For example:
Moon Goddess Emporium
The sacred, feminine-feeling space Marnie and her eclectic circle of Wiccans call their own.
The sacred, feminine-feeling space Marnie and her eclectic circle of Wiccans call their own.
LunaThis newly-introduced character's name is evocative of the elusive, watery moon-governed depths associated with the Feminine.
As The Heart of the Goddess: Art, Myth and Meditations of the World's Sacred Feminine Hallie Iglehart Austen (1990) writes, The Great Goddess of Laussel (left) points to her belly with left hand, and in her right she holds a horned crescent notched with thirteen lines, representing the ancient honoring of the mysteries of the female body. In this image is reflected the waxing and waning of the moon parallelled by the ebb and flow of menstrual blood; it embodies the wisdom of non-linear, cyclic time - spiraling eternal growth.
According to Austen, in the French limestone cave where this relief is found, "The soot of countless fires has darkened the ceilings, and the floors have been beaten down by many feet" (1990, p. 6). Indeed, She once pervaded.
On her gorgeous website The Suppressed Histories Archives, Max Dashu explains that rock murals, clay and bronze pots, and countless figurines recovered from archaeological sites worldwide show that in the earliest cultures, representations of humans were almost exclusively female. 
These recurring signs reflect spiritual concerns and ritual &
everyday life of the people who created them.
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Commonalities recur in artifacts of diverse archaic cultures; same patterns appear in more recent indigenous societies in the Americas, Africa, parts of Asia. Austen (1990) writes that for 25,000 years the female body was revered as sacred. The hold of the Goddess may go back much farther.
According to Ward (2006) some of the earliest work of human art in existence consists of female figures dating to at least a quarter million years old.
How might living in such a culture make you feel about
women? The world?
This was not art as we know it, to be displayed on a museum shelf. Though these figurines, the Goddess truly lived amongst her people; they have been caressed, danced with, sung to, had oils and ochre rubbed into them.
This was not art as we know it, to be displayed on a museum shelf. Though these figurines, the Goddess truly lived amongst her people; they have been caressed, danced with, sung to, had oils and ochre rubbed into them.
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| Acheulian Goddess Golan Heights, 800,000 yrs. old |
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| Great Goddess of Willendorf Europe, 25,000 B.C.E. |
Imagine holding one of these Goddesses in your
hand.
Feel her roundness, the comforting security of it.
Imagine carrying her throughout your day’s work…on your travels, sleeping with her beside your bed, waking up beside her (Austen, 1990, pp. 4-5) as our Paleolithic and Neolithic ancestors did.
How might being in such close contact and communion with Her form change your relationship to the female body?
Austen implores us to imagine a world in which images like the Great Goddess of Laussel were carved over the entrances to our houses of worship, or over our supermarkets and schools. She seems to be asking how a cityscape covered with (positive, representative) female images might shift our collective ways of being.
Do you agree that there is a dearth of such female images in our society?
Season 4 of True Blood may offer a remedy, at least according to writers like John Kubicek of BuddyTv who in his June 24th piece describes it as the Season of the Witch and the Women.
With the addition of "a number of new strong women to the show" via two new female main characters (the powerful witch Marnie & shapeshifter Luna) and the promotion of Nan Flanagan (vampire spokeswoman) and Holly (witchy Merlotte's waitress) to series regulars joining Sookie, Jessica, Tara, Arlene & Pam, Kubicek feels the women really get their chance to shine.
Besides Marnie and Luna, we've also met three new female supporting characters, including the lawyer Portia, Wiccan-cum-vampire security woman Katerina, and Naomi, a cage fighter with an unlikely romantic connection to Tara.
Plus, the credits are now more evenly disbursed in terms of gender, with nine female and ten male primary cast members.
Clearly, Kubicek isn't just talking about quantity, he's also talking about quality.
When he talks about "strong women" on the show I get the impression that he means well-written female characters as opposed to ones who are invulnerable to pain and strife, etc. And goodness knows we need more of those; the lack of good writing for women in Hollywood - not to mention in literature - is what drove Tanya Wright (Deputy Kenya Jones) to pen the script for her film Butterfly Rising, which she later adapted into a novel of the same name. If you can't find solidly written female characters, you've gotta develop them yourself, right?
Here's an archetypal model for such a "strong woman"...
...Look familiar? Yup, this painted terracotta female figure circa 3,500-3,400 B.C.E. was the model for the artifact the maenad Maryann struck the pose of while summoning and channeling her considerable power.
All the other images in this post came from books or websites, but I took the picture above myself; when I visited this pre-dynastic Egyptian figure in person with Rebecca and our mom at its current home in the Brooklyn Museum I was awestruck.
So taken was I by this statuette that I took photos from several angles.A plaque near its display case reads:
This female figure, shown in a long white skirt, was found in a tomb. Does she represent a goddess, a priestess, or a mourner? Is she grieving, dancing, or manifesting her power?
So striking is this statuette - one of the most famous pre-dynastic works in the world - that all of the museum's educational and PR materials are anointed with its image.
Another similar, "triumphantly female" (Austen, 1990, p. 8) terracotta piece also comes to us from pre-dynastic Egypt:
As Austen writes, she emphasizes her breasts and buttocks with a dignity and strength that reminds us of women's power and beauty.
These are compelling, multidimensional female images.
So what do you think, has True Blood stepped up to the plate in terms of writing women characters that bring such strong presence to the screen?
Let us know below!
~ Rachel
References
Austen, H. I. (1990). The heart of the goddess: Art, myth
and meditations of the world’s sacred feminine. Berkeley: Wingbow Press.
Dashu, M. Icons of the Matrix. Retrieved March 15, 2011
from: http://www.suppressedhistories.net/articles/icons.html
Ward, T. (2006). Savage breast: One man’s search for the
goddess. New York: O Books.
