A
giantess is a female
giantGiant or Giants may refer to:*Giant , very tall mythological creatures or monsters*Giant animal , giant animals of mythology*Giantism or gigantism, medical condition causing excessive height in humansIn business:...
. The term may refer either a
mythical beingThe mythology and legends of many different cultures include monsters of human appearance but prodigious size and strength. "Giant" is the English word commonly used for such beings, derived from one of the most famed examples: the gigantes of Greek mythology.In various Indo-European mythologies,...
resembling a woman of superhuman size and strength or a human woman of exceptional stature, often the result of some medical or genetic abnormality (see
gigantismGigantism, also known as gigantism, is a condition characterized by excessive growth and height significantly above average.-Types:As a medical term, gigantism can refer to:...
).
Norse mythology
GridIn Norse mythology, Gríðr is female jötunn who, aware of Loki's plans to have Thor killed at the hands of the giant Geirröd, helped Thor by supplying him with a number of magical gifts which included , a pair of iron gloves, and a staff known as Grídarvöl. These items saved Thor's life...
was a giantess who saved
ThorThor is the red-haired and bearded god of thunder in Germanic mythology and Germanic paganism, and its subsets: Norse paganism, Anglo-Saxon paganism and Continental Germanic paganism....
's life. She was aware of
LokiIn Norse mythology, Loki is a god or jötunn . Loki's relation with the gods varies by source. Loki assists the gods, and sometimes causes problems for them. Loki is a shape shifter and in separate incidents he appears in the form of a salmon and a mare. Loki's positive relations with the gods ends...
's plans to get
ThorThor is the red-haired and bearded god of thunder in Germanic mythology and Germanic paganism, and its subsets: Norse paganism, Anglo-Saxon paganism and Continental Germanic paganism....
killed at the hands of the giant
GeirrodIn Norse mythology, Geirröd was a jötunn and the father of the giantesses Gjálp and Greip.The story of Geirröd is told in Þórsdrápa. Loki, while flying as a hawk, was captured by Geirröd. Because he hated Thor, Geirröd demanded that Loki bring his enemy to Geirröd's castle without his magic belt...
and helped him by supplying him with a number of magical gifts. These gifts were: a girdle of might, a pair of magical iron gloves, and a magical wand.
The giantess
GerdGerðr is a jötunn in Norse Mythology most well known as the wife of the Norse god Freyr. Her brilliant, naked arms illuminate air and sea. Gerðr is a daughter of Gymir and Aurboða, and also has a brother named Beli.-Etymology:...
was very beautiful and her brilliant, naked arms illuminated air and sea.
FreyrFreyr is one of the most important gods of Norse paganism. Freyr was highly associated with agriculture, weather and, as a phallic fertility god, Freyr "bestows peace and pleasure on mortals"...
fell in love at first sight and the account of her wooing is given in the poem
SkirnismálSkírnismál is one of the poems of the Poetic Edda. It is preserved in the 13th century manuscripts Codex Regius and AM 748 I 4to but may have been originally composed in heathen times...
. She never wanted to marry Freyr, and refused his proposals (delivered through
SkirnirIn Norse mythology, Skírnir is the god Freyr's messenger and vassal. In the Poetic Edda poem Skírnismál, Skírnir is sent as a messenger to Jötunheimr to conduct Freyr's wooing of the fair Gerðr on condition of being given Freyr's sword as a reward. Skírnir also threatens Gerðr with his gambantein,...
, his messenger) even after he brought her eleven golden apples and
DraupnirDraupnir is a golden arm ring possessed by Odin, the highest god in Norse mythology. The ring was a source of endless wealth, since each ninth morning it had spawned eight more gold rings as large as itself . Draupnir was forged by the dwarven brothers Brokkr and Eitri . Its name means Dripper in...
. Skirnir finally threatened to use Freyr's sword to cover the earth in ice and she agreed to marry Freyr. She became the mother of the early Swedish king
FjölnirIn Norse mythology, Fjölnir, Fjölner, Fjolner or Fjolne was a Swedish king of the House of Yngling, at Gamla Uppsala. Fjölnir appears in a semi-mythological context as the son of Freyr and his consort Gerðr...
