Femininity, feminine something, something feminine, FEMINI-SOMETHING!
Since the dawn of time, the archetype of women is constructed from three elements.

Women is represented as a pure virgin, a fertile mother or a sensual witch (C. G. Jung, On the Nature of Woman, Poznan 1992, p. 51). From the ancient Egyptians to the Asians, Mesopotamians, Africans, Celts and the peoples of Latin America, the concept of cosmic goddess of fertility was highly respected and revered.
The archetype of Mother-Creator, the first mother (Latin matrix) can be found in the form of the Egyptian goddess of heaven Nut; in Hinduism Sakti, Prakriti, Kundalini; in Taoism the Yin principle, Lan Tai-ho, yoni or Dakini; in the form of Aphrodite (Roman Venus) in the Hellenist culture or Anu goddess-mother of the Irish Celts.
Although in the aforementioned cultures the position of a woman, goddess-creator was highly valued and inseparable from its male aspect, then the patriarchal origins of the European culture established and consolidated quite a different position of women.
In the ancient times, full of war and violence, the mightiest warriors used to become the rulers of the conquered peoples. To become a king, it was enough for a warrior to be brave and win in fight. No one bothered whether he was literate or protective. Since times immemorial, the world allowed the stronger to rule the weaker. A good king is a strong king. Whom the nature made stronger? Women or men?
With time, physical weakness became associated with lack of intelligence. To marry a daughter, her parents had to pay a dowry, while in many countries sons could marry as many women as they wished. For ages, women were left uneducated. They could neither write nor read. Usually, they were excluded from religious observances.
The Book of Genesis mentions that Eve was created by God from Adam’s rib. He, in turn, was created as the first one, in the image of God. This suggest that God is male
In the Judeo-Christian culture, this myth consolidated the dualist conception of opposing and mutually threatening spirituality and corporeality. Spirituality is understood here as a wholly good and male element. Evil is renounced here and personified with corporeality, a woman-seductress and Satan. The advent of Christianity seemed to improve women’s position, starting, in 12th century, the cult of the Mother of God forever virgin. But how can one be a mother, being a virgin
The Hebrew religion, from which Christianity grew out, perceived women as worse, lacking in morality. To prove these words, I’ll quote a book popular in 17th century, The Hammer of Witches written by inquisitor H. Institoris: word woman’ means a bodily desire, as it was said: I learnt that a woman holds more bitterness than death, and a good woman is driven by sensual desire. (Women) are more corporeal, and since the main goal of the Devil is to destroy faith, hence he prefers to attack them rather than men […] She is more corporeal than a man, which can be seen in her lecherous deeds full of abomination (The Hammer of Witches, Wroclaw 1992, J. B. Russel, Short History…, p. 140).
The Age of Enlightenment gradually eliminated the practice of persecuting witches “full of abomination”. In 18th century, self-respecting women copied the archetypal model of “forever virgin”. In those days, since childhood, a woman had a large sign NO imprinted when it came to sex (N. Friday, Women on Top, Poznan 1994, pp. 11, 18, quoted in: Z. Melosik, “Crisis of Masculinity in Modern Culture”, Poznan 2002, p. 48). In the next century, the Victorian code of good manners demanded girls to avoid seeing themselves naked, even in the surface of water. Special powders for clouding water were produced, not to put the feeling of shyness in danger’ […] and having mirrors in places where one could see her own nakedness was considered indecent (A. Gromkowska, Victorian Woman: social construction of body and identity,The Present Time. Man. Education, 2000, No. 4 (12), p. 64-69, quoted in: Z. Melosik, Crisis of Masculinity…, p. 48). A 19th century woman was ornamental, delicate, humble. Her fragile body represented spiritual transcendence’ and victory over sexual desires. (A. Gromkowska, Victorian Woman: social construction of body and identity, The Present Time. Man. Education. 2000, No. 4 (12), p. 64-69, quoted in: Z. Melosik, Crisis of Masculinity…, p. 48).
From this regularity between a woman and a man a certain cultural dissonance was born.
Actually, there are no FACTS that could explain this disproportion. There’s no logical reason why women should be considered superior to men, less resourceful, or physically weaker.
In spite of emancipation, activities of feminist groups, or examples of wonderful women changing and creating the course of history, until this day it can be observed that representatives of both sexes behave according to particular habits, persistently sticking to out-dated beliefs and traditions relating to femininity.
KOBIE-COŚ (FEMINI-SOMETHING) is a drawing proposition of playing with habitual perception. It’s juggling with stereotypical understanding of femininity by the media, society and the women themselves. What is that feminine “SOMETHING”? Does the Jungian triple aspect of the feminine archetype described at the beginning of this passage have its counterpart in modern times?
Don’t we observe a certain regularity the aspect of Goddess-mother transformed into the image of a modern housewife-goddess of the hearth and home, kindly serving exquisite bouillons, and getting us out of trouble when we eat them offering Xenna ESKTRA in HD quality.
Billboards advertising cosmetics, cars, perfumes look at us in an alluring, encouraging way, attracting with slightly open lips. This is a look of a modern, eternally beautiful and young witch of desire Once such women were burnt alive, nowadays they’re on flammable paper, exciting men’s fantasies till they get red hot
And what happened to the forever virgin, if already in high school magazines we can find how to seduce HIM strategies; being a virgin is so lame.
well, maybe there’s SOMETHING in it… go see for yourselves, dear princesses
Katarzyna Łyszkowska