Thirteen years after the American Continental Congress approved Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence from Britain in 1776, the French monarchy found itself on the verge of collapse. It was broke from extravagant spending on royal accommodations (Louis XIV on his palace at Versailles) and from fighting in several financially draining wars - including the American Revolution - since the beginning of the century..
On 5 May 1789, the Estates General, a seldom-convened representative body which had been called by the King some months beforehand, assembled at Versailles for the purpose of solving concurrent political and economic crises. From the outset, there was widespread disagreement between the three orders in the special parliament - the Clergy (the First Estate), the Nobles (the Second Estate) and everyone else (the Third Estate). As the Third Estate largely consisted of lawyers and other bourgeois elements, the common man - or ninety-five to ninety-seven percent of France - was thus largely left without a voice. Hence, several questions paralyzed the proceedings. Most concerned the Third Estate. Who was the Third Estate representing? If truly representing the people, ought it not have more than one bloc-vote out of three? Otherwise, the First and the Second Estates would be able to outvote the Third Estate 2-1 to protect their privileges and advance their mutually-held prerogatives at every turn.
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While the Estates General was falling apart at the King's court, the specter of famine appeared around the country. Despite a relatively abundant harvest, grain was delayed in getting to market for various reasons. On 5 October, a crowd of women in Paris decided to take matters into their own hands. In pouring rain, they walked twenty-five kilometers to take on the monarchy face-to-face. By doing so, they were risking everything - including the possibility of being thrown in jail. Yet, the situation was intolerable. They had been denied bread in years past, but the issue had become more than mere bread. It had now become a question of basic human dignity. Why should the average working man and woman - small farmers and peasants - starve while nobles and businessmen lived in relative affluence? Why should women be denied a voice in the affairs of government? To be sure, many male revolutionaries could not and would not countenance the idea of women participating in political affairs, but the logic of the old, hierarchical, patriarchal order was beginning to be exposed for what it was - an ideology constructed by the elites (Royals, Nobles, Clergy) to protect their preponderant power at the expense of the people. As such, some revolutionaries began questioning every thread woven into the fabric of the ancien regime. The most radical of them considered marriage a barrier to free love and belief in God - any god - as sheer mythology. Where would this rethinking of the socio-economic basis of human existence end?
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Appearing en masse at Versailles, the indignant Parisian women, probably tired from their long trek, marched right into an ongoing session of the Estates General to protest inadequate food supplies, high prices and an expanded presence of the military. In response, an intimidated Louis XVI agreed to their demands. The women of Paris and its environs had not only won an unprecedented short-term victory, but they had also sown the seeds for future victories in the quest for human rights and women's rights around the world. That was October.
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Marianne: From Image to Incarnation
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A few months previously during the summer of 1789, 'Marianne,' an iconic female symbol of 'Liberty' and 'Reason,' had been adopted by male revolutionary leaders to symbolize their revolt against the old order. Why did they decide to choose a feminine figure instead of a man? Some scholars have pointed to the fact that la republique (republic) is a feminine noun in the French language. While true, perhaps another consideration existed in their thinking. As the First Estate (the Clergy) and the Second Estate (the Nobles) were bastions of strict patriarchal order, would not a strong, intrepid woman represent a complete antithesis to their claims to power? A bare-breasted Marianne in Eugene Delacroix' 1830 painting Liberty Leading The People, where Marianne and 'Liberty' are one and the same, depicts her smashing the ancien regime with the Tricolor Flag (representing the ideals of the revolution) and her womanhood (representing a new social order between men). Unquestionably, the male revolutionaries that adopted the imagery of Marianne had indeed found a potently stark symbol of both defiance and progress. When those Parisian women marched on the Estates General a few months later in October, Marianne seemed to have become fully incarnated.
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Since the days of the French Revolution, Marianne has been the national symbol of France, and she has crossed oceans and wide expanses of land to appear as the Statue of Liberty in New York City (a gift from France in 1886), in the Goddess of Democracy in Tiananmen Square in 1989 - and as a guiding light for the entire world.
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Marianne Forever
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On 14 July, France will celebrate Bastille Day - the equivalent to July 4th or Independence Day for Americans. On that day in 1789, an angry mob of Parisians revolted against the monarchy and stormed the Bastille prison to seize its storage of weapons. As significant as Bastille Day was and remains to France, the iconography of Marianne and the march of courageous women into the Estates General at Versailles served as a catalyst in the creation of a future order whereby men and women would have the possibility of living in a society devoted to liberty, equality and fraternity for all. Therefore...
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When Iranian women gather to protest for democracy under their violently oppressive regime, and young Saudi women drive in defiance of gender oppressive laws and customs, and Greek and Spanish women take to the streets to challenge broken or corrupt ruling elites, they are extending the legacy of Marianne and their French sisters in the late eighteenth century.
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The quest for one world with justice for all continues. Fortunately, Marianne has only become more attractive with age.
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(Photo: Liberty (Marianne) Leading The People - Eugene Delacroix, 1830)
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J Roquen