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The Naked Goddess: Pornography and the Sacred

In this article it is argued that contemporary forms of pornography rep resent an assault upon important sacred traditions which venerated female generative power and saw sexuality as a means of participating in the divine. The pornographic representations of the feminine in Western cul ture are part of systems of domination which not only support the abuse of women but also the colonization of peoples and the exploitation of nature. A celebration of the sexual cosmologies, which can still be found in cul tural performances and ritual acts, is a means of countering this domina tion. So too is the process of speaking from the vulva; reclaiming the female genitals as a source of intelligent power that both manifest in and signify the creative forces that animate the universe.

Thinking of sex as an it and women as sex objects is one of the grooves most deeply carved in the Western mind. This groove in the national mind of America will not accept the concept of sex as part of the sacred genera tive power of the universe — and of woman as bearer of this life force. The life force cannot be owned as property, used and consumed — or merchan dised. Period. For all of its sweetness, the Corn-Mother's line is implacably drawn.

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