Break It Down: Sheela-Na-Gig

I wanted to do a series of short posts on popular songs that explore gender roles after I realized I had quite a few on my iPod, but I struggled with what to call it. Feminist classics seems a little reductive, and for myriad and often valid, not every woman identifies as a feminist. To label those songs as such reeks of a sort of ownership I'm not entirely comfortable with. (Plus the label "feminist" is becoming less and less meaningful to me as I get older, even though I still call myself one.)



So "break it down" it is, as I tend to do a bit of deconstructing. (Or until I figure out whom I stole it from.)

When I think of songs that really get to the meat (pardon the pun) of male/female relations, PJ Harvey's "Sheela-Na-Gig" tops my list. It was one of the first songs that made me step back and listen to words, and one of the few that made me a little afraid of what I was listening to. In his book, The Sex Revolts, Simon Reynold's says:

"Sheela-Na-Gig" turns around the gap between woman as ethereal icon and the fleshy reality of female physiology. The sheela-na-gig is a startling image, if you've ever seen one -- it's a Celtic fertility icon, a statue of a bulky, squatting woman pulling apart her vagina for all to see. In the verses, Harvey flaunts her "child-bearing hips," only to be rebuffed by the chorus, where she plays the part of a contemptuous or scandalized male: "You exhibitionist!"While icons of the Female Absolute from sheela-na-gigs to the Virgin Mary are idealized, flesh-and-blood woman with their periods and smells are deemed dirty.

I agree with this, but I think he's missing the larger point in reclaiming power in the grotesque. Instead of an idealized, plasticized doll, she's flesh-and-blood, reveling in the "grossness" that comes with being a woman, which she "lays down at his feet," only to yank it away and "take these hips to a man that cares." Look at this. You don't want it? Well, you can't have it anyway.

When I was going through songs, I tried to find the most "empowering" while disregarding the male gaze. I couldn't find any. Most themes of female empowerment unfortunately still have a "look at me" quality. This is also disconnect I feel with a lot of sex positive and choice feminists. I fail to see how empowering it is to still be an object of someone's affection. With "Sheela-Na-Gig" at least there's some level of awareness that our choices don't exist in a vacuum.