Supercilious+Queens

=Supercilious Queens = Athena Chen

 The archetype of a queen is often misunderstood as a selfish, impulsive, and arrogant actor that acts out of self-interest, rather than one who fulfills her duty as a selfless, kind ruler. The queen generally faces challenges with close, personal bonds and has tendencies towards extreme aggression. At times, she is portrayed as a conservative, dominating female figure who only changes through experience and drastic shock. Her personality consists of troublesome, conniving, and aggressive characteristics, but the queen typically has a higher education level than most females or common people. There are many sub-archetypal versions of the queen; however, all queenly archetypes undertake the responsibility or demanding improvement whether from others or from herself.

 One of the Queen’s main personality traits is her persistence and determination. However, her perseverance is misinterpreted as hostility motivated by selfish desires. In //Idylls of the King// by Alfred Tennyson, Guinevere, the queen of Camelot, is in love with Lancelot, but is already married to her husband, Arthur, the King of Camelot. This piece of literature portrays the Queen as an unfaithful, selfish character who, rather than protecting her country, sacrifices peace for all in exchange for enjoyment and pleasure. Similarly, in Ali//ce and Wonderland//, the Queen of Hearts, who plays the villain of the tale, suppresses the creativity and the freedom that many of the creatures seek to enjoy (see the bottom for the video of the Queen of Hearts). Rather than permitting the citizens of her country to have freedom and joy, the Queen sets regulations that construct a world in which only she can indulge in pleasure. In __Saturday Night Live__, the skit "Visiting the Queen" mocks how royalty acts according to their own desire without rhyme or reason. The two faces of the queen portrayed in the __Saturday Night Live__ skit emphasize how queens act deceivingly in order to satiate their personal desires (See the bottom for the video of the skit). Consequentially, these three sources focus on the negative instances within a Queen rather than examining the general behavior. For example, in Greek mythology, Hera is the goddess of fertility, marriage, and women. Her duty is to protect women from violent men. Though Hera is infamous for her jealousy of Zeus and other women, she still fulfills her duty of protecting women from armful men. The misconceptions of the Queen archetype in this instance are due to Hera’s solemn and enthroned disposition. As exemplified by the Greek Goddess Hera, the Queen is misconceived as having a defensive and explosive personality. In reality, the Queen only acts in that manner in an attempt to protect those that she cares about and the safety of her kingdom.

On the other end of the extreme spectrum, the Queen is viewed as a figurehead in the political realm. In Mark Parisi’s cartoon “the Queen Bee,” the worker bees are consulting each other and pondering who is the authority figure in the hive. One of the bees responds by stating that the authority figure would be anyone but the queen, emphasizing how even though the Queen Bee has the title, she does not have the commanding demeanor of a ruling class. Rather than residing in the previously discussed extreme tendencies of domination and aggression, this misconception of the archetype of the queen is that the queen is a useless figure in politics. Similarly, in another one of Mark Parisis’s cartoon, an Egyptian queen named, ”Eetansleep awlday” is being worshipped by an Egyptian man. The name of the queen undermines the presented image of a queen worthy of being worshipped; rather, the name of the queen is a disguise for her actual actions: eating and sleeping all day. This characterizes the queen as a lazy figure in a royalty position in contrast to an active political figure. However, in reality, many queens hold domineering influence in the world’s political sphere. Historically, in China, Dowager CiXi cleaned up China’s corrupt bureaucracy in an attempt to improve the conditions within China. She was known for her ruthless execution of other competitors. Empress Dowager faced many difficulties in order to try to improve and save her country from foreign influence. Her work emphasizes that the queen is not a figurehead in politics, but rather, she is willing to make sacrifices in order to protect her country. Similarly, in the Byzantine Empire, Theodora aided her husband in the governance of state. She subdued many political riots within the state and preserved governmental order. In addition to her actions as queen, Theodora served as a source of support for Justinian by guiding his actions and contributing to the religious policy of the Byzantine Empire. Theodora portrays the queen as a strong-willed woman that is not a figurehead, but rather a figure that is crucial in the betterment of the state. The archetype of the Queen has negative conceptions of extreme behavior: she is either overly aggressive or insubordinate and lacking of a role within politics. However, as empirically proven, the Queen generally plays a crucial role in cultural or social development and in supporting the king.

 While the Queen is believed to have a variety of political personas, a common negative perception of the Queen is vanity. However, the innate characteristics of the queen’s personality facilitate the concern over miniscule events. This concern is perceived as vanity or excessive self-preservation. In //Snow White and the Seven Dwarves//, the queen gives Snow White a poison apple in order to preserve her status as the “fairest one of them all.” The queen is adverse to change because she perceives that she has invested too much work in order to maintain the current state of the world. Similarly, the White Witch in //The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe// by C.S. Lewis works relentlessly to keep Narnia in a state of winter. She has chased away Aslan and defeated opposition in order to create Narnia in an everlasting state of winter. While the queen’s action seems to result from vanity, the actual cause for the queen’s behavior is fear of destruction of her efforts.

 The Queen is misconceived as an extremist political figure who has tendencies of being vain. In reality, the queen acts out of her duties to protect her people, including sacrificing her reputation in exchange for what she views as the fortification for her nation. As a result of the Queen’s mindset, her actions are easily perceived as overly aggressive or passive. However, the main motivation behind the queen’s actions is to strive for improvement.

=Videos =

Alice and Wonderland Video
media type="youtube" key="P3YmUx1rM8M" height="217" width="392" align="left"

Visiting the Queen SNL Skit
media type="custom" key="18059972" align="left"

=Works Cited =

Alice in Wonderland. Dir. Tim Burton. Perf. Mia Wasikowska. Walt Disney Pictures, 2010. Film.

Chaffardet, Ibrahim. Queen Grimhilde Got Some Botox. 2009. Fan Art, Houston. CGHUB. Web. 22 Apr. 2012.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Evans, James. The Empress Theodora: Partner of Justinian. Austin: University of Texas, 2002. Print.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Lewis, C. S.. The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. New York: HarperCollins, 1994. Print.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Parisi, Mark. Goddess Cartoon. 1994. Off the Mark Cartoons, unknown. Off the Mark. Web. 22 Apr. 2012.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Parisi, Mark. Queens Cartoon. 1994. Off the Mark Cartoons, unknown. Off the Mark. Web. 22 Apr. 2012.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Parisi, Mark. Queen Bee. N.d. Queens, Unknown. Off the Mark Cartoons. Web. 11 Apr. 2012.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Robertson, Royston. Evil Queen Cartoon 2. 2000. Evil Queen, unknown. Cartoon Stock. Web. 22 Apr. 2012.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Slater, Philip. The Glory of Hera. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1922. Print.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Dir. Hand David. Perf. Adriana Caselotti. RKO Radio Pictures, 1937. Film.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Tennyson, Alfred. Idylls of the King. Copyr. ed. Leipzig: Tauchnitz, 1860. Print.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">"Visiting the Queen." Lorne, Michaels.. Hulu Saturday Night Live. 20 Nov. 2010. Television.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Woo, X. Empress Dowager Cixi: China's Last Dynasty and the Long Reign of a Formidable Concubine. New York: Algora Publishing, 2003. Print.