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The Shrinking Goddess: Power, Myth and the Female Body
Wild and strange stories have circulated about the female body since antiquity. While legends of poisoned hymens and fanged vaginas circulated, the first female figure – Mother Earth – was recreated as a crooked rib. Ranging from the absurd to the empowering, these myths not only survive but continue to wield power today.
- GenresNonfiction
288 pages, Hardcover
Published December 3, 2024
About the author
Mineke Schipper
47 books27 followersMineke Schipper is a Dutch author of non-fiction and fiction. As a scholar she is best known for her work on comparative literature mythologies and intercultural studies.
Mineke Schipper studied French and Philosophy at Amsterdam Free University and Literary Theory, followed by Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Utrecht. She started her career teaching French and African Literature at the Université Libre du Congo (between 1964 and 1972). She received her PhD in Amsterdam in 1973, writing the first thesis in the Netherlands on African literature) and dedicated herself to developing the field of intercultural literary studies. In 1988 she became the first Professor of Intercultural Literary Studies in the Netherlands, at the Free University of Amsterdam. In 1993 she moved to Leiden University where she played a dynamic role in building intercultural bridges in researching and lecturing comparative literature in a global context.
In 1999 she received an honorary doctorate from Chengdu University (Sichuan Province) in China. Since 2000 she has been regularly invited by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) where she collaborates with colleagues on projects about epics and creation myths. In December 2008 she gave her farewell address at the University of Leiden.
Mineke Schipper lives in Amsterdam.
Mineke Schipper studied French and Philosophy at Amsterdam Free University and Literary Theory, followed by Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Utrecht. She started her career teaching French and African Literature at the Université Libre du Congo (between 1964 and 1972). She received her PhD in Amsterdam in 1973, writing the first thesis in the Netherlands on African literature) and dedicated herself to developing the field of intercultural literary studies. In 1988 she became the first Professor of Intercultural Literary Studies in the Netherlands, at the Free University of Amsterdam. In 1993 she moved to Leiden University where she played a dynamic role in building intercultural bridges in researching and lecturing comparative literature in a global context.
In 1999 she received an honorary doctorate from Chengdu University (Sichuan Province) in China. Since 2000 she has been regularly invited by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) where she collaborates with colleagues on projects about epics and creation myths. In December 2008 she gave her farewell address at the University of Leiden.
Mineke Schipper lives in Amsterdam.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 22, 2024
Look I’m all in for feminist reading of history, but this one just didn’t feel too grounded on too many occasions.
Hunting and gathering was uniquely male, and agriculture a woman’s invention? Really? I’m no anthropologist but I thought we were way past such a binary understanding of MILLENIA of human development. I also have a hard time taking seriously any publication that quotes Wikipedia as source, and I repeatedly felt like the author takes fringe phenomena and blows it out of proportion (the breast milk chapter as the biggest example).
I was raised catholic and I’m a sucker for Christian iconography. I absolutely agree that it gets misogynist af — but the way the author presents female martyrs stories, you’d think there were no male martyrs at all, no broader context than sexual violence. Knowing how misleading I find this chapters, I find it hard to trust her claims about other mythologies/cultures.
Honestly, I love the idea behind the book and I would love to read a more solid version of this. For now, I’m just disappointed.
Hunting and gathering was uniquely male, and agriculture a woman’s invention? Really? I’m no anthropologist but I thought we were way past such a binary understanding of MILLENIA of human development. I also have a hard time taking seriously any publication that quotes Wikipedia as source, and I repeatedly felt like the author takes fringe phenomena and blows it out of proportion (the breast milk chapter as the biggest example).
I was raised catholic and I’m a sucker for Christian iconography. I absolutely agree that it gets misogynist af — but the way the author presents female martyrs stories, you’d think there were no male martyrs at all, no broader context than sexual violence. Knowing how misleading I find this chapters, I find it hard to trust her claims about other mythologies/cultures.
Honestly, I love the idea behind the book and I would love to read a more solid version of this. For now, I’m just disappointed.
August 20, 2025
Book Review: The Shrinking Goddess: Power, Myth and the Female Body by Mineke Schipper
Rating: 3.8/5
A Bold but Flawed Feminist Exploration
Mineke Schipper’s The Shrinking Goddess ambitiously traces how myths about the female body have shaped—and often constrained—women’s lives across cultures and centuries. The book’s greatest strength lies in its global scope, weaving together everything from prehistoric Venus figurines to medieval Christian iconography and modern menstrual taboos. Schipper’s writing is engaging, and her passion for the subject shines through, particularly in sections dissecting how patriarchal narratives have historically pathologized female autonomy.
