The Center for “Race,” Culture and Social Justice at Hofstra University

Pygmalion and Waifu There’s an ancient Greek myth about Pygmalion , an incredibly talented artist with exceptional skill, who carves a beautiful statue of a woman and then falls in love with his creation. The story goes, “...with consummate skill, he carved a statue out of snow-white ivory, and gave to it exquisite beauty, which no woman of the world has ever equaled: she was so beautiful, he fell in love with his creation.”   The goddess Aphrodite transforms the statue to a real woman, fulfilling Pygmalion’s desires.   At one level, the story is a love story. They get married and it’s one of the few Greek myths that end happily.   But at another level, the story is about misogyny. The beginning of the story actually describes how Pygmalion was disgusted at the behavior of the women around him—they were prostitutes–and that’s what prompts him to create his statue. So it’s really about a man foisting his own expectations on what a woman should be. It’s about the manipulati...