Girls are really, really bad at math!

It’s true, isn’t it? I’ve known at least one girl who was terrible at math so I believe it. When they go shopping (way too often if you ask me!) they can barely calculate the cost of the second pair of shoes in a buy-one-get-one-free sale. Thankfully most women know it’s better if they just stay at home and cook.

Obviously what I’ve written is not true (my wife could run circles around me in a math class) but the stereotype persists. Stereotypes are difficult to extirpate and the scary part about that is stereotypes distort reality and occlude the truth. And when the truth is no longer discernible then we can easily be led to accept falsehoods as reality and, when that happens, we live beneath our privileges.

Unfortunately some stereotypes persist today with as much force as they had 50 years ago. Take a moment to close your eyes and picture a cemetery. What do you see? Does it look something like this?

One more exercise: I want you to picture an art gallery. What do you see? I bet it’s something like this:

If you saw anything close to the images I’ve shown then you also have some ‘stereotypes’ that you’ve never gotten rid of. You may assume that it doesn’t matter (who cares if you have a cemetery stereotype, right?) but I beg to differ. My hope is that you’ll begin to see cemeteries in a whole new light. Specifically I want you to start combining the 2 images above – I want you to think of a cemetery as an art gallery. Please allow me to elaborate:

Among many meanings, cemetery means ‘to lie’ or ‘sleeping place’. A cemetery was a place where we were to place our loved ones to rest and was intended to be a peaceful and beautiful place. Unfortunately cemeteries are now seen more along the lines of a post office box – impersonal, cold and bereft of meaning. And it’s becoming even rarer to find real works of art in a cemetery; most are filled with innumerable headstones of a similar style (hence the ‘post office box’ feel) that really don’t inspire or move you. Bott Monument is trying to change that! We’re trying to erase that old stereotype by creating works of art. Would you want to visit a cemetery if you saw something like this?

What stories do these monuments tell? Do they move or inspire you?

Hopefully your stereotype is beginning to fade away. This Halloween, Bott Monument wants you to reevaluate your stereotypes and ask yourself if you’re not living beneath your privileges by harboring them. Happy Halloween