THE STATUE OF FREEDOM

freedom… freedom… FREEDOM AAHHH!! my all-time favourite character in the monmyth. words cannot describe how much i love her and her story, but i’ll try my best to put my thoughts on paper. WIP

TRANS ALLEGORY, WRITTEN BY @TAPEWIRES AND I

this segment is dedicated to the trans themes in freedom's story and was written by my lovely partner ludwig and myself. i myself am not trans, so the majority of these points are coming from wiggy and additional research was done by me. not everyone’s interpretations will be the exact same and that's fine! these are just based on what we picked up on.

- from her first drafts, freedom is expected to be what others want her to be, in the story and in real life. the commissioner, thomas u. walter wanted crawford to alter certain features of her that represent freed slaves and liberated women in america because "its history renders it inappropriate to a people who were born free and should not be enslaved."

- in phillip reed’s poem, freedom is depicted as a woman trapped in a plaster body rather than a statue; “the plaster body is absent. instead, a tall wounded woman sleeping in its vessel, donning a helmet, wrapped in a robe, clutching a sword and a damaged shield” and is straight up described as one, “a tall wounded woman”, “the final bronze woman”.

- freedom is described as having to fight for herself; “freedom craved liberation so terribly, she tried to take it for herself”. the visuals themself during this bit show us lots of old paintings of liberated american women. there are just generally a lot of references to femininity specifically

- body horror has been linked to trans imagery, i shouldn’t be the one explaining this so here’s some articles written by trans people about the subject:

“how body horror movies helped me process gender dysphoria” by nadine smith

“body horror and growing up trans” by cressa maeve

“how body horror movies elucidate the trans experience and gender dysphoria” by sophie collins

- skin is freedom’s show of humanity, femininity, and beauty, which is why she’s so determined to wear it. freedom goes through literal and metaphorical dehumanization once her skin is taken away; “but off the ship, she was dragged away. freedom, locked up. freedom, in chains. they tell me, i have to take it out of her. so hook, rope, peel, and pull. when it was done, freedom stood motionless, freedom stood still.”

- it's noteworthy to point out how oddly sentimental reed was to her in his poem. “i see the final bronze woman, and i feel as if, maybe even hope, she is only dormant now and will awaken again”. the way he describes how they remove her skin does not sound like someone who's just here to get the job done.

- in this context, skinning others can be taken as a representation of how badly dysphoria makes someone feel to the point where literally taking someone's skin is a way to get rid of the horrible feeling of wrongness inside you, like you don't have "your own" body. freedom's only goal was to become a real human woman and be treated as a real human woman, and does literally everything in her power to achieve that goal, even if it means skinning and imitating humans at a gore-ish level. this obviously conflicts with not only what she was originally intended for (a statue), but also with america's patriarchal standards of "what is and is not considered a "woman”.

- this not only is an allegory of transness but also societal and transphobic backlash at just trans people existing and trying to be themselves. freedom is taking parts of her oppressors to build and make herself (what she believes in her eyes) a woman and this struggle and failure to become a human woman is the allegory of her transness. and the government gives freedom the… freedom to do just that in the grand canyon (so long as they have her wrapped around their finger, she rids of defectors, and gives them crowns).

RANDOM TRIVIA & QNA TIDBITS:

- freedom canonically uses she/they pronouns.

- she moves quickly.

- on freedom being called a trans queen: “she's very happily all of the above, she does not belong to a singular classification.”

- freedom’s story is a retelling of dracula; “freedom is actually inspired by dracula, believe it or not. that's what that whole story was meant to be, it was my riff on dracula. there are many similarities, freedom is this horrific creature which skins and eats this little girl, which is definitely intended to be a riff on the vampiric legends of old, of drinking human blood and eating human flesh. and the monarca, the ship that takes freedom to the US is kinda like the demeter, the ship that brings dracula to england in bram stoker's novel. so that's what freedom was, an italian dracula.”

- thomas crawford, freedom’s designer, actually died of eye cancer in real life before he finished the statue. this served as inspiration for eyes being a theme in her story.

- ironically, louisa crawford (his wife) referred to freedom as the “monster statue” in real life. she would later help transport the statue to the capitol after her husband’s passing.

- nina did not actually exist in real life as far as we know.

- thomas and nina envy each other in a way and fight for their control over freedom.

- the music used at the end of freedomfaller is still unknown… for now!

- freedom’s life in the grand canyon was reportedly “rocky”. (ouch!)

- it is possible for freedom to communicate: “she doesn't use sign language, that's for sure. you can communicate with her, i wouldn't advise it though. you heard how it went with maya.”

- (freedom could indeed hear maya begging for her life.)