#BreakTheInternet Meets Scholarly Research! Female figures were already engaging in #BreakTheInternet displays in ancient times. Here is just one example from chapter 4 (“The Power of the Vulva”) in Sacred Display: Divine and Magical Female Figures of Eurasia by Miriam Robbins Dexter (UCLA) and Victor H. Mair (University of Pennsylvania): “Anasyrma is literally “the exposing of the genitals.” This is a form of exhibitionism found in religion or artwork, rather than a display for arousal, and it refers always to the act of a woman exposing herself. The act of lifting up one’s skirt to display the genitals can be an apotropaic device; it can, in circumstances of war, evoke the fear of the enemy. It can also be an act which evokes surprise and subsequent laughter and a letting go of sadness. What is significant about anasyrma is that it reflects the numinous quality of the female genitals and the genital region through which birth ensues. In several cultures, there is a myth of anasyrma used for emotional healing.”
There are more fascinating insights into the erotic powers of the display of female figures. Browse Sacred Display now and learn more about the “ferocious, whimsical, and erotic female figures cross-culturally” from “early and middle Neolithic in southeast Europe—Bulgaria, Romania, and Serbia—continuing through the late Neolithic in East Asia, and into early historic Greece, India, and Ireland, and elsewhere throughout the world.”
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