.
SkaðiIn Norse mythology, Skaði is a jötunn and goddess associated with bowhunting, skiing, winter, and mountains...
journeyed to
ÁsgardIn Norse mythology, Asgard is the country or capital city of the Norse Gods surrounded by an incomplete wall attributed to a Hrimthurs riding the stallion Svadilfari, according to Gylfaginning...
to avenge her father Þjazi, whom the gods had killed. She agreed that she would have that renounced if they allowed her to choose a husband among them and if they succeeded in making her laugh. The gods allowed her to choose a husband, but she had to choose him only from his feet; she chose
NjordIn Norse mythology, Njörðr is a Vanir god. Njörðr is father of the deities Freyr and Freyja by his unnamed Van sister, was in an ill-fated marriage with the goddess Skaði, lives in Nóatún and is associated with sea, seafaring, wind, fishing, wealth, and crop fertility.Njörðr is attested in the...
because his feet were so beautiful that she thought he was Baldr. Then
LokiIn Norse mythology, Loki is a god or jötunn . Loki's relation with the gods varies by source. Loki assists the gods, and sometimes causes problems for them. Loki is a shape shifter and in separate incidents he appears in the form of a salmon and a mare. Loki's positive relations with the gods ends...
succeeded in making her laugh, so peace was made, and
OdinOdin , is considered the chief god in Norse paganism and the ruler of Asgard. Homologous with the Anglo-Saxon Wōden and the Old High German Wotan, it is descended from Proto-Germanic *Wōđinaz or *Wōđanaz.The name Odin is generally accepted as the modern translation; although, in some cases, older...
made two stars from Þjazi's eyes. After a while, she and her husband separated, because she loved the mountains (Þrymheimr), while he wanted to live near the sea (
NoatunNoatun or Nóatún may refer to the following:*Nóatún, a place in Norse mythology*Nóatún, a chain of Icelandic supermarkets*Nóatún, a street in Reykjavík*Noatun, an audio player for KDE...
). The
Ynglinga sagaThe Ynglinga saga is a legendary saga, originally written in Old Norse by the Icelandic poet Snorri Sturluson about 1225. He based it on an earlier Ynglingatal which is attributed to the Norwegian 9th century skald Þjóðólfr of Hvinir, and which also appears in Historia Norwegiae.The Ynglinga saga...
says that later she became wife of Odin, and had many sons by him.
At Baldr's funeral, his burning ship was set to sea by Hyrrokin, a giantess, who came riding on a wolf and gave the ship such a push that fire flashed from the rollers and all the earth shook.
Upon
FriggFrigg is a major goddess in Norse paganism, a subset of Germanic paganism. She is said to be the wife of Odin, and is the "foremost among the goddesses" and the queen of Asgard. Frigg appears primarily in Norse mythological stories as a wife and a mother. She is also described as having the power...
's entreaties, delivered through the messenger Hermod, Hel promised to release Baldr from the
underworldIn the study of mythology and religion, the underworld is a generic term approximately equivalent to the lay term afterlife, referring to any place to which newly dead souls go. In most cultures the term refers to a neutral or dystopic realm of the afterlife, instead of a heavenly or paradisiac one...
if all objects alive and dead would weep for him. And all did, except a giantess,
ThokkÞökk is a giantess in Norse mythology, presumed to be Loki in disguise, who refuses to weep for the slain Baldr, thus forcing him to stay in Hel.-Prose Edda:...
, who refused to mourn the slain god. And thus Baldr had to remain in the underworld, not to emerge until after
RagnarokIn Norse mythology, Ragnarök is a series of major events, including a great battle foretold to ultimately result in the death of a number of major figures , the occurrence of various natural disasters, and the subsequent submersion of the world in water...
, when he and his brother Hod would be reconciled and rule the new Earth together with Thor's sons.
Celtic mythology
Giantesses are common in the folklore of
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
,
IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
and
WalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It is also an elective region of the European Union...
