Let's Bring Back Lady Columbia!

[Vogon_Glory]

Let’s bring back Lady Columbia, one of the older American avatars used to represent not only the spirit of America but also what our country represents! In these dark times she can be a symbol of who we are and what this country ought to be.

For those who don’t know, Columbia was the female figure depicted in patriotic art as rallying the patriots, being menaced by foes of freedom and the Union, and as a tool for military recruitment. She’s usually shown wearing a Phrygian cap and a red, white and blue shield. She was usually depicted as being a brown-haired Caucasian, and I’ll admit that depicting her as a light-skinned woman of Northern European ancestry is a meme that has passed.

I’m NOT suggesting using the light-skinned Lady Columbia again. If the Good Guys start using Lady Columbia, I’d call for an update. I’d say browner skin (Hey, she’s got at least some Native American ancestry. She ought to show it) and long black hair.


This might sound a bit like Wonder Woman, but she’s not. She predates Wonder Woman by at least a century, she’s in the public domain, and Donald John and his stooges can’t pressure DC Comics or DC’s owners to sue depictions of her like they can images of Diana Prince’s alter-ego.

She’s historical, she’s definitely not a straight white male nor one of those bottle blondes found in Donald John’s entourage and is a lot more inclusive than MAGA.

4 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Time expired
	Yeah, Let's Bring Back Lady Columbia! She's America, Not A Trumpie!
	3 (75%)
	Let's Not! Let's Fold Like Cheap Suits Because We're Afraid Of Offending Somebody!
	1 (25%)
	MAGA! We Don't Need No Depiction Of Strong Uppity Women!
	0 (0%)
	No, Let's Use A Cute Fluffy Bunny That Doesn't Inspire Anybody To Rally To The Cause
	0 (0%)
	No Opinion
	0 (0%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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[crud]

1. It's conflicted

The Statue of Liberty is one manifestation. But the figure was also used to glorify manifest destiny.

[Vogon_Glory]

2. Maybe, maybe not

On the other hand, I’d say that Manifest Destiny is definitely pre-1860. Aside from some parlor academics and wildly indignant ideologues (and maybe hard-core Greens), I don’t see anyone organized enough to raise a great hue and cry about Lady Columbia’s comeback.

OTOH, can you image MAGA Republicans pitching fits on Fox or Newsmax because Lady Columbia was used to promote Manifest Destiny or calling for the entire southwestern US and Texas to be returned to Mexico in Toto?

I can’t.

Also, IMO Columbia represents a more nurturing, inclusive vision of America than the swaggering, bullying loud-mouth obnoxious MAGA we’ve seen paraded in front of us these last ten years.

Can you imagine lady Columbia campaigning against health care?


I can’t?

Can you imagine Lady Columbia campaigning to stiff poor families and working parents like the MAGA hypocrites and loudmouths are?

I can’t

Can you imagine Lady Columbia putting up with the likes of the late Rush Limbaugh or his vicious successors?

I can’t.

There may be conflicts, but I donn’t think they loom as large as some might like to think.

[crud]

3. I totally get this

I have no horse in this race, this was just a minor observation after a quick search. I too wish we had a unifying focus whether it's a concept or symbol or real person.
Didn't mean to be a dipstick.

[Vogon_Glory]

7. Thanks for your input

Your earlier comment led to a happy thought: your pointing out a downside to reviving Lady Columbia made me think, then smile. For right wing-nuts, that downside you pointed out to them is unusable, at least for right wing-nuts. French reactionaries could and did say vile things about republican France’s Marianne, but Amurrican righties can’t grasp those handles.

IMO we do need a symbol, and while Lady Columbia isn’t perfect, she’s a lot better than most of the current selection our folks are using.

[MagickMuffin]

4. I looked for a good visual, I chose this one

[Vogon_Glory]

5. Good one! Thanks! n/t

[ITAL]

6. Columbia was the most common image used

Until about a hundred years ago. Uncle Sam was also used, but really exploded in popularity during and after WWI.

I've seen plenty of scholars convincingly argue Columbia fell out of favor once the 19th Amendment was passed.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

8. why tho

[Vogon_Glory]

9. I think the Good Guys need a symbol of patriotism and resistance

Lady Columbia has historically good patriotic chops and has no direct ties to the Democratic Party. IMO, I fear that Team Donkey has been saddled with a milquetost image.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

10. Columbia is not a symbol of patriotism and resistance though. She's named after a murderous rapist and

originally represented a virgin land ripe for the taking.

[Vogon_Glory]

11. It isn't? After riffing through the artwork showing Columbia

as a symbol of patriotism, you could have fooled me. Columbia as a symbol of the American nation during the Civil War, Columbia as a symbol of the American nation during World War One, all those different links and citations. I must have not only imagined them, I must have spent days, weeks, months, years busting into archives and museums and hacking into different people’s web sites and servers to support my point.

Columbia was a symbol for American identity, howbeit one that fell into disuse after Workd War One. And I doubt the reason that it did was the cultural enlightenment and sensitivity of Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover (FYI, I don’t claim that either one was enlightened or culturally sensitive, as the Nicaraguans and Dominicans found out). And if the very term Columbia is as toxic as implied, surely the toxicity must have been so profound that that country south of Panama and that Canadian province north of the state of Washington have long ago fallen over themselves to change their names to something else.

Wait a minute. THEY DIDN’T! Colombia is still Colombia and British Columbia is still British Columbia. Maybe that toxicity isn’t as profound as claimed.

I