However, the book’s impact is undercut by several significant issues. While Schipper presents a wealth of fascinating anecdotes and cultural references, her methodology often feels shaky. The blending of primary sources with personal commentary without clear attribution makes it difficult to distinguish well-documented historical fact from speculative interpretation. Additionally, her reliance on oversimplified binaries—such as the claim that hunting was exclusively male while agriculture was female—feels outdated and ignores the complexity of ancient societies.
Engaging but Problematic Arguments
Schipper’s analysis is at its best when examining specific cultural myths, such as the demonization of menstruation or the sacred symbolism of breastfeeding in art. These sections are thought-provoking and rich with detail. Yet, at times, her arguments veer into sensationalism, particularly in chapters like the one on erotic lactation, where fringe practices are presented without sufficient historical or cultural context.
The treatment of religious narratives is another point of contention. While Schipper rightly critiques the misogyny embedded in many Christian traditions, her focus on sexual violence against female martyrs ignores the broader context of martyrdom, including the suffering of male figures. This selective framing risks distorting the historical record rather than illuminating it. Similarly, her interpretation of Gilgamesh as endorsing sexual entitlement overlooks the fact that the epic explicitly critiques the protagonist’s tyranny—a misreading that undermines her credibility.
Missed Opportunities for Depth
One of the book’s most glaring omissions is its lack of intersectionality. Schipper rarely considers how race, class, or disability intersect with the gendered myths she examines. For example, the legacy of enslaved women’s bodily exploitation or the veneration of Black Madonnas could have added crucial layers to her analysis. Without these perspectives, the book feels incomplete, reinforcing a narrow view of womanhood that doesn’t reflect the diversity of lived experiences.
Final Thoughts
The Shrinking Goddess is a provocative and often enlightening read, but its flaws prevent it from being the definitive work it aspires to be. Schipper’s passion and erudition are evident, yet the book’s reliance on questionable sourcing, reductive generalizations, and occasional sensationalism makes it best suited for readers who can engage with it critically.
For those seeking a more rigorously researched alternative, Mary Beard’s Women & Power offers a tighter, more nuanced exploration of similar themes.
Rating: 3.8/5 (A compelling but uneven contribution to feminist scholarship.)
Thank you to Saqi Books and Edelweiss for the review copy.
Rating: 3.8/5
A Bold but Flawed Feminist Exploration
Mineke Schipper’s The Shrinking Goddess ambitiously traces how myths about the female body have shaped—and often constrained—women’s lives across cultures and centuries. The book’s greatest strength lies in its global scope, weaving together everything from prehistoric Venus figurines to medieval Christian iconography and modern menstrual taboos. Schipper’s writing is engaging, and her passion for the subject shines through, particularly in sections dissecting how patriarchal narratives have historically pathologized female autonomy.
However, the book’s impact is undercut by several significant issues. While Schipper presents a wealth of fascinating anecdotes and cultural references, her methodology often feels shaky. The blending of primary sources with personal commentary without clear attribution makes it difficult to distinguish well-documented historical fact from speculative interpretation. Additionally, her reliance on oversimplified binaries—such as the claim that hunting was exclusively male while agriculture was female—feels outdated and ignores the complexity of ancient societies.
Engaging but Problematic Arguments
Schipper’s analysis is at its best when examining specific cultural myths, such as the demonization of menstruation or the sacred symbolism of breastfeeding in art. These sections are thought-provoking and rich with detail. Yet, at times, her arguments veer into sensationalism, particularly in chapters like the one on erotic lactation, where fringe practices are presented without sufficient historical or cultural context.
The treatment of religious narratives is another point of contention. While Schipper rightly critiques the misogyny embedded in many Christian traditions, her focus on sexual violence against female martyrs ignores the broader context of martyrdom, including the suffering of male figures. This selective framing risks distorting the historical record rather than illuminating it. Similarly, her interpretation of Gilgamesh as endorsing sexual entitlement overlooks the fact that the epic explicitly critiques the protagonist’s tyranny—a misreading that undermines her credibility.
