Statues represent Hatshepsut as the ideal king, a young man in the prime of life. This does not mean
Statues represent Hatshepsut as the ideal king, a young man in the prime of life. This does not mean that she was trying to fool anyone into thinking that she was a man. She was merely following traditions established more than 1500 years earlier. In fact, the inscriptions on the masculine statues include her personal name, Hatshepsut, which means “foremost of noble women,” or a feminine grammatical form that indicates her gender. She had also been in the public eye since childhood, first as the daughter of king Thutmose I, then as principal wife of her half-brother Thutmose II, then as regent to her nephew/step-son Thutmose III, and finally as pharaoh. Only one other statue of Hatshepsut depicts here entirely as a woman. [X] -- source link
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