Returning to St Albans Museum + Gallery after the popularity of her previous talk, "Economica: A Global History of of Women, Wealth and Power" academic Victoria Bateman returns to ask is it right that, despite the promises of feminism, women’s bodies remain at the mercy of state, society and religion? Should a scantily clad woman, or a “promiscuous” one, be worth less than a fully covered woman, or a chaste one? Are being sexy and being smart really mutually exclusive?
Victoria Bateman has confronted these questions with actions as well as words – using her body, as well as her brain, to deliver her message.
In this talk, she illustrates the swinging pendulum of bodily modesty through the ages, taking us on a journey from the ancient civilisations of Egypt and Babylon, through the birth of Christianity and Islam, to the lax morals of the medieval period and the bawdiness of Chaucer and Shakespeare; to the clampdowns of the Puritans and later the Victorians and the purity pledges of modern-day America. She ends with a plea: feminists must unite to challenge the repression of the female body, as only then can women be truly free.
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