Missed Opportunities for Depth
One of the book’s most glaring omissions is its lack of intersectionality. Schipper rarely considers how race, class, or disability intersect with the gendered myths she examines. For example, the legacy of enslaved women’s bodily exploitation or the veneration of Black Madonnas could have added crucial layers to her analysis. Without these perspectives, the book feels incomplete, reinforcing a narrow view of womanhood that doesn’t reflect the diversity of lived experiences.
Final Thoughts
The Shrinking Goddess is a provocative and often enlightening read, but its flaws prevent it from being the definitive work it aspires to be. Schipper’s passion and erudition are evident, yet the book’s reliance on questionable sourcing, reductive generalizations, and occasional sensationalism makes it best suited for readers who can engage with it critically.
For those seeking a more rigorously researched alternative, Mary Beard’s Women & Power offers a tighter, more nuanced exploration of similar themes.
Rating: 3.8/5 (A compelling but uneven contribution to feminist scholarship.)
Thank you to Saqi Books and Edelweiss for the review copy.
September 15, 2026
The Shrinking Goddess is the kind of book I very much wanted to like. Its premise is compelling: Mineke Schipper sets out to explore the stories, myths, symbols, and cultural beliefs that have shaped how women’s bodies have been understood, feared, worshipped, controlled, and diminished across history. It is an enormous subject, and Schipper draws from an equally enormous range of cultures, religions, periods, and traditions.
There is a lot here that is fascinating. The sections on menstruation, breastfeeding, female sexuality, fertility, religious iconography, and the transformation of the female body from something sacred into something shameful are often thought-provoking. The book is at its best when it puts seemingly disparate stories alongside one another and asks what they reveal about the societies that created them. There are moments when you come away thinking differently about a story or image you thought you already understood.
On the other hand, I sometimes found myself frustrated by the way Schipper builds her argument. The book often moves so quickly between myth, historical record, interpretation, and feminist commentary that it becomes difficult to know where the evidence ends and Schipper's own reading begins. For a book presenting itself as a cultural history, that distinction matters.
Some of the broader claims also feel too absolute. Complex questions about gender and ancient societies are sometimes reduced to straightforward binaries, while particular myths and practices are presented in ways that seem designed to reinforce the larger argument rather than complicate it. This is particularly noticeable when dealing with well-known texts and traditions where the historical context is considerably messier than the book allows.
The book contains the material for something much more interesting than the argument it ultimately makes. The history of how women's bodies have been represented is fascinating precisely because it is contradictory: women have been simultaneously sacred and sinful, powerful and powerless, worshipped and controlled. I would have liked more room for those contradictions, and more attention to the ways gender intersects with culture, class, race, religion, and historical context.
There is clearly an enormous amount of knowledge and research behind The Shrinking Goddess, and Schipper's enthusiasm for the subject is infectious. But for me, the methodological problems ultimately outweighed the fascinating subject matter. I finished the book with many interesting ideas and questions, but not with confidence in all of the conclusions it asks me to accept.
For readers interested in mythology, feminism, women's history, religion, or the cultural history of the body, there is plenty here to explore. But I would recommend approaching it as a provocative collection of ideas rather than as a definitive cultural history.
There is a lot here that is fascinating. The sections on menstruation, breastfeeding, female sexuality, fertility, religious iconography, and the transformation of the female body from something sacred into something shameful are often thought-provoking. The book is at its best when it puts seemingly disparate stories alongside one another and asks what they reveal about the societies that created them. There are moments when you come away thinking differently about a story or image you thought you already understood.
On the other hand, I sometimes found myself frustrated by the way Schipper builds her argument. The book often moves so quickly between myth, historical record, interpretation, and feminist commentary that it becomes difficult to know where the evidence ends and Schipper's own reading begins. For a book presenting itself as a cultural history, that distinction matters.
Some of the broader claims also feel too absolute. Complex questions about gender and ancient societies are sometimes reduced to straightforward binaries, while particular myths and practices are presented in ways that seem designed to reinforce the larger argument rather than complicate it. This is particularly noticeable when dealing with well-known texts and traditions where the historical context is considerably messier than the book allows.
The book contains the material for something much more interesting than the argument it ultimately makes. The history of how women's bodies have been represented is fascinating precisely because it is contradictory: women have been simultaneously sacred and sinful, powerful and powerless, worshipped and controlled. I would have liked more room for those contradictions, and more attention to the ways gender intersects with culture, class, race, religion, and historical context.
