Baubo
The character Baubo plays a pivotal role in the Greek myth; Demeter and Persephone. Demeter the Goddess of Fertility, forgets her Goddess duties, as she is searching for her daughter Persephone and so the crops fail. It is important for human survival that her depression is broken. Everyone tries but it is only when Baubo, an older woman of no particular significance talks to Demeter, female to female, telling her jokes and eventually lifts up her skirt to reveal her vulva as a hairy chin of a face on her belly. The surprise of this breaks her depression and an agreement is made that persephone can return each year for six months. The seasons are created. Unlike the main narrative of the older woman being past it/over the hill/washed up/ this story re ignites the power of the older woman not as a crone but as a woman with wisdom. Baubo reminds us that through intergenerational female friendship we can fully engage with what it means to be female.