The Statue of the Goddess Sakhmet and Gendering of Orientalism

The Statue of the Goddess Sakhmet and Gendering of Orientalism
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The Statue of the Goddess Sakhmet and Gendering of Orientalism
Gendering Orientalism focuses on the contribution of women in contrast to imperialism's cultural histories. According to Lewis (2013), there is a need to challenge the masculinity assumptions that make up the homogeneity and stability of the Orientalist gaze. By looking at the Oriental Gendering of other societies by the English traveler and tourist, we see a level of degradation of the ‘other’ women, which most readers do not see. This is important because it provides the impression that English women live in a better society, not constrained by patriarchal structures. In this view, the current paper challenges these assumptions by highlighting the religious, social, and historical significance of Goddess Sakhmet on issues of Oriental Gendering.
The Statue of the Goddess Sakhmet
The Egyptian goddess Sakhmet was a goddess of destruction. Myth has it that she was the fiery eye of Ra and was responsible for attacking and destroying enemies. Figure 1 in the Appendix section represents one of the many statues depicting the goddess. Curved out of granite, the sculpture is carved from granite into a lioness-headed woman alongside lines indicating a muzzle and ruff (just like the male lion) (Ciaccia, 2021). She carries small intense eyes on top of prominent sinewy jaws that depict her potential for vicious violence. Also referred to as the mighty one, she is among the oldest and most sacred Egyptian deities. As a goddess of healing and destruction, she was considered a warrior, contrary to the prevalent modern gendering of roles. Though ferocious like the lioness, Sakhmet is a protector, a healer, and a nurturer of her loved one. As Scott III (2007) argued, her potential for violence and love in equal measure is a sign that the role of women in ancient Egyptian society was venerated and valued, contrary to popular discourse in Western societies.
Connection Between the Statue and Gendering of Orientation
In England, Ciaccia (2021) argued that village or lower-class women lived in the form of idleness and seclusion, which became the symbol of Asian women. Thus, travelers and tourists tended to ignore the female population in the lands they travelled in because such women could easily be likened to the lower-class or village women of England. Talking about Martineu, Ciaccia (2021, p. 84) argued that she saw the women in other societies as “lacking morals” and leading an unhealthy confined life of idleness. Even where the ‘othered’ women are engaging with their cultural beauty products, they are perceived as though their practice is offensive. As such, these ‘othered’ women from non-English societies are likened to English prostitutes and, therefore, can...