I started to read, The Story of V: A Natural History of Female Sexuality, by Catherine Blackledge. While I am only 20 pages in, a profound paradigm shift has already taken root in my soul.
These words carry so much baggage in modern American society. Yet, this has not always been so. Blackledge explains.
Religion - a society's belief system - is always a contentious subject. And in looking at how different religions have regarded female genitalia in the past, I found the most polarized views possible.
On one side was the west, with its attitude of the vagina as the gateway to hell, the source of all trouble and strife in the world, and the potential downfall of men. Here the vagina was an object to be feared, ridiculed and loathed.
However, opposing it were belief systems originating in India and China. These taught that female genitalia were the symbolic origin of the world, the source of all new life and the route via which longevity and eternal life could be attained. Here the vagina was an icon to be worshiped, loved and honored. The divine vagina (5).
What if the vagina was viewed in such a powerful way in modern American society? The act of a woman deliberately displaying her vagina was given the name of ana-suromai by Herodotus in the 5th century BCE (12). I find it fascinating that the revealing of one’s vagina was so commonplace that the act actually had a name.
It was believed that women have the ability to shame and defeat an advancing enemy with what is between their legs (15). Read that again. The shame was not in the act of revealing the vagina, but the receiver of the act was shamed and defeated by the power of the vagina being revealed. Blackledge gives many examples of situations where the revealing of a single vagina stopped evil in its tracks, changed the course of history, and persuaded Mother Nature to choose a different path.
I had a hard time getting my hands on this book, and when I finally did find a copy to borrow from a library, it looked like no other hands had touched it. It was published in Great Britain in 2003, and subsequently published in many other versions in many other countries. But here in the USA, this profoundly powerful view of the vagina was buried in the stacks.
I believe that the power of the vagina has been systematically and intentionally suppressed. By the principles of yin and yang, the vagina is at least as powerful as the penis. Phallic symbols abound in modern society. But where are the vaginas? And why is there so much fear and shame surrounding this center of femininity that once was a center of powerful forces that could even tame nature with a simple revealing?
The vagina has been labeled as the passive receiver. But what if we saw it as the active consumer? The vagina engulfs the penis, completely taking it in and making it part of herself. The vagina holds on to what is given, in an act of absorption - as in, “I will completely absorb you.” In the throes of coitus, it can be argued that the penis ceases to be.
The militant [power] women wield by exposing their genitalia collectively, (15) could be insurmountable. What would happen if every female member of the Women’s March simply lifted their skirts and bared their vaginas? What would happen if women being catcalled pulled down their pants and stood boldly in the presence of attackers? What if naked women formed a shield around those seeking health access from Planned Parenthood?
What if we still traced our descendants matrilineally, i.e., a person's position is society is dependent on the vagina they emerged from? (16). What if more vaginas decided to bare our raw, naked power and society remembered her as the origin of the world?
What if.
References:
Blackledge, Catherine. The Story of V: A Natural History of Female Sexuality. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003.
Photo by Ava Sol on Unsplash
I am grateful to find a place with rich soil to grow a community. May we take root, and flourish together.
@Bia.Birch 🌱
All artwork, photographs, and content are original and created by 