Link: The Spectrum of Women and Death
Women are the dead. Women care for the dead. Women advocate for the dead. Throughout history, women’s roles related to death have ranged from passive victims posed for men’s entertainment, to caretakers of the dead, to advocates and activists fighting for the right of the dead to justice or just a decent burial. In some ways, the roles women have with regards to death through the centuries have been a reflection of women’s roles in society. However, even during times when women were passive victims, there have been portrayals of women taking a more active role in advocating for the dying. The remainder of this paper will discuss three specific ways women’s association with death has been portrayed: titillating object, caretaker, and activist.
As part of my Death and the Maiden course at Marian University, I explored the roles related to death that women fill including being titillating objects, caretakers, and activists.