In the Belly of the Goddess

The Goddess movement has been criticised within and without feminism as a distraction from more important issues for women, but the truth is, it intersects very much with political thought and action. Rummaging through old bookmarks, I rediscovered the essay The Goddess Ungirdled: How I learned to love my belly and found the Sacred Feminine within, in which Lisa Sarasohn describes how yoga and finally the image of the prehistoric Great Goddess helped her escape the trap of hating her body. (In this context, it doesn't matter whether there really was a Great Goddess - those luscious, sexy, weighty "Venus" figures are inspiring in their own right.)

Found a couple more

Challenging The 'Sex Sells' Cliche. This is a 2006 article about the porn that saturates the scum British press. The point it makes that stuck with me was that it's not sex that sells, but one narrow stereotype of "sex" out of the endless variety of human sexuality, numbingly repeated over and over and over.

And also: Championing Ourselves, a Pagan essay about the role of the woman warrior. "Most of our battles will not be fought physically, however. We need to sharpen our voices, our wits and our wills, on many fronts. Once we take on the mantle of the warrior and harden it by learning how to protect ourselves physically, that power can translate itself to any battlefield if we truly integrate it. A warrior may find that the path leads her to become a victims advocate, chain herself to a Redwood, or lobby at her statehouse. One can even find a warrior way by being a caregiver, feeding the homeless, or comforting the wounded. If we take the name "warrior" we will always find battlefields, and a warrior should have the skills to adapt to wherever she needs to be. Warriors make changes in the world, no matter how the changes must be made."