Cleopatra was ruthless, no doubt. (quick aside - have you see Pat Brown's work demolishing the suicide myth? If not, I highly recommend either the book or the videos on You Tube - fabulous!)
I notice feminists often ignore a couple of things about other feminists (or pre-feminist women they hold up as icons). One is when women feminists ride the coattails of husbands, especially when they don't have to. I'm thinking of Hillary and Michelle. Both earned law degrees and could easily have acted as examples of female independence by working outside the White House. But no, they embraced the title of First Lady (Michelle even tried to get herself a separate salary - on top of all the perks of being part of the President's family and his salary). Meghan Markle is another example (when she talks about "giving up my career" playing the "hot" girl roles - age late 30s, I have to laugh). I predict that, even after divorce, she will cling to that courtesy title like grim death.
The second thing feminists ignore in feminist icons is treating other women badly - MM is again famous for staff (if not all, then almost all female) fleeing in droves.
Of course, targeting women who don't align with feminism is not a problem. Perhaps Cleopatra's feminist fans could find excuses to paint Arsinoe 4th as some kind of traitorous trad wife. That would prevent any pesky cognitive dissonance.
Cleopatra was ruthless, no doubt. (quick aside - have you see Pat Brown's work demolishing the suicide myth? If not, I highly recommend either the book or the videos on You Tube - fabulous!)
I notice feminists often ignore a couple of things about other feminists (or pre-feminist women they hold up as icons). One is when women feminists ride the coattails of husbands, especially when they don't have to. I'm thinking of Hillary and Michelle. Both earned law degrees and could easily have acted as examples of female independence by working outside the White House. But no, they embraced the title of First Lady (Michelle even tried to get herself a separate salary - on top of all the perks of being part of the President's family and his salary). Meghan Markle is another example (when she talks about "giving up my career" playing the "hot" girl roles - age late 30s, I have to laugh). I predict that, even after divorce, she will cling to that courtesy title like grim death.
The second thing feminists ignore in feminist icons is treating other women badly - MM is again famous for staff (if not all, then almost all female) fleeing in droves.
Of course, targeting women who don't align with feminism is not a problem. Perhaps Cleopatra's feminist fans could find excuses to paint Arsinoe 4th as some kind of traitorous trad wife. That would prevent any pesky cognitive dissonance.