his stone penis; her plastic vagina

Latley I've been thinking about phalic symbols (ok, stop snickering, i meant in a purely academic sense!) and how women's and men's different body parts are acceptable displayed in society.

Phallic symbols, manifested throughout a wide array of patriarchal cultures, are the physical representation with our culture’s approval of male sexuality.

In the rare opportunity when a piece of substantial architecture actually represents, or is a metaphor of the female genitals… what would we call it? Indeed, I imagine that when groundbreaking artists like Gerorgia O’Keefe and Judy Chicago first revealed their work, it was the art critics who were scratching their heads, bewildered and speechless by this same linguistic gap.

The word phallic cannot even be modified, amended, or manipulated for inclusively, such as “the female phallus” as this would be an oxymoron, literally saying “the female penis.”

The cultural implications of this linguistic gender disparity are great; without even a word to describe representations of female sexuality, how can architects, artists, and creators, conceptualize significant projects to honor female sexuality?

Like a downward spiral, we cannot be sure whether the female form is symbolically underrepresented in our culture because the words necessary to promote such ideas do not exist, or whether these words do not exist because such a dialogue has never been allowed in our misogynistic culture, or whether these words have been consciously edited from our language in one of many historic conservative pendulum backlashes against female empowerment.

Ever eager to answer unanswerable questions, Dr. Jeff introduced to me one possible solution to this communication quandary: copic. Supposedly of Greek or Latin origin, this word is believed to have once been the word used to describe representations of the female genitalia. Copic is not currently accepted by modern American English language associations.

In her forward to the 1998 edition of Eve Ensler’s celebration of vag, The Vagina Monologues, Gloria Steinem wrote about the geometric heart shape as an ancient symbol of female gentiles. “I thought of this while watching little girls draw hearts on their notebooks, even dotting their i’s with hearts, and I wondered; were they magnetized by this primordial shape because it was so much like their own bodies?”


How girl’s play can be viewed either as a manifestation of their primordial desires, or as a reenactment of their socialized gender construction.


Barbie for example, has taken a great deal of blame in our culture for beginning American consumer trends of marketing hyper-sexualized images to sexually immature and undeveloped girls, reinforcing dangerously unrealistic body type expectations, and perpetuating traditional, conservative, white, upper-class, heterosexual, ideals.

Few consumers know that the first Barbie dolls were actually adult sex novelties from Germany. Yes, Barbie’s soft molded plastic legs were originally created to seductively wrap around rear-view mirrors, her ridiculously small waste and disproportionate breast were a naughty joke for mature German men.

In the initial stages of the third wave feminist movement during the early 1990’s, when feminist dialogues about body image and research about eating disorders gained significant public attention, Barbie was the focus of intense criticism. Barbie was exposed as a freak of nature, deemed naturally impossibly too thin and busty to exist as a real woman.

It has only been on the past two decades under evolving political pressure that Barbie has “met” multicultural “friends.” And despite new specialized career Barbie’s, such as “doctor Barbie’s” and “astronaut Barbie’s” these novelty dolls are still far less accessible than “wedding Barbie’s” or “fashion Barbie’s” which reinforce both image of decadent American privilege, and constrictive conservative feminine stereotypes.

I was am not Barbie-Bashing here, I am just trying to understand her as a cultural icon of female sexuality.

My true confession? I was an avid Barbie player, in fact the craze consumed nearly 10 years of my young life. But reflecting back upon how I feel about gender roles, I still have mixed emotions about my relationship with Barbie.

I am left pondering..
Why do incarnations of the male phallus take the form of stone and tower over the capitol of our nation, yet expressions of the female form are relegated to modu-form plastic?