Karolina Anna Kulpa
Karolina Anna Kulpa (ORCID: 0000-0002-8560-6401; karolina.kulpa@gmail.com) is a cultural studies scholar and historian (graduate from Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznań) focusing on the reception of Classical Antiquity (especially the image of Cleopatra VII – PhD in 2017: Cleopatra VII, Queen of Egypt: Between Historical Narration and Popular Culture); recipient of scholarships, she published academic papers on topics of ancient history and cultural studies; active participant and organizer of conferences and educational expeditions, as well as coordinator of academic and cultural events (including an exhibition entitled “Egyptomania” and a project called “Metamorphosis”). Between 2017 and 2021 she worked as an adjunct at the Faculty of “Artes Liberales” of the University of Warsaw. She participated in the project directed by Prof. Katarzyna Marciniak “Our Mythical Childhood... The Reception of Classical Antiquity in Children’s and Young Adults’ Culture in Response to Regional and Global Challenges”, funded by an ERC Consolidation Grant. Her current research centers on the reception of Classical Antiquity in toys and games for children and youth.
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(Contemplating the reception of the ancient queen’s image in modern cosmetic services and products)
Cleopatra VII was a representative of the Macedonian Dynasty on the throne of Egypt in the 1st century BC. The works considered to be foundations of the European culture were kept in Alexandria, the capital of her country. Nevertheless, both the queen and her country were deemed „eastern” threats by the Romans. For many eras afterwards, artists made attempts to present her life, not bothered by the fact that the only information available concerning Cleopatra VII come from authors who lived and worked in the Roman Empire, a country which defeated her. What is more, the biography of the queen in the form of dispersed pieces of information are introduced in the context of her relationship with the Romans (most often with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony) When the antiquity ended, artists created their own literary and visual narrations of Cleopatra, incorporating her image into the framework of a spiritually tormented and internally torn queen (William Shakespeare), a precious courtesan on the throne (Henry Barthez) or ruthless and immoral ruler (Alexandre Cabanel). Little is known about the Cleopatra’s appearance but since 19th century her image is used on packagings and advertisements of cosmetics that are essential for beauty care but are also destined to enhance sexual attractiveness of a woman. In this article, I would like to present, on examples chosen from the variety of cosmetics products and services, that a new narration about the ancient queen has recently been created. Originally a historical figure, Cleopatra is now promoted as a queen of modern marketing whose alleged secrets of beauty from over than 2000 years, are now being sold to another generations of women craving for beauty given by nature which are nowadays, in the industrialized society, a luxury goods (eg. essential oils used in perfume production. The new narration concerning Cleopatra, this time linking pop culture and marketing, is competitive for, if not totally replacing the scientific, archaeological-historical (along the lines of the concept of anthropology coined by F. Barth) state of knowledge about the queen. The aim of the text proposed below is not to provide a remedy for this state of matters, but is to emphasize the discrepancies between the pop culture and historical narration on Cleopatra in the context of the secrets of beauty assigned to this ancient queen.
Considerations about gender socialization of girls through famous toy
Toys have almost always been present in human’s life, but it was popular culture that contributed to their production on an unprecedented scale. Barbie is one of the phenomena of our times. This plastic toy has turned into a pop culture icon, whose image is being constantly renewed and adapted to the social and cultural changes in the world galloping at breakneck speed. She passed from the realm of entertainment to the world of media, creating profiles on social networking websites, celebrating birthdays on TV, or starring in hundreds of cartoons and advertisements. A magical world of Barbie has been created with the whole range of accessories, everyday objects and clothes through which little girls might get a taste of an adult life.
This article poses questions as to whether being like Barbie means being a modern woman and whether the doll could help adapt girls to this cultural role. Based on selected Barbie dolls, the author attempts to describe, within the context of woman’s image in the media, the type of femininity proposed by Mattel. She concludes that Barbie is beyond the ancient codes of femininity. Moreover, various and at the same contradictory roles represented by the doll provide an opportunity for a child to test and practice different, sometimes conflicting cultural scenarios of the adult life. The author indicates that Mattel is not trying to sell reality, but dreams of a world that does not exist. In the text it is argued that no one can replace parents in the process of gender socialization and obviously a little plastic thing purchased for the child will not do this. The author draws attention to the danger some young girls run when they aspire to look just like their Barbie. The doll might represent an unattainable ideal of beauty for a woman, just like a teddy bear does not represent an inhabitant of the forest.
