Vulva imagery and the Virgin

A secret seemingly known only to Reddit (the Sexuality subreddit), Instagram and Queer religious scholars is that sexual meaning can be found in, gasp, of all places, the iconography of the Virgin Mary.

Prehistoric vulva imagery long preceded the Catholic Church, which pushed aside the pagan goddesses, but medieval manuscript images like the one above are something else. Is it the side wound of Christ or a vulva? Was it intended to be both, following the novel view of the time that Jesus had a vagina? Both leaked fluids. Such images invited the viewer to caress and kiss the wound (or vulva) and many a medieval manuscript shows the wear and tear of close attention. More here.

This oval shape in medieval Christian art is known as a mandorla (Italian for "almond"), or the middle part of two overlapping circles known as vesica piscis. This almond shape is widely accepted as the vulva, from where all human life comes, and it made its way into iconic images of the Virgin Mary, notably the Virgin of Guadalupe (here), Sheela-na-gigs (sexual carvings on churches), and thousands of pilgrim badges like this one:

Related, there are also images depicting Jesus giving birth from his wound. Some might say that's typical of men, thinking they can do everything; but religious scholars say that, historically, Jesus has always embodied both traditionally masculine and feminine characteristics, which allows for other identities - non-binary, trans, intersex, queer, and so on. It's enough to make conservatives' heads come off.

These ideas also led to the irredeemably sexist Freudian psychoanalytic association between the vulva and a wound, but let's not go there. Focus instead on all the great creative artwork on the web instead, or Maria Scanu's superb statue of the Virgin Mary in Sardinia:

And then of course, there's Sauron in The Lord of the Rings movies....

Also see yoni, sacred geometry, stigmata