Beauty Beyond Gender #ShowMeFreyja

Lon came across this beautiful photograph taken by Shilo McCabe of genderqueer porn performer Jiz Lee draped in a feathered cloak:

Jiz Lee Echoes Freyja - Used with permission

Falcon-winged, fly windy ways!

It reminded me very much of this image of Freyja by Maris Pai, which is one of my favorite portraits of Freyja.

I realized immediately that my focus for this project is too narrow. I had been thinking of how to portray Freyja’s beauty in terms of ethnic diversity, and perhaps body-shape diversity, but I hadn’t thought gender diversity would work. And yet here it is, gorgeously rendered. I don’t believe the photographer or model actually had Freyja in mind (I could be wrong about the photographer, I don’t know!) but that just goes to show that Freyja’s beauty is everywhere, not just where we choose to place it.

If you are a visual artist of some kind, and especially if you are dedicated to a Deity of Beauty of some kind, join me in this project, depicting people as whichever Deity of Beauty you are dedicated to! Get out there and #ShowMeFreyja (Or, y’know #ShowMeAphrodite, #ShowMe[YourGodHere])

–Ember–

About EmberVoices

Ember Cooke has been a member of Hrafnar and Seidhjallr for more than a decade, where she trained to be a Seidhkona, Galdrakona, and Gythia. She founded the Vanic Conspiracy and made ordination vows to the Vanir and her congregation in the summer of 2013. She has contributed to several publications on Heathen and Northern Pagan subjects and regularly presents rituals and workshops at festivals. Her personal practice is more diverse, as the Vanir have lead her into cross-training and service for the wider Pagan community. This has including medium and servitor training in American Umbanda, clergy training with the Fellowship of the Spiral Path, and jail ministry for local counties. She holds a BA with honors in Religious Studies from Santa Clara University. Ember has lived all her life in the south San Francisco Bay Area, and is intimately bound to the valley of her birth.

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4 Responses to Beauty Beyond Gender #ShowMeFreyja

sonyjalerulv says:

October 22, 2015 at 3:12 pm

That’s a great picture, definitively worthy of your #ShowMeFreyja project.

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lasirena23 says:

October 22, 2015 at 11:33 am

This response is not quite in the spirit of what you’re asking, as it seems you’re asking for a real reverent depiction. However, I love this image below, partly because of it’s irreverence, partly because it brings Aphrodite into the mundane world. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/333125703659317891/

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- EmberVoices says:
  
  October 22, 2015 at 4:32 pm
  
  Hee! I like it! I agree that it’s not quite what this project is about, but it’s cool. 🙂 -E-
  
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- EmberVoices says:
  
  October 22, 2015 at 4:34 pm
  
  It’s less that I’m looking for reverence and more that I’m looking for diversity in beauty.
  
  This, as you say, brings Aphrodite into the mundane world, but it doesn’t expand what She represents very much, in terms of human beauty. That, more than the irreverence, is why I say it’s not quite on for *this* project.
  
  But it’s still really cool 😉
  
  -E-
  
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