Actually, this is the opposite of urgent phallic...
Big vagina energy: the return of the sheela na gig -
Not that they'd ever gone away, possibly the word there should be recuperation? recovery? re-evaluation? re-interpretation? Some say the explicit medieval carvings were fertility symbols; others that the figures were meant to ward off evil. Now a group of Irish feminists are bringing them back - as a reminder of women’s struggles. Carved into stone, these women squat, naked, sometimes cackling, pulling open their enlarged labia: it’s no wonder Victorian clergymen attempted to destroy or hide the glorious, mysterious figures known as sheela na gigs. The carvings are found on medieval churches, castles and even gateposts in Ireland, the UK and much of mainland Europe. They seem to have their origins in the 11th century; the oldest discovered in the British Isles so far dates back to the 12th century, the youngest to the 16th. Yet their beginnings are an enigma.
Given that dating, one might be a little sceptical at the theories that they represent 'a pre-Christian folk goddess and her exaggerated vulva a sign of life-giving powers and fertility'?
Okay, as someone who has worked with collections of various kinds I am just a leeetle sceptical of stories like this (cites please!): She became fascinated by sheelas in the 1980s after reading about a US academic who had been denied access to see some that were “hidden away” in the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin.
That could be conservation issues - it could be 'ooops, they're not where we thought they were' - it could be 'out to exhibition somewhere' - 'being photographed for someone's book' - we note that it was the 1980s, not the 1890s....
(I mean, that has urban myths about secret collections all over it.)
But I was a bit stunned when, having associated the huge vulvas with notions of successful survived childbirth, this conclusion is drawn: One thing that most of these figures have in common is that the upper parts of their bodies belong to elderly women. This fascinated Freitag. Why were these figures of fertility also so reminiscent of mortality? “The answer is, of course, because life and death go hand in glove,” she says.
Or, you know, survival into crone-hood? (what happened to the whole crone-hood thing of the 70s...?)
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