History is how we have learnt to think about ourselves. It's not as though the Greeks and Romans are static entities out there to be discovered and translated. We make them speak, we talk to them, and they inform what we say.
Mary BeardRead
You cannot easily fit women into a structure that is already coded as male; you have to change the structure.
Interpretation
What this quote means
To include women in society, we must change existing male-centric structures rather than forcing them to adapt.
Mary Beard's quote emphasizes the need to reform systems that have been traditionally built with a male perspective in mind. Instead of expecting women to conform to these structures, true progress requires fundamentally changing the frameworks to make them more inclusive and equitable for all genders. This perspective calls for a reevaluation of cultural, social, and institutional norms that have historically marginalized women.
Themes
GenderInclusionStructureChangeEquality
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech advocating for gender equality in workplaces.
More from Mary Beard
All quotes βI don't think that we are completely dominated by what we have inherited from the past, but it is the case that as far back as you can go - just to Homer, but also to the literature of Rome, the literature of the Middle Ages and Renaissance - what you will find is that women's voices are not taken seriously.
Mary BeardRead
What politicians do is they never get the rhetoric wrong, and the price they pay is they don't speak the truth as they see it. Now, I will speak truth as I see it, and sometimes I don't get the rhetoric right. I think that's a fair trade-off.
Mary BeardRead
I'd quite like to be in Caligula's court - living in the back room somewhere and just being able to observe.
Mary BeardRead
Whatever you say about popular culture, people like people who know things, who are experts, and it doesn't particularly matter what they look like.
Mary BeardRead
There is no way, absolutely no way, that I would want people to stop reading the 'Odyssey.' But I want them to read it with their eyes open. To notice it and then to think what it says about us.
Mary BeardRead
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