This is probably my favorite poem, and a couple of years back, I illustrated it through a series of portraits featuring women from biblical stories, folklore, and mythology. I wanted to revisit the poem and create something that was more simple and focused on the titular heroine.
I don’t like to get involved in online discourse. People are allowed to have their own opinions and I’m not going to waste my time in this life trying to sway people’s opinions to my own. However, I will say this. Unless someone is actively spreading hate speech and rhetoric that seeks to harm or degrade others, the best thing you can do is not engage. If you don’t agree with a take and can’t bring yourself to ignore it and move on, feel free to ask a person why they think the way they do about a certain topic. Personally, I would be absolutely willing to have a conversation with someone who says “can you explain to me where you’re coming from with this?” than “gross. I hate this.” You might actually find some common ground! But I suppose people quick to comment with negativity aren’t really in the “open-mindedness” stage of their lives.
In any case, my two illustrations for Salma Deera’s poem “Medea’s Reasons” are probably the works I get the most negative response to online. Again, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I saw @adriftamidthestars wonderful tags on my post and the fact that they were talking about this in their classics class. It’s important to note that the sympathetic view of Medea isn’t a take from terminally online leftist feminists, it’s just kind…of how the classics are objectively interpreted based on the texts. Their tags motivated me to further go into Medea’s reasons. Both in the context of the Salma Deera poem and her character within classical literature.
I don’t expect people to be won over by this, but I do encourage anyone who doesn’t understand the poem based on their perceptions of Medea to read this and take from it what you will.
