Skyward and Uncut Wings: Female Icons of Freedom, Strength, and Resolve with Serinity Young
What of the fascination with women and flight? Women who chafe at being bound to earthly constraints? What might we infer from the recurring symbolism of wings and flying?
Let's take a deeper look at the history of aerial women, how we stitch into a narrative ranging widely through myth, religion, and iconography - this story of 'sky-going females'.
In this episode, Sylvia talks to Serinity Young, PhD, about her astonishing study into women and flight. Weaving together the concept of airborne women, she unfolds a deep and thought provoking investigation into the recurrent motif of women free from earthly constraints and empowered with the ability of flight.
They discuss the way in which the flying women appear in a wide variety of cultures historical periods, in legends, myths, rituals, sacred narratives, and artistic productions. They dive into how airborne women have been both influenced and been understood by society and religious traditions, how terrestrial vs. aerial restraint and freedom sustain in today's world as a power struggle between men and women, how the desire to fly relates to passion and freedom, and much more.
Topics Include:
The archetype of flying women
The depiction of ariel women in captivity starting in the dark ages
Witches, shamans, mystics, goddesses
“Exceptional women”
Wonder Woman
Untold stories, 'herstories', and Cornelia Fort
Amelia Earhart
Female power and sexuality
Serinity Young Ph.D. is a Research Associate at the Department of Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History. She is a professor of Classical Middle Eastern and Asian Language and Cultures at Queens College in New York. Young is the author of several books including Women Who Fly: Goddesses, Witches, Mystics, and other Airborne Females where she examines the motif of the flying woman as it appears in a wide variety of cultures and historical periods, in legends, myths, rituals, sacred narratives, and artistic productions.
Books Mentioned:
Women Who Fly: Goddesses, Witches, Mystics, and other Airborne Females by Serinity Young Ph.D.
The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore
Pin This!
