A Walk Through Riverside

Riverside Cemetery brochure exterior.

Riverside Cemetery Brochure interior

Bob Dylan sings, "The times they are a changin'," and I suppose he's correct, to a certain extent.  He is Bob Dylan.  However, the walk through Riverside Cemetery last week proved that, while Dylan might be right, the times are a changin', some things, no matter how offensive and wrong, still stay the same.  Exactly the same.

I was thinking of this while standing next to the grave of the so-called first female mayor in Canada, Eunace Knight Wishart .  Despite her dedication to politics and her emphasis on 'the Issues', Wishart is remembered mostly by the flamboyantly exuberant hats she wore in public; in other words, her fashion sense.

A hat Eunice might have worn had she been alive today.  (Lady Gaga)

 Gender theorists, critics, fledgling feminists, and intuitive teenagers will tell you that identifying a woman in terms of supposedly feminine traits is trend throughout history.  Politics was a man's business, because men were more rational, more serious, and capable of making the hard decisions.  Politics was a masculine career choice.  Because femininity is defined in opposition to masculinity, it can be assumed and documented that women's business was domestic.  Women's business was always related to frivolous senitimentality, because women were thought to be of the emotional, fragile, fairer sex.  Hence, women who entered a man's world, if they were granted entrance to a man's world, had to compensate for her position.  She had to reaffirm her feminity.  The media would therefore focus on the way she performed feminity: was her platform maternal or caring in any way?  Was she driven to tears by the stresses of the board room?  What was she wearing?

These are not just historical conclusions though.  Women are still judged along similar gender lines in present day if they have managed to penetrate the so-called man's world.  Hillary Clinton was criticized during the previous election for being ugly and shrewish, because she wasn't performing gender norms by behaving like a softspoken coquette or a misinformed punchline to a political joke not worth asking like Sara Palin, whose emphasis on family and fashion made her a much more likeable candidate.  Politics are not the only realm permeated by sexism.  When complimenting a mother on her infant son, people will use terms like 'strong', 'big', 'handsome', terms that denote the physical prowess and strength to face the harshness of the world.  Infant girls are complimented with softer, gentler terms like 'pretty', 'small', fragile', terms that denote a frailness unfit for the evils of the world and deserving of protection.  Role models are are indicative of this gender divide: boys are offered superheroes with both brains and brawn, while girls are targetted by materialistic and artistic pacifists.

 Another gendered moment came at the grave of Mary Riter Hamilton.  Even though her grave dubs her a battlefield artist, Hamilton was actually forbidden to pursue such a profession because of her sex.  Undeterred by this, she honed her skills in France and was eventually awarded a grant to paint battle scenes during WWII.  She was dubbed retrospectively by the generous donors of Thunder Bay who ensured that her grave was properly marked.  Her artwork was controversial, not in the least because she was a woman.  The portrait she donated to the city of Thunder Bay was hidden away for a number of years because it was deemed to vulgar for public viewing.  At first, I thought the portrait was of a grisly battle scene or a mass grave, something that could have inspired the current Saw franchise.  I was disappointed to find that her banned portrait is of a woman nursing a child.

Just as Wishart was associated with fashion during her political campaign, breastfeeding remains a target for social stigma.  Two years ago, a woman was forced to nurse her child in the change rooms of a Vancouver clothing store, because she was apparently disturbing the other customers.  In retaliation, a group of mothers in the community rallied together and had a 'nurse-in', where they all went to the store and nursed their children.  A similar protest was staged in Vermont outside Delta Airlines when a nursing mother and her family were removed from a plane.  At first, I must admit I shared in this stigma, but when I gave it some serious thought, I realized that this stigma is oppressive and denigrating to mothers.  It seeks to vulgarize and ostracize a perfectly natural act between mother and child and conforms to archaic beliefs about the female body needing to be hidden, protected, and enclosed.  I'm looking forward to getting a photograph of Hamilton's portrait during the tour of Thunder Bay next semester.

And so, with all due respect, Mr. Dylan, the times might be a-changin', but in some ways, they're a-staying the same.