Oh, I quite agree — it’s all a part of the, I was going to say culture, but whatever the mix of nature and nurture is. Shakti is the feminine principle of divine energy. It is generative, creative, and highly sexual, even when it’s being used in non-sexual situations. Women who have access to their shakti are very powerful, and I think that’s one of the reasons that the ancient goddess religions had to we wiped out, and not just supplanted. Priestesses and other powerful women were too powerful. More on this later today in a stand-alone piece.

But we also live in a sexually repressed society that at the same time vilifies women who are sexual, although they are still supposed to be sexy. It makes for a weird dynamic where women are shamed and accused of seeking male attention at the same time that it is demanded that they be attractive and alluring. I can remember that being confusing for me as a girl, but I too was aware of the power of sexy women. However, it’s also portrayed in media as being much more than it actually is. In the movies, men are so at the mercy of their biology that they can’t help but be manipulated. In real life, most men are not that two-dimensional and women do not have that definitive level of power.