Birdpill

The birdpill is a reference to the idea that women being in sexual situations with birds is supposedly preferable to having sex with male incels. The term is primarily used as a parody of terms like the heightpill, and the dogpill. While satirical in nature, the idea isn't without merit, as many classical works of art and mythology are notorious for using birds (or shapeshifters who take on the likeness of avians) in a euphemistic manner when eroticism is involved, oftentimes substituting the role of a human male with a non-human being or deity.

Leda and the Swan

In Greek mythology, Zeus, the womanizing god of lightning, takes a liking to the human queen Leda of Sparta after spotting her from above. In an attempt to disguise himself, he transforms into a swan as he descends from the sky, approaching the beautiful woman before revealing himself and having his way with her. Leda would later go on to bear two of Zeus's demigod children as a result of their affair.

Despite the strange subject matter, the mythical story of Leda and the Swan became a popular subject for Renaissance artists to adapt in the form of sculptures and paintings. This was primarily due to the strong presence of the Catholic Church across Europe and prudish attitudes toward sexuality in art. In the wake of backlash, it quickly became an open secret that erotic depictions of women were considered less taboo if non-humans were involved, so instead of showing a human man and woman having sex, non-human males were oftentimes used as a loophole. As a result, artists would turn to mythological stories of interspecies couplings as their inspiration when looking to portray the erotic. By the 16th century, depictions of Leda and the Swan became widespread and commonplace throughout Europe, quietly surpassing Adam and Eve, whose portrayals were consigned to remain relatively chaste.

Leda and the Swan, in contrast to the traditional couple, could be shown in a variety of contexts and positions while still retaining some amount of plausible deniability. Without as much fear of censorship, artists felt free to explore the sex between Leda and Zeus with far more explicitness, so long as Zeus remained a swan in Leda's presence. Interestingly, another common theme shared among artists was the apparent reversal of the roles compared to the original myth, with most depictions of the scene in question forgoing the implication of Leda being seduced and/or raped and instead portraying the woman as a dominant figure whose attractive body leaves the swan in awe and seemingly begging for consent. For instance, painters like Leonardo da Vinci famously depicted Leda fully in the nude and unashamed, and the swan would also be shown by artists like Michelangelo to be suggestively nestled between her legs, sometimes even biting Leda's breasts or kissing the woman's mouth with his beak. While most portrayals still remained mostly reserved (especially by modern standards), not all artists shied away from showing genitalia. Perhaps the most overt example would be an oil painting by François Boucher for a private collection in 1740. In it, Leda is shown seductively lying in bed and spreading her legs for the enthralled swan, whose head is lowered until it rests atop her messy bedsheets, practically bowing down to the woman as her vagina is revealed directly in front of the humbled bird's beak. Boucher's uncensored painting would go on to arguably become more famous than his other, "safer" painting of the same subject made two years later, appearing in Supreme's collection of designs and also making a cameo appearance in the 2013 Hannibal TV series, giving it more notoriety.

In video games such as Assassin's Creed 2, Michelangelo's aforementioned painting makes an appearance, and Assassin's Creed Odyssey verbally references it, saying:

Where there is passion, reason is gone.

For Leda truly loved her swan.

Throughout popular culture across the world, Leda and the Swan can be found. Hanasaku Iroha character Ohanu Matsumae has also had art interpreting her with a swan, and Ballerina Anna Pavlova has referenced the myth in a stylistic manner. In addition, the webcomic Gunnerkrigg Court dedicates ~3 chapters to it, and "Bloodnums" did a comic about it as well.

The Austrian philosopher, Otto Weininger, made mention of the myth of Leda and The Swan in his opus Sex and Character. This was to illustrate the purported existential kinship he observed between women and animals, which he argued was sometimes expressed in women's "sexual perversities and affections for animals".

External links

• NSFW thread