What Does the Moon Symbolize in the Art of the Guerrilla Girls
By Morgan Elyse.
♀: you lot meet it everywhere – from book covers, to necklaces, to advertisements – and always in reference to the female gender – the UMKC Women's Middle even uses it in the logo for our CineWomen event. These days the symbol for the female gender is a representation of feminism, the pride in being a woman, and the pride in sisterhood. In that location are likewise versions of the male and female gender symbols which represent pride for a diversity of sexual orientations, i.e., a figure with 2 linked male symbols is an icon used by homosexual men, a figure with the wearer's gender centered between a male person and a female symbol represents bisexuality, the transgender customs uses a couple of adaptations that fuse together both symbols as well as adopting the sign for Mercury in favor of Linnaeus' meaning (see nautical chart), etc., etc.
Nigh of usa are well aware of what these emblems signify in today's culture, simply where on earth did they come from? Well, they came from infinite, actually; Venus and Mars, to be verbal. 
If you lot perform an internet search on the origin of the symbols, you will come beyond a plethora of explanations, some as misguided and offensive as "Ten marks the spot where pointy things go", merely virtually of which reference Greek mythology. William T. Stearn'due south 1962 article,"The Origin of the Male and Female Symbols of Biological science," published by the International Clan for Plant Taxonomy's periodical, Taxon, gives u.s. a comprehensive account of how these symbols and their uses have evolved since 5th century BCE.
| The Symbol | The Celestial Body/god(dess) | The Metallic | Elemental Abbreviations | Linnaean Properties |
| ☉ | The Sunday | Golden | Au | Almanac |
| ☽ | The Moon | Silver | Ag | (non used) |
| ♄ | Saturn | Lead | Pb | Woody |
| ♃ | Jupiter | Tin can | Sn | Perennial |
| ♂ | Mars | Fe | Fe | Male person/ |
| ☿ | Mercury | Mercury | Hg | Hermaphrodite |
| ♀ | Venus | Copper | Cu | Female person |
Found carved in ancient stone, the Greek symbols in the chart above were used to reference the heavenly bodies as well as their corresponding gods and goddesses.
The same signs were later used every bit autograph in the practise of alchemy and even after in chemistry. Prior to Berzelius' abbreviations for the Latin word for each chemical element (which remain on the periodic table today), each planetary character represented a different metal. So what does that have to do with gender other than the fact that Venus was a woman and Mars was her male counterpart/love interest? Eighteenth century botanist, Carl Linnaeus was actually the kickoff in recorded history to use these symbols in reference to gender. Linnaeus also used them every bit shorthand, but to represent different backdrop of his botanical specimens rather than metals.
Stearn also references the work of French scholar Claudius Salmasius in what he calls a more "academically acceptable" theory of the origin of the symbols. Salmasius explains that ♃, ♄, ♂, ☿, and ♀ all derive from contractions in Greek script which were used as abbreviations for the names of Greek gods but accept, over so much fourth dimension, come to form the pictographs we encounter today. Renkema illustrated this phenomenon:
from "The Origin of the Male and Female person Symbols of Biological science" by William T. Stearn.
Taxon , Vol. 11, No. iv (May, 1962), pp. 109-113.
Stearn also mentions a "less" academically acceptable theory (equally exercise many other cyberspace sources), which is that each symbol illustrates a physical attribute of each god and goddess, i.e., Mars' shield and spear, Venus' hand mirror, Mercury's winged helmet, Saturn'due south scythe, Jupiter's lightning commodities, etc.
Information technology's been more than than fifty years since this commodity was published, and Stearn's article is the only scholarly work I could find on this subject – and information technology still sort of leaves united states questioning whether the metamorphosing script theory or the illustrative traits of the gods theory is more accurate. Personally, particularly when taking in to consideration the symbol for the sun and the moon, as well equally the symbol for Neptune being an unmistakable trident, the pictographic illustration seems much more valid.
Despite its ostensible sensibility even so, this concept leaves me with yet another question: If nosotros feminists are flaunting about a manus mirror equally a symbol of strength, might nosotros desire to reevaluate its cogency? If you consider the mythology of Venus and how she got a raw deal just considering she was a woman and she was beautiful, in conjunction with the fact that today, women accept yet to overcome the same sexism, and you utilize this as a symbol of perseverance – then, by all ways, flaunt the $#!% out of ♀. Do you think the symbol beingness both a visual remnant of the stereotyping and gendering that women are fighting against and a textual embodiment of a goddess who undoubtedly could sympathize with our plight today (even though she didn't really overcome whatsoever of her ain), can put some positive pregnant behind information technology? Certain, I recollect it works.
Once used every bit shorthand for astronomy and the gods, so for scientific discipline, at present used as shorthand for gender disinterestedness and empowerment, the simple all the same mighty ♀ is a recognizable insignia that'southward been around for centuries and will nigh probable be for centuries to come. And then recognizable, heed you, that most of u.s. hadn't even questioned its genesis. Information technology makes me wonder, though, what all these symbols will mean, how they'll be used, or if they volition even exist in some other 2500 years.
What do the gender symbols hateful to you?
Source: https://info.umkc.edu/womenc/2013/06/25/what-do-our-gender-symbols-really-mean/
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