Whatever your stance on goddesses is, as a woman, you can’t deny the power of that statement.

“The cervix is the seat of the goddess.”

I’ve been practicing what is known as The Tantric Dance of Feminine Power with my teacher, Nita Rubio, for 5 years and I’ve had more than a handful of powerful moments in the sacred, female-centered space she facilitates (one of the few spaces in which the “male gaze” is not present). Revisiting my battle with my body after giving birth has been rough to say the least. Instead of basking in my body’s ability to create, sustain and give life, I’ve resorted to full blown body bashing and self-loathing. To hear Nita state, “the cervix is the seat of the goddess,” as I moved into a full body meditation immediately shifted my perspective on my body and my relationship to my body (at least for a few moments) and gave me something to ponder long after class was over that Tuesday night.

In that moment and for several following, my anger, disappointment and frustration was mixed with a sense of gratitude, reverence and respect. Too often we view our bodies as an object to manipulate and control. When our body doesn’t live up to some of our wildly unrealistic expectations, we engage in negative self-talk and equally destructive body practices. The internal critical dialouge and punishing rituals we engage in to force our body to do as it is told is nothing short of an abusive relationship with ourselves.

How would we and how can we treat our bodies differently by shifting our perspective on, our image of, and our relationship to our bodies, bodies that carry us through the world, allowing us to experience life in all its good and bad?

Whether or not you abide with goddess worship, or have a clear understanding of feminist spirituality and the place of the goddess in that tradition, the idea that the cervix is the seat of the goddess, establishes (or re-establishes) a sense of wonder about our physical forms. Instead of seeing our bodies as taken-for-granted physical vehicles, our bodies become a source of magic and beauty.

When I look at my son’s body, see it work, watch it develop, I am in awe. It is pure perfection, beauty, a miracle. I don’t remember the last time I felt that way about on my body. Is my body any less miraculous because of my scar and the extra pounds I’m currently carrying? According to images and messages in the dominant culture the answer is an unequivocal, yes.

Listen, I haven’t reached total body enlightenment. I’m still grappling with the negative fat talk in my head. But, Nita and my son reminded me of the beauty that is me and when I believe it again whole-heatedly, I will truly be whole, truly at peace.

I found this at Radical Doula and it just pisses me off!

Pretty Pushers (the name says it all) is “modernizing” your labor  by making it “fashionable” with designer delivery gowns and a “dressed up delivery kit.”

I swear!

This is fucking crazy. In order to primp up “that unrecognizable monster” (YES! This advertisement actually says MONSTER) in the hospital for post delivery photos (what are they sending in the paparazzi, I mean, really!?), the kit offers sheer gloss, lemon-water towlettes and a headband for those damn fly aways that birthing a human being brings about.

As if we didn’t have enough pressure in general…and I though the relentless focus on post baby weight loss was horrendous! This takes it to another level entirely.

And “moderninzing” labor? Labor is labor. What, throwing in consumer goods and imposed beauty standards and voila! we have a “modern” birth?

As Radical Doula says:

Perpetuating screwed up ideas about women’s beauty is already infuriating enough, but now we need to mix it in with childbirth. If you’ve ever actually been with a woman after she’s given birth, I’d say she looks pretty damn beautiful, sweat and all.