroe). You can't get away with it.
The magic of Jolie's self-presentation? She makes the claim, with her life and actions, that, indeed, you can get away with it. All of it. Against every Western convention, she has managed to draw together all of these kinds of female liberation and empowerment.
But you don't have to look to historic figures like Dietrich or Monroe or Nightingale to see famous women still struggling to combine it all. Just look at Sarah Palin.
Like Jolie, Palin flies a plane, has a greater than average number of kids, a good-looking husband, beauty-pageant good looks, a hair and make-up team (at least during the campaign), an international profile, and the ability to command extraordinary levels of media attention. Unlike Jolie, however, Palin cannot seem to get away with anything. Some of this may be the result of their handlers—Jolie, as the far richer of the two, can afford more people and appears to have a more sophisticated media team for her arena than Palin does for hers—and some the result of their different politics and lifestyle choices. Some of it likely has to do with their different manners of speaking—folksy versus sophisticated—and Jolie's greater gift for mythmaking self-display, as well.
But a large part of it, surely, has to do with the fact that, as women have transitioned into new roles over the past century, we've wound up with two systems in which they can operate—what I've come to think of as the system of power and the system of beauty. Most actresses succeed first within the system of beauty, moving later into roles where they take on other forms of power as directors, studio owners, or crusaders for various causes.
Most women in politics, in contrast, begin within the system of power—a system from which women have historically been excluded. Jolie may look like she's "got it all," but she's still combining mainly female archetypes as an emissary from the system of beauty. And she's most prominently an international spokeswoman for children who are displaced victims of conflict—the kind of work traditionally done by first ladies more than presidents. (That's not to say she's not having a powerful impact; my friends in the international development arena tell me she's had one.) She dresses beautifully, is a clothing spokesmodel, a movie star.
But Palin is a governor—the first female chief executive of the most male-dominated state in the nation—and was trying to be the first female vice president. She has tried and still tries to meld archetypically masculine roles with traditionally feminine ones while contending for prominence within the system of power—a much tougher challenge, and one that leads to things like cracks about her "slutty flight attendant" look from the likes of David Letterman (among many other things). Remember the controversy of Hillary Clinton's hint of cleavage? Or how the then-Mary Bono traded in her long California hair for a severe brunette 'do after taking her husband's slot in office? (She's since let it grow long again.)
Women in politics by and large practice the politics of physical negation, where an early goal is finding a look that's pleasantly unremarkable, so people can focus on the words and work. There are consultants who work with women leaders around the globe to help them find these happy middle-grounds. The higher they ascend, the more the problem created by the simultaneous need for erasure and visibility recurs.
In the past, there has been chatter about Jolie toying with a bid for office. It would be a true test of her abilities if she could make the transition to the much harsher system of power while preserving her present persona. I suspect, however, even she would have trouble holding all her archetypes together if she did so.
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With a rush of energy through
By: tominsjones | Tue, 07/28/2009 - 03:29
With a rush of energy through my bodybeing, I understood for the first time that I had, without realizing it, actually invoked the feminine archetypal energies with the "Four Faces" work. Nowhere in any of the literature on feminine archetypes had I read about anyone invoking these energies for healing, individuation, or spiritual awakening. People wrote about how these archetypal energies affected women, their dreams, and how the archetypes expressed in women's lives in both their positive and shadow aspects. They wrote about the consequences of being taken over by a particular archetype, of being possessed or inflated by an archetype, as well as what it was like when one of the energies was deficient. In fact, there were cautions about getting too close to these archetypal fires. No one spoke of these energies in terms of initiation, or as portals to the essential Self, paths to the center. I felt as if I were on the edge of an exciting new discovery, as well as something being re-membered.
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These four feminine
By: tominsjones | Tue, 07/28/2009 - 03:28
These four feminine archetypes are, in fact, portals to the essential Self, our True Nature. When we enter, and embrace each initiation given, we are led to direct experience of the Divine Feminine, and the formless, essential, Ground of Being. Later it became clear that the Queen needed to be added to the circle.
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suspect,
By: loulou | Sun, 07/26/2009 - 19:01
I suspect, however, even she would have trouble holding all her archetypes together if she did so i think so
Angelina? Really?
By: rcp206 | Mon, 06/15/2009 - 08:43
I've always had a hard time reconciling Ms. Jolie's high approval ratings with the data I've gathered from my female friends and family - in fact, I can't think of a single woman I know who likes her. I refuse to believe that our collective disdain for this women is a side effect of being threatened by some new, superior feminine archetype. In fact, it's a crushing disappointment to me that anyone - much less someone I thought was a serious voice on such topics, like Wolf - would set up Angelina Jolie as someone I should admire. Nevermind the repusliveness of her plucking children from their families and cultures, or the presumptuousness of an actress who insists she's qualified in the field of international relations. The real issue is that Jolie's life is totally irrelevant to the lives of real women: of course she "has it all" - she can *afford* to have it all. Everyone - NOT just women - makes difficult choices when they have limited resources. What is a woman supposed to do if she wants a big family, but both she and her husband have to work full time to support the household, and can't afford an army of nannies to take care of the kids? What if she wants to be independent, but can't afford to buy her own plane? What if she doesn't weigh 100 pounds after giving birth to twins?
Palin's politics may be disagreeable, but at least she's a somewhat realistic example. I don't need to agree with her politics to acknowledge that she's tackled the "have it all" challenge fairly well...and she's not even a movie star.
Women Always Leverage Their Looks - SarahPalin
By: Shasta | Fri, 06/12/2009 - 18:33
Both you and Wolf have good points; however, I completely agree with you that Angelina has leveraged her looks to become the embodiment of ... whatever. Women are still beholden to their looks. Anyone who denies it most likely resembles Angelina, which brings us to the topic of Mrs. Palin.
Sarah Palin, like Angelina, has leveraged her looks and is doing her best to have it every way. I suppose who can fault her. She is ruthlessly ambitious and like men who use everything in their tool kit to suceed, she is doing the same. We, particularly women, though, shouldn't be fooled into thinking this is some feminist ideal we need to defend. Live by the Sword. Die by the Sword. But don't play the feminist card when it's convenient.
Sarah Palin is no Hillary Clinton
By: brimful | Fri, 06/12/2009 - 16:19
Women surely have a much harder time getting ahead in politics than men. That being said, however, Sarah Palin is a terrible example of the principle. I'm surprised you could note her "inability to get away with anything" without immediately mentioning her amazing ability to stick her own foot in her own mouth and her demonstrated inability to provide coherent answers to softball interview questions such as "Which newspapers do you read?" Media sexism isn't the reason much of the country thinks Sarah Palin is an empty suit - she has only herself to blame for that.