Did Charles Moulton Know About this Image?

I was looking up images of Justice, Lady Justice, and Blind Justice in art history today and stumbled onto this little jewel:

I found the image on the Springfield Museums website. Here's the website's description of the image:

"The Star Spangled Banner, no date
Nathaniel Currier
Hand-colored lithograph

The Star-Spangled Banner, a song written by Francis Scott Key in 1814, was a popular tune during the 19th century, especially at 4th of July celebrations. Though not recognized officially as the national anthem until 1931, Currier & Ives created two different allegorical portraits of freedom using the title of the song as their inspiration. Here, Lady Liberty wears a tiara with a shield bearing the stars and stripes and a veil decorated with stars. She carries the American flag as she strides forward toward liberty. Several phrases from the song emphasize the patriotic nature of the print:

O! long may it wave,
O'er the land of the free,
And the home of the brave"

The resemblance of this Currier and Ives lithograph of Lady Liberty is uncannily similar to that jewel of Americana--Wonder Woman. I wonder what sort of art research, the creator of Wonder Woman, Charles Moulton did to come up with the Amazon's garb. Does anyone else see a striking similarity?

Storytelling: Shoutout to My English Teacher Peeps

This past weekend, I saw Pan's Labyrinth. I considered reviewing it here in my blog, but it's just too amazing for words, frankly. It has made me preoccupied with an issue, however. A few years ago, I read the book by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Women Who Run With the Wolves. A large part of the book is dedicated to discussing the old faerie tales (Brothers Grimm, et. al.) and how they were mostly cautionary tales for girls so that they had a mythology to prepare themselves for life as women--to navigate that sometimes dangerous world.* Estes pointed out that modern faerie tales have been "sanitized for our protection," mainly through the efforts of Disney. Girls, and boys as well, have been subsequently left in the dark about the dangers of life, because they lack the coded language of myths, fables, and faerie tales. Stories are painstakingly prepared so that they DON'T scare children, out of fear of traumatizing them. We have a movie rating system that sometimes seems rather arbitrary and based on "bad words" and not bad ideas. Whereas the old faerie tales taught girls to protect themselves, make wise decisions, and essentially be the heroines of their own lives, modern stories make them depend on an external rescuer. My questions are the following: What thing(s) in Western culture in particular have/has changed that a lot of parents want to shelter their children from scary stories? Do you think it is important to tell myths to children (scary and non-scary)? Why? Where do you draw the line if you tell a child a scary story? When it becomes gratuitous and without any instructional value? Somewhere else? Can your recommend any contemporary children's literature that fulfills the old role of the classic cautionary tales?

* A characteristic of the mythopoetic movement is a tendency to retell fairy tales and engage in their exegesis as a tool for personal insight (wikipedia.org). See also Joseph Campbell.

Top image: from Pan's Labyrinth
Inset images: by Gustave Dore

© Stephanie Lewis, 2007