Betsy Prioleau Quotes
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Androgyny is embedded in our cultural mythology. In many creation stories, the great ‘He-She’ created life on earth, and the Hindu fertility god, Shiva, assumed both sexes to attain “divine sensual delight.” Often, shamans achieved their ‘mana’ (air of sacred authority) by assuming a double-sexed persona.
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With the spread of conformity and image-driven superficiality, the allure of an individuated woman in full possession of herself and her powers will prove irresistible. We were born for plenitude and inner fulfillment.
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Inanna, goddess of sexual allure and desire, was the supernova of Near Eastern deities. She cut a formidable figure. Despite the goddess’s role reduction to the sphere of sexuality, Inanna retained the cosmic authority of the prehistoric deities. Like them, she was the “Totality of What Is,” the “Lady of Blazing Dominion,” who contained multitudes and contradictions, and presided over life, death, and regeneration. Her numerous names reflect her myriad aspects: Queen of Heaven, Great Mother Cow, Princely Inanna, Lady of Vegetation, First Snake, First Daughter of the Moon, Lady of Raging Battle, and Bearer of Happiness. But her defining quality was her prodigal, hot-bodied female sexuality. She incarnated raw erotic desire, beyond societal laws and human control.
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Romantic love is one of the most extreme human experiences. Under a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan, passionate love looks like a lightning strike; centers deep in the midbrain flare up and release a torrent of dopamine and norepinephrine. It’s so close to what happens when we’re angry or afraid, that psychologists believe any intense feeling, in a “spillover effect,” can ignite desire.
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Men who “actively” appreciate and enjoy women, aren’t that common. Boys are raised to boycott the girls’ club and bond with each other. The “bromance” tradition is ancient and deep-dyed, a devotion to male friends that can be “wonderful, passing the love of women.” In the extreme, it tips over into misogyny. By contrast, ladies’ men like women inside and out and seek their companionship. Such gynephilia makes a man hum with charisma. It’s the mystery of connectivity. When someone empathizes and synchronizes with us, the effect is galvanic. Mirror neurons light up, and our bodies kick off opiate-like endorphins. We endow rapport artists with “chemistry”—incandescent sexiness.
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Contrary to her siren-in-slinkwear reputation, Cleopatra was actually “one of the greatest politicians of all time.” At the same time, she set the gold standard for seduction. An archfascinator, she conquered the twin titans of the age and put her charms to brilliant political and erotic account.
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The first, Emilie du Chatelet, was a woman cut to a superhuman scale. “A genius in virtually every realm of mathematics,” she outsmarted the leading male scholars of her day. In addition, she looked like a celebrity model, loved like a Lotharia, and lived like a sultana. “The wench,” said a Romeo of the age, “is formidable.” “The most brilliant member of her sex in Europe,” she was also a “passionate,” magisterial siren who captured and held the two beaux du jour of Paris, the duc de Richelieu and Voltaire.