The curtains for May, mother's month, have already closed, thus ending a show full of courage, benevolence and delicacy. Despite this, however, this text is dedicated to dealing with something that is on people's lips from time to time, but that is rarely discussed seriously. I'm referring to PUSSY. But calm down, because, at least at first, I'm not referring to the cunt as being that place where we all come from, but the word itself.
Yes, I know the word sounds offensive to you, and possibly more than others – like pepeka, pussy, xana, etc. – commonly used to designate the vulva. I don't know the reason for this resistance to the term, but I believe that an investigation of the origins of “pussy” as a reference to female genitalia – and, therefore, as a taboo – can deconstruct this negative character of the term a little.
A likely explanation lies in Greek mythology. And, yes, we are talking about her, “Pandora's box”, which, in fact, was never a box, but originally, pussy.
Pandora's pussy.
Derived from the old French expression “boucette” – registered in the 14th century and being a diminutive of “boce/bosse” (vessel) –, it is part of the Portuguese lexicon, designating a small round or oval box intended for personal objects, such as jewelry. Going further back in time, we see that “pussy” comes from Latin and Greek, being equivalent to “box”, but, as already said, with characteristics that differ from a common box. Furthermore, the expression “Pandora's cunt” is commonly used as a reference to something that generates curiosity, but which should not be revealed.
There are many versions of the story, so for that reason – as well as not to stray from the pussy, which is our focus here – we won’t go into details, here we are suggesting the research, which is very worthwhile. .
The fact is that it all started with a fight between Zeus, king of the Universe, and the brothers Epimetheus and Prometheus, in charge of creating animals to populate the Earth. While Epimetheus created the molds of animals and assigned them qualities, Prometheus supervised his brother's work.
The fuck was that Prometheus ended up getting attached to man, the last animal created by his brother, and, aiming to put him in a position of advantage over the others, he stole the fire of the gods for him, contradicting the god of Olympus, who had forbidden him. definitively to bestow it on the human creature newly created from clay.
There was no other: Zeus condemned Prometheus to a horrible punishment, from which he was only released years later, thanks to Hercules. But the fact that the disobedience was Prometheus' did not absolve his brother of guilt. After all, he was the artist behind the human creature. And it was from this reasoning that Zeus had the idea of ​​giving Epimetheus a “Greek's gift” (but this expression comes from another story, ok?), entrusting the gods Hephaestus and Athena with a company for man. And behold, a masterpiece called Pandora comes to light – from the Greek “pan” (all) and “doron” (gift), meaning something like “all gifts”.
Created Pandora, the two turned to other Olympian gods in order to give qualities to the beautiful creature. Thus, Pandora received beauty, grace, wisdom, manual dexterity, persuasion, delicacy, the art of dancing, etc. Zeus, however, aiming to teach humanity never to disrespect him, as Prometheus had done, granted Pandora a defect - curiosity - and, in parallel with the creation of the young woman, created a cunt (box or even jug in other versions) of immeasurable beauty, imprisoning within it all the evils of the world: anger, envy, sadness, jealousy, laziness and another rather controversial evil, which we will talk about later.
Thus, wearing the sumptuous cunt, Pandora was sent to Epimetheus as a reward for his contribution to the peopling of the Earth. However, goaded by the warnings given by his brother Prometheus, Epimetheus decided not to probe the pussy brought by his beloved companion, because a gift from the once angry Zeus would not be a good thing. And so they had a very happy life without touching pussy…but not for long.
Despite Epimetheus' protests, Pandora eventually gave in to her curiosity, and, opening the container, released all the evils, which spread throughout the world and involved humanity in wars, diseases and the like.
Frightened, the beautiful Pandora closed the container before the last evil could escape. That controversial one we talked about earlier: HOPE. That must be why they say that "hope is the last to die"...
The cunt is therefore man's greatest gift and greatest misfortune. His glory and his doom. It is not surprising, for example, that the great Machado de Assis mentioned the expression “Pandora's cunt” in his greatest work, “Dom Casmurro”, which introduces us to the enigmatic Capitu.
The cunt that once imprisoned the evils of the world has an analogous relation to the cunt that now imprisons the hearts. And do not think that any resemblance to biblical allegory is purely coincidental. A companion for Adam, the forbidden fruit, Eve's disobedience, knowledge of good and evil, etc.
By the way, confronting Greek and Judeo-Christian mythologies helps us to understand the role of hope in this whole story. Well, the same Christianity that considers Eve to have given birth to sin – like Pandora – exalts, especially in its Catholic expression, the one who would have given birth to the Savior.
So, if both misfortune (sin) and salvation (Christ) came from a cunt, the conclusion seems indisputable that the use of such a term to designate the vulva is due to its potential to generate good and evil. And here we can even establish a relationship with that infamous (and often irresponsible) idea of ​​common sense that children are the future of the nation, of humanity, etc., with women being the only being capable of gestating this future (a very poetry, by the way).
It is worth mentioning that, if we try here, through an etymological and mythological approach, to deconstruct the negative connotation of “pussy”, feminists are already doing it with a more political approach as a way of honoring their genitalia. Just like the spiritualists, who give it – or recognize – sacredness. And all this, except for exaggerations, seems to me to be very valid, especially as a way of dealing with a patriarchal society, which, as in the allegories discussed here, blames the woman, who must protect herself. A society in which women are guilty of being raped. A society that makes a “chicken” a compliment for the man and an insult for the woman.
But if, on the one hand, the myth can be taken as a reflection of a sexist society, on the other hand, we can make it a new reading, conceiving it as a compliment to the power and autonomy of women. You see: it was Pandora's decision to open the container, just as it was Eva's initiative to taste the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. And even the conception of the Savior demanded the “yes” of Mary. We are talking about CONSENT.
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This is the power of the myth, of how much we can understand about our society through it and, who knows, transform it. Here is the liberating role of art, including in terms of female emancipation, from “The Origin of the World”, by Gustave Coubert, to “My Pussy É o Poder”, by Valesca Popozuda (and we will not discuss quality here…).
I make this text a tribute to women, extolling her decisive presence in myth and history, as well as the virtues taught by her through the wisdom of Gaia, the poetry of Brighid, the subversion of Lilith, the silence of Maria, the sovereignty of of Kuan Yin and the grandeur of IansĂŁ. To them, real and fictional characters, indispensable to the understanding of the most remote past of men. And, of course, to the cunt, which gave us passage to this world and, therefore, the possibility of doing something here that is really worthwhile.
