Ste. Sebastienne
This piece's historical context gives it meaning by placing it in conversation with depictions of Saint Sebastian dating back to the 1300s in medieval Europe. Saint Sebastian is traditionally a male figure with a head. By creating a woman Saint Sebastian, Bourgeois is using Saint Sebastian's example of resilience in the face of suffering and turning a male-centered narrative into one that can communicate a female-bodied experience. Images of saints and martyrs have historically been used as models and reminders of idealized suffering in emulation of Jesus Christ, asking for emulation and reverence from the viewer. This piece's break with the male-bodied tradition opens new doors for thinking about suffering in the female form.
In terms of the piece itself, a body is presented in pain, forced into an unnatural position by the arrows that surround it. However, unlike the two other artworks that feature a human figure, Ste. Sebastienne does not have a head. This takes a narrative that could have been emotional and makes it very physical. She is already contorted in pain and to a viewer, the arrows could present the threat of even further pain, should they actually pierce her body. Yet, despite the observation of pain, the contrast between the straight, horizontal arrows and the broad curves of the body creates a striking yet aesthetically pleasing opposition.
There is some interesting new scientific literature being published about the different ways in which people who are 'biologically" male and female experience pain. Recent medical studies have shown that, partly because of different hormones, the ways in which people process pain is different. For example, a hormone present in female-bodied people called oestrogen stops a response that protects injured muscles from becoming inflamed. This, along with numerous other types of hormones that cause different reactions in various parts of the body, is part of the reason why some medications work differently on male-bodied and female-bodied people. These differences may help to explain some of the stereotypes that female-bodied people are considered to be weaker when really they may just process pain differently from male-bodied people (Melton, 2002).