. They were often depicted as loving and beautiful people and, in later versions of myths, seemed to resemble Vikings, who had raided the coasts, in appearance . A notable giantesses in
Irish mythologyThe mythology of pre-Christian Ireland did not entirely survive the conversion to Christianity, but much of it was preserved, shorn of its religious meanings, in medieval Irish literature, which represents the most extensive and best preserved of all the branches of Celtic mythology...
is Bébinn.
Medieval European literature
A notable example of the depiction of giantesses in art and literature arose in the medieval period. In her book
SciviasScivias is an illustrated work by Hildegard von Bingen, completed in 1151 or 1152, describing 26 religious visions she experienced. It is the first of three works that she wrote describing her visions, the others being Liber vitae meritorum and De operatione Dei...
, St. Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) used the giantess as a representation of "Ecclesia", the Church as the Bride of Christ.
Later European literature
The giantess appears occasionally in more recent European literature.
Charles BaudelaireCharles Pierre Baudelaire was a nineteenth century French poet, critic, and translator. A controversial figure in his lifetime, Baudelaire's name has become a byword for literary and artistic decadence...
, in his poetic cycle
Les Fleurs du malLes Fleurs du mal is a volume of French poetry by Charles Baudelaire. First published in 1857, it was important in the symbolist and modernist movements...
(1861) presents the giant woman as a powerfully erotic symbol:
- Once, when Nature's overpowering vigorousness
- Conceived each day children this monstrous
- I would love to have lived with a young giantess
- Around her feet like a cat to a queen voluptuous.
- Would love to have seen the spirit that grew out of her
- Distending as she played her terrible game
- From the damp mist that swam in her eyes to wonder
- If her sullen heart would catch into flames.
In contrast to this,
A Voyage to Brobdingnag, the second part of
Jonathan SwiftJonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St...
's
Gulliver's TravelsGulliver's Travels , officially Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of several Ships, is a novel by Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift that is both a satire on human nature and a parody of the "travellers'...
(1726), describes the hero's revulsion at the female form enlarged to gigantic proportions, however he does have some intimate relationships with giant maids of honor. This view of the giantess as an anerotic symbol persisted into the 20th Century:
C. S. LewisClive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as Jack, was an Irish-born British novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist...
's short story
The Shoddy Lands describes a journey through the mindscape of the "modern woman." The woman herself appears giant-sized and subsequently (in Lewis' view) repulsive; obsessed with her own beauty, she has become oblivious to the way that beauty is perceived by its intended admirers, i.e., men. In
Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pen name Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer...
's story
Alice's Adventures in WonderlandAlice's Adventures in Wonderland is a novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells the story of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar and anthropomorphic creatures. The tale is filled with...
, there are several scenes where the heroine Alice grows to gigantic size by means of eating something (like a cake or a mushroom). Similarly
Arthur C. ClarkeSri Lankabhimanya Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, most famous for the novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, written in collaboration with director Stanley Kubrick, a collaboration which also produced the film of the same name; and as a...
's story
Cosmic Casanova describes an astronaut's revulsion at discovering that an extraterrestrial female he adored on a video screen is in fact thirty feet tall.
Comic book art
Size-changing heroines have appeared in such comics as
Doom PatrolThe Doom Patrol is a superhero team appearing in publications from DC Comics. The original Doom Patrol first appeared in My Greatest Adventure #80...
,
Mighty AvengersThe Mighty Avengers is a comic book series published by Marvel Comics. Originally written by Brian Michael Bendis, also the writer of New Avengers, the title features an Avengers team of registered superheroes that is part of Fifty State Initiative, residing in New York. The first incarnation of...
,
Marvel Adventures AvengersThe Avengers are a team of superheroes that appears in publications published by Marvel Comics. The team first appear in The Avengers #1 The Avengers are a team of superheroes that appears in publications published by Marvel Comics. The team first appear in The Avengers #1 The Avengers are a team...
,
Team Youngblood, and
FemforceFemforce is a comic book published by A.C. Comics that began publication in 1985 detailing the adventures of the titular team: the "Federal Emergency Missions Force" or "Femforce", some of them original creations, while others originated in the 1940s and 50s, lapsing into public domain by the time...
