Sheila Na Gig
For the last few months I have been researching witches, pagan rituals, traditions and Celtic history. I first came across the Sheila na Gig statues when researching women’s rights before and after British rule over Ireland.
In Celtic Ireland women enjoyed legal rights, rights that would been seen as being very progressive even in some of today’s societies. Women kept their own property in marriage and a wife could divorce her husband for fourteen different reasons. British conquest brought to an end Ireland’s independent legal system and removed most of Irish women’s traditional rights. It also brought sexual prudity, which hadn’t previously been part of Irish culture.
In Celtic tradition there are many stories of strong warrior women, equal to men, if not stronger. There is Queen Maeve who led her army to victory, in one battle drowning an army in urine and menstrual blood. The narrative of this story has changed over the years, having been influenced by patriarchal readings of what happened, but compared to the stigma in today’s society around women and menstruation, this story is quite a powerful display of womanhood; menstruation shown as being powerful, a superpower nearly, instead of a weakness or something to be ashamed of. Irish women would fight in every rebellion as equals to men. It is easy to be unaware of this history and these legends in modern Ireland and can easily be hard to imagine when we are currently still fighting for economic and reproductive rights in Ireland.
The policing of female sexuality is not only a problem in Ireland, as control over women’s bodies and sexuality can be seen in most societies around the world. There is no doubt that the female body is political, whether it is being sexualised or de-sexualised, but there is power in realizing that we cannot continue to apologize for existing, for having needs, wants, desires and power. I am obviously particularly interested in the history of women in Ireland, being an Irish women myself, specifically Northern Irish. I was pleasantly surprised by the information I discovered on Irish women and the struggle for a United Ireland, the equality and respect they were granted as they fought alongside men. It is impossible to escape the effect of centuries of religion in Ireland, and with this religion comes the control over women in Ireland. This is why I was particularly interested and surprised when I discovered the figurative carvings of Sheila na Gigs that were carved on churches and castles in Ireland and Great Britain.
My discovery of Sheela na Gig statues is what led me to continue to research the history of women in Ireland, from Celtic legends to the Easter Rising. There is something so striking, so powerful in these unapologetic carvings with their exagerated vulva’s. I was also especially surprised to find that many of the Sheela na Gig carvings appeared to be masturbating, quite a radical depiction of women considering that even today female masturbation is quite a taboo subject and still not widely explored in modern art. There are many different explanations for what the Sheela na Gigs represent and it can be imortant to look at who is giving the explanation, for example, the theory that they are on churches as a warning against lust probably came from religious figures. There are suggestions that the Sheela na Gig represents a pagan goddess, perhaps the goddess cailleach, who was so powerful she could create and shape the hills and valleys. The imagery of a goddess is powerful in itself as she represents an immanent power, authority, control and respect. She is a spiritual figure that seeks to empower women in their own choices and self worth unlike many of the spiritual figures in other religions.
There are claims that the carvings are fertility figures, although many of the Sheela’s do not fit a fertility function. But this theory is no less empowering, as the ability to carry and give life can be seen as one of the greatest signifiers of a woman’s strength and power, the vulva being the gate between the womb and life, and so it is not hard to see how the Sheela’s could be associated with fertility.
My favorite interpretation is that the Sheila na Gig are used to ward off evil, that they perform a powerful type of Anasyrma as a form of protection. Anasyrma is the gesture of lifting up the skirt or kilt, connected with religious rituals, eroticism, and lewd jokes. It is a form of exhibitionism similar to flashing, but differs in that instead of being for the implicit purpose of the exhibtionist’s own sexual arousal, it is instead done only for the effect of the onlooker.
Anasyrma is effectively the exposing of the genitals, always by a women, and is interesting in that it, is the woman using her genitals as an apotropaic device that could be interpreted as empowering to herself, while historically and socially it has widely been men exposing their genitals to women in a form of power over women, an unwanted sexual advance. We can see similar figures to the Sheila na Gigs performing anasyrma such as the ancient Greek figure Baubo. Baubo’s performance of anasyrma is performed to create humor and laughter. There is also the Putta di Porta Tosa figurine in Milan mounted at an entrance in the city wall. The figure shows a woman standing, facing outward towards any potential attackers and she is holding a knife while lifting her garment to expose herself with the other. This is another example of a statue using anasyrma for protection. Another interesting example of this is Jean de La Fontaine’s painting ‘Nouveaux Contes’ showing a woman lifting up her skirt to terrify the devil himself. This shows the anthropic power that anasyrma has been believed to have, that it is strong enough to ward off the worst evils. A story from The Irish Times (September 23, 1977) reported a potentially violent incident involving several men, which was averted by a woman exposing her genitals to the attackers.
It is not only the exposing of female genitals that has mythical powers but the female body in general. In a similar vein to Queen Maeve and the power of menstruation that I spoke of before, Pliny the Elder wrote that a menstruating woman who uncovers her body can scare away hailstorms, whirlwinds and lightning. Another interesting example of sexuality and eroticism having powerful effects on the earth is Balkan Pagan traditions where women would run into the fields and lift their skirts to scare the gods and end the rain. This was brilliantly explored by Marina Abramovic in her performance piece ‘Balkan Erotic Epic’ where she dressed in traditional folk costumes and reenacted these ancient rituals.
In Africa woman have in the past, and still do, strip naked as a curse and as a means to ward off evil. Women give life and so they can also take it away. Women invoke this curse under the most extreme cases, causing the men they curse to an extreme form of ostracism. It was used by women in Nigeria during the second Liberian Civil War and against President Laurent Gbagbo of the Ivory Coast, cursing his rule. In 2002 members of the Niger Delta Women for Justice occupied the Chevron Texan oil company in Escravos to protest for better treatment from the company. When the military showed up to remove them the women threatened to naked curse them and so the soldiers did not even touch them.
These are just a few examples of the influence and history of the female body and supernatural powers believed to be held by women around the world. There are undoubtedly even more examples than this, but I found these examples particularly interesting when exploring the female body and genitals in art and performances. For a subject often surrounded in shame and taboo it is intriguing to see learn of its use in forms of protest, its perceived influence over nature, life and death and war. It seems clear that despite an attempt from external forces to stigmatize the power of the female body, there is a undeniably history of it’s power in every culture.
With my project I am seeking to channel the different interpretations of what the Sheela na Gig means and the power of the female body in different culture’s, particularly Irish, legends. I have created my own interpretation of the Vulva using only sticks and wool, which is fitting, as Irish women have been weaving for centuries. By wearing my brightly colored 'vulva’ and bringing attention to it I am performing my own type of anasyrma, alluding to the different powers this brings. I am empowered by it’s ability to ward of evil, to scare men and to evoke fear in an enemy. I am empowered by presenting my own version of female sexuality as opposed to the usual presentation of female sexuality that is catered towards the male gaze. I am empowered by performing this piece on my own terms with the power from within connotations it has for me as a woman as opposed to the power over which male 'flashing’ seeks to bring. I do not seek to perform this piece to make anyone uncomfortable but to bring attention to the provocative and political nature and history behind exposing the female body and genitals. I am also able to see the comedy in my performance as my act can be perceived with surprise and humor, channeling anasyrma’s power to allow for a letting go of sadness. I certainly find it to be a humorous performance and often find myself laughing while trying to perform it.
All in all what inspired me and what I want to convey with this piece is the power of the female body to provoke and protest, to be beautiful, strong, and magical. There is no denying that whether or not you believe in these stories of the powers of the female body and the female genitalia, the fact that they exist is proof enough that they must have some power, to have provoked such a strong reaction from so many different people throughout history.
