Our Ever Powerful Vulvas

Holly sent me this link to the website Women You Should Know with this 19th century etching of the Devil himself being terrified by a vulva.  Amy Jones writes wonderfully about the etching in her article Vulvas: Officially Scarier Than Satan.

Imagine that all these centuries of women being subjugated by Christian religions, fearing going to hell just for being women with all our evil ways, and all along, all we had to do was lift our skirts (like showing a cross to a Vampire), to chase Satan away.

Chloe, the woman in the etching, reminds me of Bawdy Baubo,  the old servant from the  greek myth who lifted her skirts to make Demeter laugh, bringing her out of the depression she defscended into after not being able to find her daughter Persephone in the underworld.

Chloe, just like Bawdy Baubo, seems to be having a wonderful time and understands sometimes a good flash of the vulva is just what is needed to lighten up the situation when being pursued by the devil.

There’s a poem written under the illustration:

Once on a time the Sire of evil
In plainer English call’d the devil
Some new experiment to try
At Chloe cast a roguish eye
But she who all his arts defied
Pull’d up and shew’d her sexes pride
A thing all shagg’d about with hair
So much it made old Satan stare
Who frightend at the grim display
Takes to his heels and runs away

So basically, a woman’s vulva is so hideous, just the sight of it is enough to scare the devil.   That’s a lot of power.  It’s too bad  so many of us believe  the hideous part and not the power part.

Although things are changing,  you can see it very clearly in the video PYNK by Janelle Monae (thanks Colleen)….

 

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