This article does not fully exhaust the subject, however it provides an introduction to further reflections on the subject of being a woman …. being like Barbie."
The autor analyse the work about queen Cleopatra VII by authors from Europe from 19th century to show, that the then portraits of the ruler became still present, but distorted image of this ancient figure. The image of the ruler approaches as a paraphrase, which was transferred from the antique descriptions of the queen to subsequent periods and manifested in numerous works of art. Unlike other figures of Antiquity, e.g. Plato, Alexander the Great and Julius Cesar, whose achievements had a major impact on the fates of the world at the time and whose biographies are introduced in the course of our education, the Egyptian queen was reduced in 19th century to a symbol of beautiful, young and ambitious ruler, who committed suicide by letting herself be bitten by an adder. This paper is a contribution to further studies, opening up a debate on the issue of the reconstituted or rather created image of Cleopatra in present science and culture.
(CLEOPATRA VII IN CONTEMPORARY POPULAR CULTURE: SOURCE-BASED OR STEREOTYPICAL CONCEPTIONS OD EGYPT?)
(Summary)
The author examines the development of Cleopatra’s image in popular culture, which results from the uncritical reading of the sources and the European stereotypes of Egypt. She points to the fact that nowadays hardly anyone explores the history of Cleopatra’s life, while the producers of films and TV series with historical setting choose to focus on the simplified accounts of her person concerning her sexual excesses and external appearance. The article explains that what we currently assume to be the portrait of Cleopatra VII, does not reflect the actual truth, but Octavian’s slick propaganda, which has been subsequently unwittingly copied, historians included."
Talks
See more here: http://www.omc.obta.al.uw.edu.pl/45-reception
(Contemplating the reception of the ancient queen’s image in modern cosmetic services and products)
Cleopatra VII was a representative of the Macedonian Dynasty on the throne of Egypt in the 1st century BC. The works considered to be foundations of the European culture were kept in Alexandria, the capital of her country. Nevertheless, both the queen and her country were deemed „eastern” threats by the Romans. For many eras afterwards, artists made attempts to present her life, not bothered by the fact that the only information available concerning Cleopatra VII come from authors who lived and worked in the Roman Empire, a country which defeated her. What is more, the biography of the queen in the form of dispersed pieces of information are introduced in the context of her relationship with the Romans (most often with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony) When the antiquity ended, artists created their own literary and visual narrations of Cleopatra, incorporating her image into the framework of a spiritually tormented and internally torn queen (William Shakespeare), a precious courtesan on the throne (Henry Barthez) or ruthless and immoral ruler (Alexandre Cabanel). Little is known about the Cleopatra’s appearance but since 19th century her image is used on packagings and advertisements of cosmetics that are essential for beauty care but are also destined to enhance sexual attractiveness of a woman. In this article, I would like to present, on examples chosen from the variety of cosmetics products and services, that a new narration about the ancient queen has recently been created. Originally a historical figure, Cleopatra is now promoted as a queen of modern marketing whose alleged secrets of beauty from over than 2000 years, are now being sold to another generations of women craving for beauty given by nature which are nowadays, in the industrialized society, a luxury goods (eg. essential oils used in perfume production. The new narration concerning Cleopatra, this time linking pop culture and marketing, is competitive for, if not totally replacing the scientific, archaeological-historical (along the lines of the concept of anthropology coined by F. Barth) state of knowledge about the queen. The aim of the text proposed below is not to provide a remedy for this state of matters, but is to emphasize the discrepancies between the pop culture and historical narration on Cleopatra in the context of the secrets of beauty assigned to this ancient queen.