There is clearly an enormous amount of knowledge and research behind The Shrinking Goddess, and Schipper's enthusiasm for the subject is infectious. But for me, the methodological problems ultimately outweighed the fascinating subject matter. I finished the book with many interesting ideas and questions, but not with confidence in all of the conclusions it asks me to accept.
For readers interested in mythology, feminism, women's history, religion, or the cultural history of the body, there is plenty here to explore. But I would recommend approaching it as a provocative collection of ideas rather than as a definitive cultural history.
August 26, 2026
The Shrinking Goddess: Power, Myth and the Female Body is a fascinating exploration of the stories, symbols, and cultural beliefs that have shaped the way societies understand the female body across history.
Mineke Schipper takes a subject that is simultaneously ancient and remarkably relevant and examines the strange, powerful, and sometimes unsettling myths that have surrounded women and the body since antiquity. From stories of Mother Earth and exaggerated fears surrounding female sexuality to images that have diminished, controlled, or empowered women, the book reveals how mythology can influence much more than folklore it can shape ideas about power, identity, gender, and society.
What makes the book especially compelling is the contrast between the absurdity of some of these stories and the serious cultural power they have continued to hold. Myths may appear distant from modern life, yet The Shrinking Goddess demonstrates how deeply these narratives can influence the ways people perceive the female body and women's place in the world.
The book should appeal to readers interested in mythology, women's history, gender studies, cultural history, anthropology, feminism, religion, folklore, and the evolution of social attitudes toward the body. Its unusual subject matter also gives it strong potential for readers who enjoy intellectually stimulating nonfiction that challenges familiar assumptions.
Engaging, provocative, and wide-ranging, The Shrinking Goddess offers a thought-provoking journey through the stories humanity has created about women and what those stories reveal about the societies that created them.
Mineke Schipper takes a subject that is simultaneously ancient and remarkably relevant and examines the strange, powerful, and sometimes unsettling myths that have surrounded women and the body since antiquity. From stories of Mother Earth and exaggerated fears surrounding female sexuality to images that have diminished, controlled, or empowered women, the book reveals how mythology can influence much more than folklore it can shape ideas about power, identity, gender, and society.
What makes the book especially compelling is the contrast between the absurdity of some of these stories and the serious cultural power they have continued to hold. Myths may appear distant from modern life, yet The Shrinking Goddess demonstrates how deeply these narratives can influence the ways people perceive the female body and women's place in the world.
The book should appeal to readers interested in mythology, women's history, gender studies, cultural history, anthropology, feminism, religion, folklore, and the evolution of social attitudes toward the body. Its unusual subject matter also gives it strong potential for readers who enjoy intellectually stimulating nonfiction that challenges familiar assumptions.
Engaging, provocative, and wide-ranging, The Shrinking Goddess offers a thought-provoking journey through the stories humanity has created about women and what those stories reveal about the societies that created them.
June 25, 2025
I truly believe that Schipper has a wealth of knowledge to offer on this subject. Unfortunately, this book plays fast and loose with attribution, going to impressive lengths to avoid directly citing easily accessible primary texts and frequently blending direct quotations with commentary in confusing ways. This could easily all be made up. Which would be fine if it was presented as a personal feminist mythology and not a cultural history.
Schipper also presents debunked truisms like "hunting is always men's work" and "female figurines are always fertility fetishes" without challenge, which is frustrating.
This is a relatively minor thing but I'm also mad that she says Gilgamesh has the right to sex with any woman he wants. The fact that absolutely everyone hates how sexually voracious and entitled he is and thinks he's a bad leader is the thing that kicks off the entire plot of his story.
Schipper also presents debunked truisms like "hunting is always men's work" and "female figurines are always fertility fetishes" without challenge, which is frustrating.
This is a relatively minor thing but I'm also mad that she says Gilgamesh has the right to sex with any woman he wants. The fact that absolutely everyone hates how sexually voracious and entitled he is and thinks he's a bad leader is the thing that kicks off the entire plot of his story.
November 2, 2026
Premise seems to be that men promote myths that perpetuate a sexual hierarchy so as to compensate for the inequality between the sexes - women can give birth
I liked this but I felt like it relied on very sweeping ideas and there was a frustrating lack of citation
I liked this but I felt like it relied on very sweeping ideas and there was a frustrating lack of citation
Review of advance copy
Excellent book that explains the origins and development of sex inequality. I felt more could have been said and theorised about Virgin Mary's rise in popularity. A must for any feminist out there.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews