Race, Gender, Nations, and Politics through Women’s Bodies: The Female Combatants (1776)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47611/jsrhs.v11i2.2536Keywords:
Women, Political Cartoons, Stereotypes, American Revolution, Abu Ghraib, MediaAbstract
Political cartoons have long been regarded as a significantly influential medium of media throughout the American Revolution. The subjects of these cartoons are often embodiments of political and racial stereotypes prevalent in Britain and America during the Revolution era. However, the role of feminine figures illustrated as ‘vessels’ embodying countries or symbols communicating said stereotypes in early American prints remains considerably broad, thus perpetuating the need for further research regarding this phenomenon. This paper aims first to understand the political cartoon scheme in America during the War of Independence, as well as analyze symbols within the political cartoon, The Female Combatants (1776), to consider how interpretations of popular female allegories affect how nations, race, and power are shown in political cartoons. In establishing the relevance of these findings in modern media, this paper extends the conclusions of gender-based models in political cartoons to understand the depiction of female combatants in the leaked Abu Ghraib prison scandal images. The findings of this study concluded that because womanly figures are often tied to notions of nationalism, female representations of nations are used in the media to express various symbolic elements that represent power in gender, race, and politics in a way that connects with existing schemas regarding women.
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