Eroticism in Art (2)

For anyone who hasn't met her, here's a Sheela-na-Gig. This one is resplendent on the corbel table of Kilpeck Church, Herefordshire, where she has delighted visitors for centuries.

There is much scholarly dispute about her precise meaning, academics being too shy to articulate the words "Up my Wigwam, Big Boy!". It has been observed that 'They are often positioned over doors or windows, presumably to protect these openings,' [Bumsquash & Rattlesnake, 1904] when it is more probable that she was just there to catch the produce of any local young buck who missed when trying to have a tuppenny upright with a local hooker. Against the church door.

It is, however, heartening to realise that the church at one time espoused causes like this. And though modern churches do not generally feature a Sheela-na-Gig, she still finds expression in the Australian colloquialism 'Sheila', which refers to any female woman of the opposite sex - and provides a fascinating insight into the psyche of the male Australian.

The Sheela-na-Gig, in Sligo town, has also become just another name for another Irish pub, again reflecting the aspirations and expectations of the drinking Irishman. [Sutherland & Wyndebagge, 1932].

However, all this refreshing realism was swept away under the metaphorical carpet during the Victorian era. The Obscene Publications Act 1857 banned works 'written for the single purpose of corrupting the morals of youth and of a nature calculated to shock the common feelings of decency in any well-regulated mind', but an amendment to this act made by the Lord Chief Justice in 1868 included anything that could corrupt, whether this was intended or not. It led to the banning of medical textbooks, bird-spotters' handbooks and the sale of chicken portions.

However, it is questionable whether the Lord Chief Justice really had a 'well-regulated mind'. His name was Cockburn.

The net result of all this, of course, was merely to drive eroticism underground from whence it emerged in disguised forms. An early reference to oral sex can be located in the following verse by Lewis Carroll. It is an excerpt from 'The Crocodile' mentioned in 'Alice in Wonderland'

'How cheerfully he seems to grin
How neatly spread his claws
And welcomes little fishes in
With gently smiling jaws'

Note that, as is typical with Victorian literature, 'he' can refer to either male or female of the species - or both - as the recipient of the 'little fishes'. I do not need to elaborate on the true meaning of 'little fishes' to a sophisticated bunch like the readers of this blog. So here we have what seems at first to be a sexually ambiguous exploration of the theme. There are, however, some puzzling references here - specifically, the one describing 'gently smiling Jaws'.

The discerning scholar will recall that the original 'Jaws' had a facial expression which made Mr Grumpy of the Mr Men clan look positively radiant; 'gently smiling' being a hardly appropriate description. However, as with much of Lewis Carroll's work, he metaphorically 'turns things upside down', and the puzzle can be further deciphered by inverting the image to which the verse refers, whereupon the following pleasing result ensues:



The link between the image of the white shark in 'Jaws' and the Sheela-na-Gig is immediately apparent, and will be explored in a future post.