Sex in the Roman Arena
October 18 @ 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm
AIA Society: Milwaukee
Lecturer: Alison Futrell
Although popular culture has long revered the gladiators as the manliest of Romans, posturing before howling crowds of plebeians as the rockstars of their day, the sex of gladiators as constructed by Romans is rather more complicated. This talk tackles the sexualized nuances of the arena, touching on the relative masculinity of gladiators as a group, within Roman society, as well as the how the different styles of combat demonstrated different levels of virility. And what about female performers? How did spectacularization of sex enhance demonstrations of moral and political authority by imperial sponsors? Women in the arena attracted the audience’s focus and disrupted messages of imperial power and challenged audience assumptions about strength, about blood, and about humanity.
Charles Eliot Norton Memorial Lectureship
Location TBA
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