Maria vulva sacra, Our Lady of Milkis one of the oldest and most revered iconsespecially in Middle East and in the Ethiopian area, where Christianity took root as early as the first century. Even today, the Milk Grotto in Jerusalem is a destination for incessant pilgrimages of women expecting or wishing to become mothers.
Every 29 April, the Orthodox Church celebrates the breasts of Mary, 'life-giving Spring' with a beautiful hymn who lifts the sick from their beds, frees the afflicted, strengthens the frail, restores the thirsty, restores sight to the blind and health to the sick. The authors fuse in this song the Magnificat and the Gospel of Matthew, indicating that salvation - not only in spiritual terms, but in terms of human and social justice - is realised thanks to Mary's 'yes'.which 'gushes forth from its source ever living streams'.
Also in the West the 'female' Madonna (pregnant, puerpera, even in the act of reading the sacred text while Joseph lovingly cares for the Child) was a recurring imagethink of Piero della Francesca's Madonna del Parto.
Maria in short has, or has had, a body - unique, total and all-embracing - but it has never been reduced to itlet alone dismembered parts of it. Without his consent re-creation would not have taken place. He recalls this in two striking pages Luisa Muraro (The soul of the body, La Scuola 2016): Mary is certainly not equivalent to a womb for rent! It would be enough to know the aforementioned Magnificat, one of the most 'revolutionary' canticles of the Bible, to realise that There is nothing passive in Mary. Teresa Forcades he adds: 'Mary is a truly free woman. She was able to relate to God from a position of equality. When God asks her if she wants to have a child by Him, her first reaction is one of astonishment... God tells her: 'I am not God because I make the rules, because I tell you what you must and what is right to do, because I am the adult; but simply because I am life itself. You and I can only interact if we wish, if you wish'... God does not impose himself on you by force. God asks, Maria agrees and gets pregnant because they love each other' (We are all different! For a queer theology, Castelvecchi 2016). It is the same reason why, over the centuries, many authors have seen in the eroticism of the Song of Songs an allegory of God's love for humanity.
Of course, there is also a Sexualising and spiritualising Mariology. Generations of Unmarried males in sacred vestments turned the young 'irregular' Jewess into the emblem of reaction and misogyny. But Scripture grows with humanity; and, especially thanks to the intellectual contribution of so many theologians and mystics, Mary has long since been restored to her dignity as a woman. A 'recent' phenomenon? Not really. For Hildegard of Bingen, philosopher, mystic, musician, doctor of the Church (12th century), who compared the universe to a great feminine force and saw in orgasm the memory of the sweetness of earthly Paradise, Mary was the 'blazing dawn'.; and we are forced to gloss over Teresa of Avila, Juliana of Norwich, Bridget of Sweden and others, of East and West...
The body of Mary has therefore, whether alluded to or explicitly, spanned the millennia, not yet fully realised, it is certain, but equally alive and concrete. His physicality therefore no longer scandalises anyone; at least in theory. Why, then, did the Madonna stripped and in chains at certain 'secular' and 'libertarian' demonstrations also disgust so many non-believers, progressives, women and men?
For nudity? No. That 'naked' Madonna is not a 'funny mystery'.
It is onlytrivially, unbearably, a vulgar, synthetic mannequin. It conveys a sick - or malign - sterility. It is glabrous and bloodless. The breasts are small and spoiled, obviously nothing flows from them. That curvaceous 'Madonna', so much like a coked-up model, is not, will never be a mother. And the mothera certain type of mother - the only - unquestionably female, free of asterisks and schwa, according to some vulgate, is not 'glamorous'.
Sex, in this view, is only to be declined if it is excessive, extravagant, non-binary, non-cis etc. Put simply: 'make it weird'. We are aware that such gimmicks have as their first purpose to make people talk about themselvesgood or bad does not matter, especially when one has no valid argument to put forward; Nevertheless, they convey a message that is not insignificant. The identification of sex with pornography, more and more exaggerated (because, being repetitive, it soon tires); and, ultimately, as a drug.
In a landscape where there is no rule but only the exception, indeed, the exception becomes the rule itself, everything can, indeed must, be accepted; Christianity - and theto Madonna as female mother-virgin wife - is to be rejected and/or mocked as an emblem of the hated 'white western heteronormative sexophobic' society etc. And, mind you: only Christianity. Other religions, no (also because one would run a few too many risks...). We have witnessed 'burqa queens' in rainbow sauce, and these were not parodies but demonstrations of 'solidarity' with the 'traditions' of 'minorities' harassed by the usual evil white cisgender Christians and so on. All the while, in different parts of the world, men and especially women/children suffered persecution, torture and murder for their faith. Because yes, in some quarters, it is only Christians who defend the most marginalised, weak, Dalit, disabled people otherwise doomed to annihilation.
For Pakistani Asia Bibi, who was imprisoned for ten years on a false accusation of blasphemy after being tortured, beaten, raped and finally forced to flee, not a breath was taken; it was not felt for the girls Huma Younus, Aleeza Naeem, Mahnoor Ashraf and myriads of others kidnapped, forcibly converted and forced to marry 40-year-olds (and more); not a word in defence of Deborah Samuel, Nigerian, 19 years old, killed and burnt because of the infamous 'blasphemy'; all women, just women. And, shamefully, hardly any news of the Pentecost massacre in Owo, still in Nigeria. Again, most of the victims were women and children.
Not white. Not western. Whether they were queer or not we ignore, someone might have been. Or not. We do know, however, that they had their throats slit like kids.
But to the gauche-caviar these victims do not seem exotic enough. So they go back to being 'black' whatever, who cares.
Much better are the S&M Madonnas. A little bit of junk and Frank Zappa's in your face.
Daniela Tuscano.
