Virginia’s flag and state seal feature Virtus, the Roman goddess of virtue, whose name suggests a buttoned-down gal but whose toga tells another story — draped so low on her left that one breast is fully out there for God Almighty and everybody else to see.
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Virtus has graced the state seal since it was created in 1776 and the state flag since 1861, with a few makeovers over the years changing the figure’s appearance. She started out fully clothed but her left breast has been exposed for more than a century.
A case of early 20th-century gender confusion led to the breast baring in the first place. In 1901, Secretary of the Commonwealth D.Q. Eggleston complained that Virtus “looked more like a man than a woman and wanted to correct it. He instructed designers to add the breast to clarify her sex,” the Virginian-Pilot reported in a 2023 deep dive into how Virginia wound up with the only state flag boasting an exposed nipple.
Bare breast aside, Virtus is a fighter, not a lover. She holds a spear and sword, one foot planted atop a defeated tyrant sprawled on the ground. Instead of a come-hither look she telegraphs the state motto: “Sic Semper Tyrannis,” which means “Thus Always to Tyrants.”
by Laura Vozzella, Washington Post | Read more:
[ed. C'mon. Who's against seeing a nipple now and then. Texans? Really?]