. In the latter series, the giantess-superheroines
TaraTara Fremont is a fictional character appearing in the Femforce comic book, published by AC Comics. She is an attractive young woman with long dark hair, who is usually drawn wearing either a combat uniform or a green camouflage swimsuit...
and
GargantaGarganta is a fictional comic book character published by AC Comics appearing in several of their titles, most commonly Femforce the title in which she debuted in 1990 . Originally appearing as a one-off antagonist, she proved so popular with readers that she re-appeared two issues later and...
combine immense size and strength with beauty and femininity, and have a cult following among both men and women. Conversely, size-changing villainesses, such as
Wonder WomanWonder Woman is a DC Comics superhero created by William Moulton Marston. First appearing in All Star Comics #8 , she is one of three characters to have been continuously published by DC Comics since the company's 1944 inception .Wonder Woman is a member of an all-female tribe of Amazons...
foe
GigantaGiganta is a fictional character, a red-haired super-villainess appearing in DC Comics publications and related media. A longtime enemy of Wonder Woman and an occasional foil for The Atom, Giganta possesses the superhuman ability to increase her physical size and mass, effectively transforming into...
, use their strength and beauty for less altruistic purposes as a weapon to dominate their foes. Giantesses are also common in the
MangaManga consist of comics and print cartoons , in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 20th century...
/
Animeis animation originating in Japan. The world outside Japan regards anime as "Japanese animation". Anime originated about 1917.Anime, like manga , has a large audience in Japan and high recognition throughout the world...
mediums of
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
Motion pictures
The giantess theme has also appeared in motion pictures, often as a metaphor for female empowerment or played for absurd humor. The 1958
B-movieA B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture conceived neither as an arthouse film nor as pornography. In its original usage, during the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double...
Attack of the 50 Foot WomanAttack of the 50 Foot Woman is a 1958 science fiction feature film produced by Bernard Woolner for Allied Artists Pictures. It was directed by Nathan H. Juran from a screenplay by Mark Hanna, and starred Allison Hayes, William Hudson and Yvette Vickers. The original music score was composed by...
formed part of a series of size-changing films of the era which also included
The Incredible Shrinking ManThe Incredible Shrinking Man is a 1957 science fiction film directed by Jack Arnold and adapted for the screen by Richard Matheson from his novel The Shrinking Man .-Plot:...
and
Village of the GiantsVillage of the Giants is a 1965 science-fiction/comedy movie with many elements of the beach party film genre. It was produced, directed and written by Bert I. Gordon, and based loosely on H.G. Wells's book The Food of the Gods...
. The 1993 remake of
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, starring
Daryl HannahDaryl Christine Hannah is an American film actress. After making her screen debut in 1978, Hannah starred in a number of Hollywood films throughout the 1980s notably Blade Runner, Splash, Wall Street and Roxanne and in 2003-4 received acclaim for her role in the Kill Bill series.-Early life:Hannah...
in the title role, was advertised as a comedy; many scenes did parody earlier size-changing movies (most notably
The Amazing Colossal ManThe Amazing Colossal Man is a 1957 black-and-white science fiction film, directed by Bert I. Gordon and starring Glenn Langan. The film revolves around a 60 foot mutant man produced as the result of an atomic accident....
), although the central theme was feminist. The heroine Nancy, formerly a cipher to her domineering father and husband, is empowered by her new-found size and starts to take control of her destiny, and encourages other women to do the same. Both versions of the movie enjoy a cult following.
More recent movies with giantess themes are the 2000 film
MalènaMalèna is a 2000 Italian drama/romance film starring Monica Bellucci and Giuseppe Sulfaro. It was directed and written by Giuseppe Tornatore from a story by Luciano Vincenzoni.-Plot:...
, the 2001 movie
Dude, Where's My Car?Dude, Where's My Car? is a 2000 comedy film directed by Danny Leiner. It is about the journey of two young men to find their stolen car....
, the 2002
Hable con ella a.k.a.
