< previous page | page_138 | next page > | |||||||||
Page 138 dressed in a dark red velvet gown similar to those modeled by the aspiring Lady Macbeths in Tatler. Writing about this image, reporters use the words “elegant,” “regal,” and “glamorous.” Robin Givhan of The Washington Post says, It is a portrait loaded with subtext: a scorned woman victorious. … This cover, which combines statesmanlike grandeur with womanly elegance and restrained chic, suggests self-assurance— politically, personally, and physically. (1998) Quoting Givhan, Hugh Davies of the London Daily Telegraph notes that “becoming a cover woman was also a natural progression for the former bespectacled ‘policy wonk’ once described as ‘the Lady Macbeth of Little Rock’’’ (Davies 1998). Lady Macbeth continues to figure our society’s conflicted admiration for and fear of women’s rights, power, and professional success. She frightens us, as she frightened our forebears, because of her perceived ability to empower the feminine while disempowering the masculine. Looking at cultural perceptions of a figure like Lady Macbeth over a period of years helps us to tease out notions of gender that construct us as much as we have constructed them. Notes
|
|||||||||||
< previous page | page_138 | next page > |