Today's Need to Return to the Gothic Feminine

The Gothic feminine image was modeled after Mary for the ideals she represented: purity, beauty, and grace. At a time when social conditions seemed helpless and the future grim, Mary alone stood for Love. The Virgin Queen, as Adams refers to her, intended “to be felt rather than feared” (Adams 684). The Church at this time depicted God as a loving God, rather than the fierce judgmental one of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The Adams article focuses on a Norman church, Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres which idolize this Gothic woman. While one might imagine the Gothic woman as bleak and remorseful, this is not the case. The Gothic woman is an attempt at the perfect or ideal woman, demonstrated in the purity and “loftiness of Mary’s nature,” (Adams 684) while still retaining her humanity. Da Vinci strove to create this woman in La Giaconda. She was simple yet beautiful, but at the same time possessing the experience of all the thoughts and maladies of the world. While she does not stand for suffering or misery, they unavoidably weigh down upon her nonetheless. Mary might be the ideal woman, but she lost her only son. Adams states that the Virgin required these four things for the construction of her church: space, light, convenience, and color decoration “to unite and harmonize the whole (Adams 678). The Virgin was so important during the Middle ages because she brought harmony and unity to the lives of her people, whom she looks upon with sympathy and love.

One must ask the question: where is our society going? Compared to the morals and ethics of the Middle Ages, the 21st century might be taking a step back into darkness. And while seven hundred years ago the ideal feminine used to quell this turmoil was the Virgin Queen, today the image fluctuates between Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan. While millions of young people look upon these figures in a fashionable light, they do not come close to achieving results among the people like the Norman’s Lady did. In truth, both ideal women represent the fashion of the times. Both require resources and give demands and orders when necessary. But one is completely deserving of such power, while the others have merely been given it by today’s society. While the Virgin queen was represented by a rose, Paris Hilton is represented by a sex tape and a Chihuahua. I think that, before our world takes a further backwards step we reevaluate today’s image of the ideal woman. The Gothic feminine of Adams and Da Vinci offers a much more appropriate depiction of the ideal woman in accordance with order, harmony, and law.

Rose Window at Chartres