Talk to HerTalk to Her is a 2002 film written and directed by the Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, starring Javier Cámara, Darío Grandinetti, Leonor Watling, Geraldine Chaplin and Rosario Flores...
, and 2009's
Monsters vs. AliensMonsters vs. Aliens is a 2009 computer-animated 3-D feature film from DreamWorks Animation and Paramount Pictures. The movie was the first computer animated movie to be directly produced in a stereoscopic 3-D format instead of being converted into 3-D after completion, which added $15 million to...
. In
MalènaMalèna is a 2000 Italian drama/romance film starring Monica Bellucci and Giuseppe Sulfaro. It was directed and written by Giuseppe Tornatore from a story by Luciano Vincenzoni.-Plot:...
, there is a scene where the young
protagonistA protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, video game, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to share the most empathy...
, Renato Amoroso, fantasizes about being a few inches tall and having
Monica BellucciMonica Anna Maria Bellucci is an Italian actress and fashion model.-Personal life:Bellucci was born in Città di Castello, Umbria, Italy, the daughter of Maria Gustinelli, a painter, and Luigi Bellucci, who owned a trucking company. Bellucci started modelling at 16, when she was attending the Liceo...
(Malena), pick him up and take him to her bosom. In
Dude, Where's My Car?Dude, Where's My Car? is a 2000 comedy film directed by Danny Leiner. It is about the journey of two young men to find their stolen car....
, five nubile female characters morph into an extraterrestrial giantess played by
Jodi Ann PatersonJodi Ann Paterson is an American model, actress and former beauty queen.-Biography:She was born in Balikpapan, Indonesia and grew up in Springfield, Oregon, United States...
(Playboy Playmate of the Year 2000).
Talk to HerTalk to Her is a 2002 film written and directed by the Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, starring Javier Cámara, Darío Grandinetti, Leonor Watling, Geraldine Chaplin and Rosario Flores...
features a sequence in the style of early silent cinema called 'The Shrinking Lover,' where an accidentally shrunken scientist is rescued from his mother's clutches by his lover, who carries him home in her handbag. The shrunken scientist then roams his lover's body whilst she lies in bed.
Monsters vs. AliensMonsters vs. Aliens is a 2009 computer-animated 3-D feature film from DreamWorks Animation and Paramount Pictures. The movie was the first computer animated movie to be directly produced in a stereoscopic 3-D format instead of being converted into 3-D after completion, which added $15 million to...
features a satirization of
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman in which the main protagonist, Susan Murphy, is clobbered by a radioactive meteor that causes her to grow up to 49 feet, 11 1/2 inches, becoming Ginormica.
Outside of Hollywood, giantesses have also appeared in special interest films.
AC ComicsAC Comics is a comic book publishing company started by Bill Black.-History:AC Comics was founded as Paragon Publications in 1969, and was briefly known as Americomics in 1982, before becoming AC in 1984...
giantess
GargantaGarganta is a fictional comic book character published by AC Comics appearing in several of their titles, most commonly Femforce the title in which she debuted in 1990 . Originally appearing as a one-off antagonist, she proved so popular with readers that she re-appeared two issues later and...
is featured in a live action DVD movie available from accomics.com entitled
Gargantarama, which also includes giantess scenes from many movies as well as the feature length 1958 B-movie
Attack of the 50 Foot WomanAttack of the 50 Foot Woman is a 1958 science fiction feature film produced by Bernard Woolner for Allied Artists Pictures. It was directed by Nathan H. Juran from a screenplay by Mark Hanna, and starred Allison Hayes, William Hudson and Yvette Vickers. The original music score was composed by...
. Embracing the use of the giantess in popular culture, AC has made it a frequently recurring theme in their products.
Giantesses have also appeared in advertisement campaigns, with similar erotic/humorous intent. In 2003, a commercial for the
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
company Puma featured the theme. The giantess, played by model/actress Valentina Biancospino, stomps around town causing havoc until finally picking up a man (played by Italian footballer
Gianluigi BuffonGianluigi Buffon , is an Italian FIFA World Cup-winning goalkeeper who plays for Serie A club Juventus and the Italian national team. He is widely considered by fans and experts to be one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time.- Early life and family :Gianluigi Buffon was born into an athletic...