Considerations about gender socialization of girls through famous toy
Toys have almost always been present in human’s life, but it was popular culture that contributed to their production on an unprecedented scale. Barbie is one of the phenomena of our times. This plastic toy has turned into a pop culture icon, whose image is being constantly renewed and adapted to the social and cultural changes in the world galloping at breakneck speed. She passed from the realm of entertainment to the world of media, creating profiles on social networking websites, celebrating birthdays on TV, or starring in hundreds of cartoons and advertisements. A magical world of Barbie has been created with the whole range of accessories, everyday objects and clothes through which little girls might get a taste of an adult life.
This article poses questions as to whether being like Barbie means being a modern woman and whether the doll could help adapt girls to this cultural role. Based on selected Barbie dolls, the author attempts to describe, within the context of woman’s image in the media, the type of femininity proposed by Mattel. She concludes that Barbie is beyond the ancient codes of femininity. Moreover, various and at the same contradictory roles represented by the doll provide an opportunity for a child to test and practice different, sometimes conflicting cultural scenarios of the adult life. The author indicates that Mattel is not trying to sell reality, but dreams of a world that does not exist. In the text it is argued that no one can replace parents in the process of gender socialization and obviously a little plastic thing purchased for the child will not do this. The author draws attention to the danger some young girls run when they aspire to look just like their Barbie. The doll might represent an unattainable ideal of beauty for a woman, just like a teddy bear does not represent an inhabitant of the forest.
This article does not fully exhaust the subject, however it provides an introduction to further reflections on the subject of being a woman …. being like Barbie."
The autor analyse the work about queen Cleopatra VII by authors from Europe from 19th century to show, that the then portraits of the ruler became still present, but distorted image of this ancient figure. The image of the ruler approaches as a paraphrase, which was transferred from the antique descriptions of the queen to subsequent periods and manifested in numerous works of art. Unlike other figures of Antiquity, e.g. Plato, Alexander the Great and Julius Cesar, whose achievements had a major impact on the fates of the world at the time and whose biographies are introduced in the course of our education, the Egyptian queen was reduced in 19th century to a symbol of beautiful, young and ambitious ruler, who committed suicide by letting herself be bitten by an adder. This paper is a contribution to further studies, opening up a debate on the issue of the reconstituted or rather created image of Cleopatra in present science and culture.
(CLEOPATRA VII IN CONTEMPORARY POPULAR CULTURE: SOURCE-BASED OR STEREOTYPICAL CONCEPTIONS OD EGYPT?)
(Summary)
The author examines the development of Cleopatra’s image in popular culture, which results from the uncritical reading of the sources and the European stereotypes of Egypt. She points to the fact that nowadays hardly anyone explores the history of Cleopatra’s life, while the producers of films and TV series with historical setting choose to focus on the simplified accounts of her person concerning her sexual excesses and external appearance. The article explains that what we currently assume to be the portrait of Cleopatra VII, does not reflect the actual truth, but Octavian’s slick propaganda, which has been subsequently unwittingly copied, historians included."
In my speech, I would like to put in doubt the image of Cleopatra, which can be found in literary sources and literature, including the scientific publications, the image of a woman, who desiring more and more power and glory involved herself in love affairs with Romans, for which she was punished with defeat and death. I would like to prove that “the greatest voluptuary on throne” probably was, as the latest scientific researches show, the ruler, who fought for her state’s independence and dynasty’s continuity (M. Chauveau: 2000 s. 2428; S.-A. Ashton: 2003, s. 49-54, A. Świderkówna: 2008, s.232-234; 239-242) and her relationships with Caesar and Mark Antony might had been based not only on Cleopatra’s lust of power, but also on the true affection.
In my speech, I would like to show the spectrum of toys for children which in name and description evidently invite to play the world of ancient Greece and Rome. Through the comparison of puppets, dolls, blocks, board games or computer games, I would like to answer the question do those toys help kids in gaining the genuine knowledge about our past or are they rather deprived of meaning cliché, which does not reflect the antiquity, but simply the manufacturer's marketing strategy.