Penis worship... why not the vagina?

[Devastatin Dave]

Several cultures worship the penis as a reproductive talisman or symbol. There are several temples and other religious sites that use the phallic as an idol and I've always wondered why not the vagina? The testicles can produce sperm in abundance but it is the vagina that has the hardest job out of the two sex organs. Am I off target here? Is there any culture that uses the vagina as a religious talisman for reproduction?

[Proletariat]

Because building an obelisk makes a cooler monument than a giant cave?

[GoreBag]

I don't know about the talisman bit, but I believe Krisna once called the vulva 'the gates of life'. Many early cultures also had cults of sacred whores or the like, but that's more of a female sexuality thing than simply the organ itself. That kind of makes sense, though; we don't get to see the child being grown, we only see that it is growing.

Also, comparitively speaking, the penis is a very..protruding organ. Compared to it, the women's parts may only emphasise that the magic is being worked internally rather than externally.

Besides, penises are way funnier.

[rory_20_uk]

The vagina doesn't do much. I'd say the uterus is the true unsung hero (heroine?).

I have heard that the Christian use of the fish was initially worship of Mary's uterus, but the meaning was altered to fit in with more PC times when such things wern't admissable.

Breasts are often thought of the giver of life / milk etc etc, and again are protruding and have an obvious function. The female UG system is not everted, and is not so readily obvious. Plus women aren't as obsessed by their own bits as blokes are by theirs.

[TB666]

It's simple.
Those societies are male-oriented hence see the penis as a form of power and the bringer of life.
Besides the mechanics for the penis is far easier to understand then the vagina if you see it from a primitive point of view.
I mean it gets hard, something comes out, Huzzah. It's easy.

[Devastatin Dave]

Would the Washington monument be considered a phallic symbol as well? I was looking at outside cultures without considering my own. I know that the Washington monument is replicated from the Egyptions, but is its roots the penis?

i hope that this thread doesn't get locked because it is an interesting subject on the effects the penis has on all of our cultures.

[Taffy_is_a_Taff]

I have heard that the Christian use of the fish was initially worship of Mary's uterus, but the meaning was altered to fit in with more PC times when such things wern't admissable.

Are you suggesting that the Blessed Virgin Mary had female hygiene issues?

[rory_20_uk]

Uh, no.

The shape, if can be imagined would have the body of the fish as the uterus, and the tail as the vagina.

Fresh fish does not have a particular odour. The smell comes from the decarboxylation of the amino acids releasing amines, which often occurrs when the protien rich fish is being digested by bacteria.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

And for those that wish to know, the same is true when one is inflicted by bacterial vaginitis: bacterial overgrowth digests protien to produce the "fishy" (i.e. amine rich) smell.

[Taffy_is_a_Taff]

Uh, no.

only teasing

[Watchman]

Outta curiostiy, aren't we forgetting the Stone Age "venus" figurines and similar clear cult items ?

You can ask the feminist theoreticians what happened after that. They ought to be eager to tell you.

[Ianofsmeg16]

Because building an obelisk makes a cooler monument than a giant cave?

That there, is the single funniest thing ever

Well done!

[Adrian II]

Think: breasts. Agricultural societies often have (or had) female deities they revered. Some vaginal symbols and loads of big-breasted statues and drawings from their cults have been preserved.

[solypsist]

i worship vagina. if you want to worship penis, you're free to do so.

[Reverend Joe]

i worship vagina.

You ain't alone.

The symbol of male authority, by the way, mainly derives from the fact that the men were given the protector role in the ancient societies (in the West, that is.) Therefore, they were inherently vested with more authority, since they did the bloody fighting and hunting, whereas the women cared for the young and foraged for the most part. This is not to say the situation could have been reversed, but it was naturally easier this way, since the women could much more easily feed the young in their early stages.

The situation of male authority meant that, for lack of a better way of putting it, a prominent and powerful symbol had to be used to represent authority, hence the phallus. However, as previously mentioned, authority was not the only thing to be worship; the female form (the uterus and breasts) were also observed with relatively equal significance, as they represented authority. The most powerful example of this (again, Western-wise) appeared in the form of the proto-gods of the Indo-European peoples, the Earth Mother and Sky Father, a setup which would form the basis of almost every religion to emerge out of the western world. It was this dichotomy that was somehow lost in later (monotheistic) religions.

Another odd fact: Japan has a penis festival. No joke.

[Adrian II]

i worship vagina. if you want to worship penis, you're free to do so.

