The concept of The Goddess ~ ie, a strong & divine feminine force ~ goes back to the very earliest days of human history. In ancient cultures the Goddess was worshipped in large part for her fertility (her direct relationship to sex / creation), whereas the Modern Goddess of our time is "worshipped" because she is sexy, but essentially not fertile. The difference in these two ways of seeing the "divine" feminine is profound.

Marilyn Monroe, for example, was often described as a "Film Goddess" in large part because of her smoldering sexuality, which is to say, men found her desirable and arousing. But while her famous nude Playboy photo spread from December 1953 was a milestone in the presentation of a glamorous woman via the mass media, it certainly did not reassure people that they would be bountiful in their crops or inspire them to have more children. Marilyn was thus a "Goddess" that personified the sexual force without the aspect of procreation, whereas historically the ability to grant fertility to individuals or to entire communities was in fact a fundamental power that the Goddesses of old were believed to have possessed. For example, the ancient Greek Goddess Aphrodite (Roman name "Venus") ~ the above/right image ~ was the Goddess of love, beauty and fertility.

· For more detailed information about the evolution of what we are calling the "Modern Goddess" (the idealized woman in contemporary media), see the excellent articles at [Cheesecake & The Art of the Pin-up]