Amazons of the Bow: A Sketch at an Archery Meeting
Title
Amazons of the Bow: A Sketch at an Archery Meeting
Description
This sketch of a shooting match between female archers conveys the competitive impulse that women could express through athletic prowess. The four women in the foreground appear determined and in command as they take aim, poised to demonstrate their skill with the archery equipment. The use of "Amazons" (a tribe of mythological female warriors) in the title references a model of the female body that is powerful, muscular, and fiercely threatening to men (although the conventionally feminine corsets and bustles in which these "Amazons of the bow" are attired veils such an athleticized embodiment).
However, the image itself is visually 'threatening' as the archers aim outwards at the viewer (a contrast from the majority of images which depict archers in profile, for example, see item: "The Fair Toxophilites: English Archers"). Their aggressive stance toward the imagined audience of the illustration upends feminist theorist Laura Mulvey's ideas about the male gaze in which the act of looking is controlling and objectifying of the passive female form (see: "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema"). Interestingly, there are no men in the image itself; instead we are shown a scene of women taking pleasure in looking at other women as they display athletic prowess.
However, the image itself is visually 'threatening' as the archers aim outwards at the viewer (a contrast from the majority of images which depict archers in profile, for example, see item: "The Fair Toxophilites: English Archers"). Their aggressive stance toward the imagined audience of the illustration upends feminist theorist Laura Mulvey's ideas about the male gaze in which the act of looking is controlling and objectifying of the passive female form (see: "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema"). Interestingly, there are no men in the image itself; instead we are shown a scene of women taking pleasure in looking at other women as they display athletic prowess.
Creator
Lucien Davis
Source
Supplement to the Illustrated London News
Publisher
http://www.angelpig.net/victorian/archerygallery.html
Date
October 3, 1885
Rights
© Look and Learn
Type
Lithograph
Identifier
Periodical illustration
Citation
Lucien Davis, “Amazons of the Bow: A Sketch at an Archery Meeting,” The Victorian Sportswoman Visual Archive, accessed January 2, 2025, https://victoriansportswomen.newmedialab.cuny.edu/items/show/332.
Item Relations
| This Item | Compare to | Item: The Fair Toxophilites: English Archers, Nineteenth Century |