What about worshipping breasts or butts? You find that acceptable?

[Rodion Romanovich]

Several cultures worship the penis as a reproductive talisman or symbol. There are several temples and other religious sites that use the phallic as an idol and I've always wondered why not the vagina? The testicles can produce sperm in abundance but it is the vagina that has the hardest job out of the two sex organs. Am I off target here? Is there any culture that uses the vagina as a religious talisman for reproduction?

It's simple - early cultures didn't worship the sex, but the reproduction. The vagina is only the gate to the real reproduction organs, not a reproduction organ in itself. Pregnant women statuettes are abundant in archaeological find from early cultures. In fact they were often more common than penis cult IIRC. It's modern day man that thinks more about the vagina and sex than about reproduction. I leave it to others to interpret the more philosophical meanings of that, such as "have we degraded/improved?" and so on... It seems like the women were treated pretty fair in the earliest pre-neolitic cultures in both religion and other things. However the pregnancy worship seems to have lost importance to the penis cult stuff at about the same time civilizations became more men dominated at about the time of the transfer to settled farming societies.

[Reverend Joe]

What about worshipping breasts or butts? You find that acceptable?

That's secondary... technically, a man can have breasts.

[Watchman]

Factually, virtually all do. They're just not much to speak of normally. Decidedly unimpressive little things.

[Xiahou]

Because building an obelisk makes a cooler monument than a giant cave?

Stole my answer.

It's like the joke where people say submarines are phallic symbols.... I dont think that the alternative is very practical.

[Samurai Waki]

Well Submarines are long and hard, and full of Seamen.

[Viking]

Well Submarines are long and hard, and full of Seamen.

I just had to comment on that comparisasion.

[Major Robert Dump]

I'm doing a 5-man show that will tour the country, it's called "The Penis Monologues" It's very popular at womens universities.

[Lemur]

Would the Washington monument be considered a phallic symbol as well?

The obelisk is widely considered to be a phallic symbol. I did a little digging, but couldn't find a (relatively) neutral article on the subject. Since the obelisk is also a symbol from ancient Egypt and Babylon, it's been pretty controversial, especially when some architects would get overly pointy with church steeples. (Apparently some of the steeples in London are suspiciously obelisk-ish.)

Then there's the Freemason connection with obelisks, which makes everybody a bit jumpy. Washinton was a Mason, of course, so it's natural that his monument would derive from that symbolism. But people go a little nuts about it, with all sorts of wacky conspiracy theories.

Anyway, short answer is yes, the Washingon Monument is a big phallic symbol, the rock that begot, a fatherly, patriarchal tower of power.

I've read several authors who posit that the obelisk's natural counterpart is the dome. The nice, round dome. Can't have your ying with no yang, after all.

[A.Saturnus]

Well, according to the psycho-analytic Iregaray apparently everything that's longer than it's wide is a phallic symbol. I'm not sure whether that includes people, I think she's a bit confused.

[Watchman]

Didn't Freud himself once observe that "sometimes a cigar is only a cigar" ?

[GoreBag]

The obelisk is widely considered to be a phallic symbol. I did a little digging, but couldn't find a (relatively) neutral article on the subject. Since the obelisk is also a symbol from ancient Egypt and Babylon, it's been pretty controversial, especially when some architects would get overly pointy with church steeples. (Apparently some of the steeples in London are suspiciously obelisk-ish.)

Bringing up Egypt as a rebuttal against the idea the obelisks are phallic symbols doesn't make much sense. Prisoners and heretics were often executed in Egypt by lowering them on giant wooden...dongs.

And yeah, Watchman, Freud did. I believe that also prompted the famous response, "Screw you, Freud, screw you."

[Ja'chyra]

The Washington monument is just that, a bloody monument.

I don't think there are nearly as many people obsessed with phallic symbols as there are people who are obsessed with people being obsessed with phallic symbols, if you know what I mean.

[Bartix]

If you will make monument, long slim shape is a bit obvious, no?
It is often not told by creators that obelisks are phallic cymbals. It is guessed by filth minding archaeologists and historians. My watch has 3 penises on it?

Didn't Freud himself once observe that "sometimes a cigar is only a cigar" ?

And some times a pipe is not a prophet.

[Watchman]

What about burning shrubberies then ?

[Divinus Arma]

Didn't Freud himself once observe that "sometimes a cigar is only a cigar" ?

Freud also wanted to schtoop is mama.