) and kissing him. The following year, Lee Dungarees commercials used the giantess theme alongside the slogan "Whatever Happens, Don't Flinch," hiring model Natalia Adarvez to play a 90 foot tall giantess. Also that same year,
Victoria SilvstedtKaren Victoria Silvstedt , best known as Victoria Silvstedt, is a Swedish model, Playboy Playmate of the Year, actress and singer...
(1997 Playboy Playmate of the Year) posed as a giantess for an advertisement for Max Power London, a car show held in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
in November of 2004. In the February 12th, 2005 edition of the UK newspaper,
The Sun, Miss Silvstedt again posed as a giantess of
Godzillais a daikaijū, a fictional Japanese giant monster. His first film was Ishiro Honda's 1954 film Gojira, and since then, he has made many more appearances, and has become a pop-culture icon. In total, Godzilla has appeared in 28 films, all of which were produced by Toho Company Ltd...
height next to various London landmarks.
The giantess theme occasionally manifests in
music videoA music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music/song. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Although the origins of music videos go back much further, they came into their own in the...
s as well, notably
Pamela Andersonthumb|rightPamela Denise Anderson is a Canadian/American actress, sex symbol, glamour model, producer, author, activist, and former Showgirl....
's role as a giantess in the video
Miserable for the
rockRock music is a genre of popular music that entered the mainstream in the 1960s. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, rhythm and blues, country music and also drew on folk music, jazz and classical music....
group
LitLit is an alternative rock band, based in Fullerton, California. They released several singles in the 1990s and early 2000s including "My Own Worst Enemy", "Miserable", "Zip-Lock", "Over My Head", "Lipstick and Bruises", "Addicted", "Looks Like They Were Right" and "Times Like This".-Razzle and...
. In the video, the band members perform on Anderson's body and are eventually devoured by her at the end, a metaphor for the notion of a woman as "maneater."
Adult art and literature
Given that
macrophiliaMacrophilia refers to a fascination with or a sexual fantasy involving giants.Humorist David Sedaris's essay, "Giantess", reprinted in Barrel Fever , describes writing for a magazine specializing in erotic stories about giant women and the particular attention that must be paid to the...
is a
paraphiliaParaphilia is a biomedical term used to describe sexual arousal to objects or situations that are not part of normative stimulation and that can cause distress or serious problems for the paraphiliac or persons associated with him or her.The term was coined by Wilhelm Stekel in the 1920s and...
, it is unsurprising that there is a wide assortment of adult art and literature devoted to the fantasy of giant women. Often, artists will produce collages, in which an image of a woman is placed into an image of a cityscape of differing
scaleThe scale ratio of some sort of model which represents an original proportionally is the ratio of a linear dimension of the model to the same dimension of the original. Examples include a 3-dimensional scale model of a building or the scale drawings of the elevations or plans of a building. In such...
, or an image of one or more small men is inserted into another image of normal scale. Additionally, drawings have been produced, as well as works of
eroticaErotica or "curiosa," are works of art, including literature, photography, film, sculpture and painting, that deal substantively with erotically stimulating or sexually arousing descriptions...
and even some pornographic movies. As in the examples of the giantess theme in popular culture, the macrophiliac interest in the concept is influenced by notions of female empowerment, eroticism, and the idea of feminine beauty on an exaggerated scale.
David SedarisDavid Sedaris is a Grammy Award-nominated Greek-American humorist, writer, comedian, bestselling author, and radio contributor....
wrote a humorous essay called "Giantess", published in
Barrel FeverBarrel Fever and Other Stories is a 1994 collection of short stories and essays by David Sedaris. The book is divided into two sections. The first section consists of short fiction and the second half contains autobiographical essays. The most famous of the essays is "SantaLand Diaries", the essay...
, about writing for a magazine specializing in erotic stories about giant women and the particular attention that must be paid to the transformation and tearing of clothes.