"Muse", a male projection?

The nine Muses on a Roman sarcophagus (second century AD)—Louvre, Paris

According to Wikipedia;

in ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses (Ancient Greek: Μοῦσαι, Moũsai) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, lyric songs, and myths that were related orally for centuries in ancient Greek culture.

And furthermore:

In current English usage, "muse" can refer in general to a person who inspires an artist, musician, or writer.

From the Mouseion to the Museum

The Great Library of Alexandria in Alexandria, Egypt, was one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world. The Library was part of a larger research institution called the Mouseion, which was a shrine dedicated to the Muses, the nine goddesses of the arts. Many Enlightenment figures sought to re-establish a "Cult of the Muses" in the 18th century. A famous Masonic lodge in pre-Revolutionary Paris was called Les Neuf Soeurs ("The Nine Sisters", that is, the Nine Muses); Voltaire, Benjamin Franklin, Danton, and other influential Enlightenment figures attended it. 

As a side-effect of this movement the word "museum" (originally, "cult place of the Muses") came to refer to a place for the public display of knowledge.

Hypatia - an icon for women's rights and a precursor to the feminist movement OR "clickbait"?

Hypatia (died 415 AD) was a Hellenistic Neoplatonist philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician, who lived in Alexandria, in the remaining "aura" of the Mouseion. As a prominent thinker of the Neoplatonic school in Alexandria she taught philosophy and astronomy. She is the first female mathematician whose life is reasonably well recorded. 

Many modern scholars also believe that Hypatia may have edited the surviving text of Ptolemy's Almagest, based on the title of her father Theon's commentary on Book III of the Almagest. Although she herself was a pagan, she was tolerant towards Christians and taught many Christian students, including Synesius, the future bishop of Ptolemais. Hypatia advised Orestes, the Roman prefect of Alexandria, who was in the midst of a political feud with Cyril, the bishop of Alexandria. When rumours spread accusing her of preventing Orestes from reconciling with Cyril in March 415 AD she was murdered by a mob of Christians led by a lector named Peter. 

The novel Hypatia by Charles Kingsley is a fictionalised account of the life of the philosopher Hypatia, and tells the story of a young monk called Philammon who travels to Alexandria, where he becomes mixed up in the political and religious battles of the day.The novel notably inspired this painting of Hypatia by Charles William Mitchell (1885, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle) which depicts Hypatia, naked, cowering against an altar, facing her (unseen) murderers.

Softporn "clickbait" and/or art?

Another painting inspired by the novel was Arthur Hacker's Pelagia and Philammon (1887, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool) which depicts a naked Pelagia dying, watched by a cloaked, hooded Philammon.

For many years Hypatia was regarded as Kingsley's "most widely known and appreciated" novel, with interest only dipping in later generations. The book was said to have been Queen Victoria's favourite novel by Kingsley. In Kingsley's era criticism of the novel was directed at his negative portrayal of the church in Alexandria and of Cyril in particular. It was this aspect of the novel, as well as its alleged indecency, which thwarted an attempt to bestow an honorary degree at Oxford University on Kingsley in 1863. In addition, some readers were disappointed that Kingsley did not go further in villainising all creeds other than Christianity. The anti-Catholic theme of the novel naturally drew criticism from Catholic churchmen.

In the modern era criticism of the novel has focused on its anti-Semitism as well as its racial prejudice. The book has been described as "ferociously racist". One review describes it as "Christian apologia, [with] religious and ethnic bigotry in the form of anti-Semitism and anti-Catholicism". (Jess Nevins, (2005), The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana, page 7.)

"Mused" and/or "amused"?

Victoria and Albert's taste in art?

Franz Xaver Winterhalter’s painting Florinda, which Victoria bought for Albert’s 33rd birthday in 1852.

Blue stocking women?

In 1777, the painter Richard Samuel produced a print showing the portraits of nine of the leading "blue stocking" women of his time shown as the nine Muses of the classical world. In 1778 Samuel painted these same women, on a speculative basis, without taking sittings in an attempt to advance his career as a portrait and history painter.

The sitters are: Anna Letitia Barbauld (1743–1825), poet and writer; Elizabeth Carter (1717–1806), scholar and writer; Elizabeth Griffith (1727–1793), playwright and novelist; Angelica Kauffmann (1741–1807), painter; Charlotte Lennox (1720–1804), writer; Catharine Macaulay (1731–1791), historian and political polemicist; Elizabeth Montagu the social reformer; Hannah More (1745–1833), religious writer; Elizabeth Ann Sheridan (née Linley) the singer, poet and writer.

The resulting work was exhibited at the exhibition in 1778 where it attracted little attention. The figures in the painting were so idealised, possibly because of the lack of sittings, that Elizabeth Carter complained that she couldn't identify herself or anyone else in the picture.

This painting is discussed by Penny Murray in a chapter of the book Laughing with Medusa: Classical Myth and Feminist Thought, that examines the significance of the Muses' gender and the various ways their femininity has contributed to their reception, focusing on 18th-century London society when the Muse was a favourite theme in art. In Richard Samuel's 18th-century painting The Nine Living Muses of Great Britain, is presented by Murray as a model for the reclaiming the image of the Muse as an emblem of female capability is identified.

The "muse", as discussed, is a male projection. To quote Penny Murray in her contribution to the project and which is called Reclaiming the Muse:

The image of the Muse as loved object who inspires the male artist, whilst she herself remains silent, is deeply engrained in contemporary culture, despite the best efforts of feminist critics to expose the implications of such imagery: man creates, woman inspires; man is the maker, woman the vehicle of male fantasy, an object created by the male imagination, incapable of any kind of agency herself. In short, this image of the Muse denies woman's active participation in artistic creation and silences female creativity.

Reclaiming the Muse!

Whose job is this going to be?