After learning about maps in a mostly political and abstract context, it was so refreshing to explore maps in a social context, especially a feminist one. It wasn’t until reading Rebecca Solnit’s “City of Women” that I realized, with a punch to the gut, that essentially every location I’ve seen on a map or been to in person has been named after a man — and I didn’t even question this. A term that Solnit used particularly stuck with me: “manscape”. This seems to be a more apt term to describe the societies that have been constructed, dominated, and perpetuated by men. Not only are men celebrated in life, but honored after death. Perhaps maps can be seen as the ultimate manifestation of the patriarchy — men, and their legacies, are memorialized in concrete and on paper, while the mere names of women are lost to the winds of time.
Names may seem trivial, but they carry unimaginable power. They compose and define the world around us. As Solnit discussed, how would my confidence, my perceptions, my hopes and dreams be different if I was surrounded by the commemorations of distinguished women? I feel that I would have grown up in a different world.
One reply on ““Manscapes” and More”
Hello Emily. This reading also made me realize how many places I pass by in my daily life that are named after men, and how few places are named after women. Recognizing these women and naming locations after them to the degree that we do for men would be a significant step in how we view women in history and value what they have done.