Sheela-na-gig is the first song I ever heard by PJ Harvey, my second year
in college maybe?
This song is what got me into her in the first place. It's from
her first album, "Dry", which came out in 1992 (and was a pretty
short album - and I think her second album came out shortly after her first
album in 1993).
Over the years, she's had lots of different albums come out and
a lot of them are really stylistically different from each other, and some I
like better than others (I especially love the
first three; my personal favorite is probably her third album, "To Bring
You My Love" whose overall style strikes me as artsy Goth rather than
dress style/dance club Goth).
When I first heard this song, probably before I was even 20,
I loved her voice and lyrical stylings right away. She seemed unique, she
seemed different, and she seemed like she was purposely choosing to express
whatever the hell she felt the need to express, which is what should always be
done with poetry/art/music in my opinion.
The title of the song, "Sheela-na-gig", refers to
figurative carvings of naked women displaying an exaggerated vulva. To me, the
song lyrics were an implication about how some men interpret some women as
nothing but body parts with holes to penetrate. In some men's eyes, who cares what
might exist beyond that temporary penetrative hole.
If a woman enjoys her own body and sex as much as the man, then
that woman must be some sort of slutty slot machine, who you could temporarily
fuck the shit out of, but then quickly move on and never think about that sort
of female as a serious partner or potential wife, because come on. Serious
women can't be as into their own bodily pleasure as hard working men are for
fuck sake.
Any woman who is really into her own body focused pleasures must
just be some self-focused, body-focused exhibitionist, on display for men's
eyes. Heck, women who sexually exhibit their own bodies are nothing but
body-focused whore flesh in some men's eyes (even in some other women's eyes
too). Only men are supposed to offer sexual commentary about female bodies.
Women aren't supposed to offer their own bodies for anything other than
male-focused sexual pleasure or for non-exhibitionistic procreation.
Anyway, that commentary derived from part of how I perceived
this song 25 years ago.
And actually, well beyond that twenty plus years ago (or more
recently than twenty plus years ago, I should say), it's still too bad that
when you're a slightly exhibitionistic woman with a high sex drive, a lot of
men just seem to view you as a hot quick temporary fix sort of sex partner body,
without much mind or depth beyond that.
