Taryn Andreatta On Artistic Nudity, the Female Body, Feminism & Divinity AOC Sensual Rebel

by Philadelphia Body Psychotherapist Ellen Gayda

Hi Anne,

I have spent time reviewing all the correspondence over last month that was posted on AOC, between you and Taryn, based on her photographs and commentary on ‘The Offering’.

Ah! such a slippery slope that has no hard edges to grab onto, especially when one has to really reflect on one’s personal position, inside and outside of the bedroom, on healthy feminine expression. I think, it is important to state my own prejudice upfront: the photos that reflect her kneeling, the empty look, the feminine bondage are not really positive messages that support female dignity here or abroad. They stimulate old world machismo that thrives on harnessing women’s power as a sport, craft or entitlement.

Let’s move off the photographs and for discussion sake, focus on the Taryn comments that created such a feminist reaction, equating an allegedly natural state of submissiveness with women’s nurturing impulse. Arguing that woman’s natural state is to be submissive, she contrasts femaleness to the stronger male counterpart which is dominance and behavior as alleged protector of females and children.

I would say that she is mixing up two different impulses. Women being subordinate to the stronger energy of men, other than arguably physically so, is not a natural experience but a learned one.

Healthy Women Embrace Inner Strength

In a healthy society where men respect women and women are positive role models to one another, a woman is encouraged to embrace her own sensual, chaotic creative power and then learn to harness it responsibly. She discovers she carries a wild force of nature within her that is so potent that she is even capable of co-creation.

Roman sculpture depicting Achilles battling an Amazon woman warrior. Via CelebrateGreece.com

Of course, she learns through the magnetic attraction to her polarized counterpart that her experience of self is heightened.  If not taught well with an evolved sense of self, she could give over her power to a man. If women haven’t tapped into their own creative energies before they meet their counterpart, then they often attribute the excitement and power of the experience to their lover, rather than the combined forces of both.

If this happens, a woman can easily become submissive to her perceived better half and forget her own essential self. This kind of recommended female offering of self creates suspicion and concern among feminists, especially when it’s essentially the same description of women’s roles advocated by today’s religious fundamentalists worldwide and including America.