Obsessed With The Roman Empire Trend? Here Are Our Contenders For The Female Roman Empire
This article was written by The Zillennial Zine’s fall editorial intern Hannah Yarrington. Find her on Instagram at @513hny. If you would like to share an article with The Zillennial, send us an email at thezillennialzine@gmail.com.
If you have been on social media lately, you might have noticed the “Roman Empire” trend that has been circulating, where people have been asking the men in their lives how often they think about the Roman Empire. Though the answers varied, women were startled to find out that many guys think about the Roman Empire at least once a week, if not every single day. To women, it seemed absolutely wild for someone to think about something like that all the time, and it has led us to believe the things that we consider to be the female Roman Empire equivalent. But we’ve had a hard time deciding what the end-all-be-all is for the female Roman Empire, so we’ve gathered a few thoughts that we feel most women can agree on.
The Titanic
I don’t know about you guys, but I was most definitely a Titanic kid growing up, and it is definitely something I still think about very often as an adult. I heard someone say that when it comes to the female Roman Empire equivalent, men view the Roman Empire as a symbol of power, while women, when thinking about it, tend to lean towards periods in history of great sorrow or the abuse of power in some instances. This ties back to feelings we have about our own experiences in the modern world as women. The Titanic was a horrible tragedy that killed almost 1,500 people, and we tend to like to dive into why these types of things happen and if they could have been avoided. Obviously, lots of people are interested in the Titanic’s history, but I’ve seen hundreds of other women share the same weekly thoughts about the incident.
Princess Diana
Speaking of horrible tragedies, when I learned about the life and death of Princess Diana, it really struck me in the heart. I think women think about Princess Diana so much because she was such a beautiful soul who loved her sons and her people but had to deal with terrible hate. Not only that, she was a fashion icon who always spoke her mind and did what she wanted, even when ridiculed. Her death led to so many questions, and it really speaks to how women feel like men treat them. Even if you are true to yourself and have a big heart for everyone, tragedy does not care who you are, and people and men can constantly be working toward your downfall. That is why so many of us women continuously think about what happened to that remarkable woman.
Ex-Best Friend
Another female Roman Empire equivalent I’ve seen is thinking about your Ex-Best Friend. I feel like when it comes to all our past friendships, not all of them ended great and we miss the times we had with them or wonder what they’re up to in their lives now. We usually take our friendships pretty seriously and love developing deep connections with our friends and letting go of that relationship is so hard. But it’s also helpful to think about all the things we have learned from that friendship and how we have grown as people. I think about my past friendships a lot, and it’s definitely on my list for my Roman Empires.
Greek mythology
In a similar light to the Roman Empire, I’ve seen so many women talk about how often they think about Greek mythology and Ancient Greece. Maybe because I am obsessed with Percy Jackson, I often think about Greek mythology and find it fascinating. When it comes to Ancient Greece, women did not have a lot of power and were often depicted as deceitful, shameful, and all sorts of horribly sexist things. But I also think we really love learning about powerful women who had to deal with such horrible men. Think of Medusa, Athena, Aphrodite, Artemis, and countless others whom women can relate to and project themselves onto. Women do this in a lot of different areas, not just in Greek mythology, but it was one of the things many of us were exposed to at an early age in school since many of us had to read The Illiad and The Odyssey by Homer, watched Hercules, or other things like that.
The Regency Era
With the help of movie adaptations of Jane Austen novels and Bridgeton, the Regency Era is something I think about so often, specifically the one part in Pride and Prejudice when Mr. Darcy flexes his hand. Something about going to silly little parties and having good men court you is so fun to think about. I’d love to take long strolls around my large estate and then later have a cup of tea while gossiping. I think we as women love romanizing this era because of all the media that has become popular after the last decade or so that has brought this era back to life, and we love the idea of finding genuine true love without the restraints the internet and social media impose on us.
The Salem witch trials
And lastly, something else that loads of women think about all the time was the Salem witch trials. Personally, I don’t really think about this all that often, maybe once every few months, but I can definitely see why it leaves such a significant impact on women. As many of us know, the witch trials were inherently a manifestation of sexist ideals about how women were expected to act back then. If they deviated from their traditional roles as mothers and caretakers, they were seen as the product of evil and must be wiped out. Women think about this so much today because it was such a dark time for us and where women were in a state of constant fear of how they were perceived because if that gave anyone a reason to dislike them, they could easily be called a witch and sentenced to a horrible death.
In the grand scope of things, it’s so sad that so much of what women think about on a day-to-day basis revolves around such catastrophes and the unfairness that we’ve had to face throughout history. But we’ve also been able to create such a beautiful bond through our femininity and our womanhood that has helped us traverse such hate.
What do you think of as your female Roman Empire equivalent? Did any of these examples speak to your experiences? Let us know!