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THE ATALANTA SYNDROME: WOMEN, SPORTS, AND CULTURAL VALUES
Catharine Stimpson |
On Wednesday, October 20, the Center for Research on Women will host a new lecture series established in memory of Helen Pond McIntyre, BC '48. Helen McIntyre served Barnard in an unbroken sequence from her student days as Undergraduate President of the college: in 1975, she became President of the Alumnae Association and served as a trustee from that time, including a term as Vice Chairman of the Board, until her death in 2002.
The lecture by Catharine Stimpson, a pioneer of women's studies in the academy, will take place at 5:30 p.m. in the Julius Held Lecture Hall, Room 304, Barnard Hall. She will speak on women's progress and gender equity through participation in sports.
The lectureship is a gift of Eleanor Thomas Elliott, trustee emerita, Helen McIntyre's classmate and friend, and perpetual Barnard colleague. Planned to be an annual Center event, the lectureship will bring to Barnard a scholar who has made an extraordinary contribution to the field of women's studies, and is a way to honor permanently her devotion to her college and to education for women.
To inaugurate this series, the Center will host Catharine Stimpson, whose achievements have played such an instrumental role in establishing women's studies as a vital discipline in academia, particularly at Barnard. From 1963-1980, when she was a member of Barnard's faculty, Catharine Stimpson helped to found the Center, serving as both chair of the Task Force that brought the Center into being and as its first acting director. She also initiated the teaching of courses important to the developing field of women's studies, including the first courses in Women and Literature and Black Literature. While at Barnard, Professor Stimpson founded Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society , which remains to this day a premier women's studies journal and a cutting-edge resource for feminist scholarship. She is the author of Where the Meanings Are: Feminism and Cultural Spaces , has served as chairperson of the National Council for Research on Women and the Ms . magazine Board of Scholars, and is currently University Professor and Dean of the Graduate School of Arts & Science at New York University.
Stimpson will reacquaint the audience with the legend of Atalanta, the great female hunter and athlete. According to classical Greek mythology, Atalanta's father, disappointed that he'd been denied a son, threatened to kill her. The girl bargained for her life by promising to marry any man who could defeat her in a foot race. A man, favored by Aphrodite, the goddess of love, challenged her. During the race, he threw down three rare golden apples, and Atalanta, stopping to pick them up, lost the race.
From this story, Stimpson identifies a cultural illness, namely the devaluation of women and women's contradictory responses to it, which she's named "The Atalanta Syndrome." By looking specifically at women's participation in amateur and professional sports, Stimpson locates a site not only of women's skills and courage, grace and power, but also an important arena in the struggle for equity. A discussion of "The Atalanta Syndrome" challenges us to rethink women's role in athletics as well as a number of crucial related issues. For instance, Stimpson asks, how might we go about establishing an appropriate, less commercialized place for all sports in education? What might a deeper understanding of Atalanta's legend lend to modern struggles for racial and gender equality? What, ultimately, does it mean to live in a "competitive society," and how should we, as members of an increasingly virtualized world, link active sports to meanings of health and healthiness?
For more information, please contact Suzanne Trimel in the Barnard Office of Public Affairs, 212-854-7583
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