History Written in Stone: Gender and the Naturalizing Power of Monuments in Southeastern Virginia

Statues, monuments, and memorials are part of the way that we celebrate our country’s history. They are physical embodiments of local and national history cemented into the landscape. It is important to remember, however, that landscapes are not neutral; history inscribed in the landscape most often reflects those with the power to inscribe, and thus they naturalize their experience into that landscape. In the particular case of Hampton Roads, Virginia, a strong gender bias lurks in the monumental landscape. Through an analysis of all statues representing people in the Hampton Roads region, we found that the vast majority of statues celebrate powerful male leaders. Conversely, women are almost entirely absent from public art, and where they are present, they are portrayed as dainty, passive, and secondary. Based on our analysis, we argue that these monuments and statues constitute a gendered and gendering representational practice, which through the landscape, naturalize men into Virginia’s history, and minimize, misrepresent, or even erase the significance of women in the state’s past.