Was It Consensual?

What if the foundation of Christianity and western society was not Immaculate Conception, but consensual sex?

If the Virgin Mary was not a virgin that would mean that she got pregnant and was then audacious enough to make up the whole story and sell it to the masses with incredible conviction. In the process, she seized respect and power for herself and for all women through history by turning submission on its axis.

My work is about the construction of femininity and female agency. I am setting two cultural ideals of femininity in juxtaposition. Both equally oversimplified. One: a symbol of purity, innocence, kindness, and motherhood. The other a sex symbol: young, beautiful, hairless, and eager to please.

When I ask “was it consensual?” I am asking if Jesus’ conception -be it via God, Joseph, or someone else- was consensual. I am also asking whether women have ever fully consented to cultural ideas about what it means to be a woman, and what behaviors and characteristics are considered feminine.

I am questioning the degree of agency the Virgin Mary had in the telling of her own story, as well as the agency of other women, who, like her, use their bodies to appropriate power out of supposed weakness.

Must all discussions about pornography be about victimhood? By removing the sword from Mary’s heart to reveal the image behind her, I am symbolically removing victimhood from the conversation.

Might some of the cleverest amongst us be quietly taking advantage of the weaknesses of powerful men by getting what they want and making them believe it was their idea all along?

Lets think critically about whether we want to believe the usual story without questioning it. Shouldn’t it be Strong, intelligent women like Maria writing the history of femininity and feminism?