#bagellore

Britannia is only shown bare-breasted when she is hurt, vulnerable, or being abused; her eroticism is meant to shame you, it is meant to invoke your pride as an Englishman.

America, however, is shown in a constant state of fetishization. She is not drawn like other racial caricatures: she is not meant to evoke disgust in the viewer, but instead to arouse him. In some ways, it is an inverse of the orientalist views that would develop of Arab women. While Arab women would go on to be viewed as inherently submissive, America is being shown as something to be made to submit. She appeals to the fantasy of making a dominant woman submit to the superior man; an inferior culture submitting to the superior Western, Christian culture.

Even the weapons they use, like in images 2 and 5, have erotic undertones. Britannia holds a spear, America holds a small Tomahawk. Spears are a very sexual weapon due to their phallic nature. Spears are strong, they are long, you thrust them into your enemy; “speared” is even used as a euphemism for penile penetration.

That is why in image 6, Britannia is being stabbed by a spear. They are not just showing that she is being injured, they are showing her being penetrated; she is facing what they viewed as a fate worse than death for a woman: she is being raped by the enemies.

When Britannia is shown with a spear and America is shown with the emasculated tomahawk, it is not just to show the superiority of British forces over the primitive, backwards Americans, but to show that the British are the true men.

America is the unruly, savage Indian. She is not completely worthless however. She is an exotic beauty with an erotic, fertile body; she is not evil, she is misguided by her backwards ways. But that is okay. She simply needs a firm hand to guide her, whether she likes it or not.