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The Unsolved Mystery of the Vagina Caper
In 1990, a Sheela-na-gig worth 7 million dollars was stolen from the Augustinian abbey at Kiltinan. Now, Irish residents want her back.
In 1840, Thomas O’Conor called them the “grossest idea of immorality and licentiousness.” He wasn’t referring to pornographic art. He was describing those wanton, vulva-flashing stone sculptures known as Sheela-na-gigs. (Pronounced Sheila Nah Gig)
Sheela-na-gigs (above) adorn many twelfth and thirteenth-century Romanesque churches, mainly in Ireland. They typically portray older women with lined, almond-shaped eyes and an incorrigible grin. But her most distinguishable trait is always her pose — squatting, her hands pulling apart her labia to expose her gaping vagina.
What a stone-cold hussy.
The meaning of the Sheela-na-gigs is still hotly debated. One theory is she is a pagan touchstone to protect mothers giving birth. Supposedly, women would touch the screaming vulva to make the baby come out.
But this theory doesn’t explain why such a talisman would be placed above church doors and windows and scattered along walls and wells. No one is giving birth in a well.
