On a recent trip to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, we saw some rather grisly little depictions of the torture of St. Barbara, one of the many blonde virgin saints who were given over to ghastly bodily maltreatment by fathers who wanted to force them to marry, possibly themselves (a theme treated very well in
Deerskin). Passing over the question of why on earth it would be better to torture your daughter to death publicly rather "accidentally" poison her and make it look like the wrath of your own pagan gods, it struck me that poor St. Barbara, with her stunning good looks, "dream" bathhouse, and exciting adventures was a forerunner of the Barbie doll.
Ok, this is a ridiculous theory, and it has nothing to do with the more official stories:
http://sill-www.army.mil/pao/pabarbar.htm
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02284d.htm
Although one might suggest that the association between Barbie and GI Joe could somehow be traced to St. Barbara's connection to the military and cannons. Again, a silly theory, but entertaining to bruit about over one too many glasses of merlot.
Interestingly, a St. Barbara parish in Massachusetts has an entry "what time is 9 o-clock mass?"
http://www.rc.net/boston/st_barbara/index.htm
2 comments:
This father-killing-misbehaving-daughter idea makes me think of Emilia Galotti, the heroine of G.E. Lessing's drama of the same name (1772). She provokes her father into killing her, rather than giving in to the advances of the prince who has some rather immoral ideas about her. Of course, this being an enlightenment play, it's really about the power of the absolute ruler destroying middle-class happiness, but I still remember that when I first read it, I was thinking "What a stupid girl!" I am not very enlightened, I suppose.
I think the whole notion of princes with immoral ideas had been highly romanticized. Look at the Walt Disney Studios roster of films, for example.
But then, what do I know?
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