A mess: British Museum’s Feminine Power – the Divine to the Demonic reviewed

The point at which the heart sinks in this exhibition is, unfortunately, right at the outset. That’s where we meet the five commentators that the British Museum has invited to respond to the objects and ideas in the exhibition. But only Mary Beard knows her subject. There’s Bonnie Greer, playwright and critic; Elizabeth Day, podcaster and novelist; Rabia Siddique, humanitarian (that’s a calling, it seems) and barrister; and Deborah Frances-White, podcaster and stand-up comedian. Each presides over part of the exhibition, which is ordered by categories such as Passion and Desire and Magic and Malice.

It’s an odd exercise. I’m not entirely sure whether Frances-White, for instance, brings much to the party: ‘I’m a feminist but some mornings I’m feeling divine, other mornings I feel demonic. But I always try to stand in my feminine power, so this exhibition is very much for me. Come with me, let’s find our divine, demonic feminine power together!’ To which the only response is a murmured ‘Thank you; I have other plans.’ Then there’s Day, whose take on the witchfinder manual, the Malleus Maleficarum, is fabulously inane.

There’s a curious want of confidence about this ploy, as if the artefacts lack popular appeal, so the museum feels it’s necessary to harness the pulling power of pundits. And so we get Greer promising excitedly: ‘This exhibition is about transition. It’s about the feminine as the power of transition. So you’d better leave all your baggage behind for this one because you’re going to be changed when you come out.’ Oh yes? Greer was brought up as a Catholic, yet oddly she wasn’t let loose on the Virgin Mary but on Creation and Nature, where she sounds off about a Sheela na gig, a depiction of a woman showing her bits, found in an Irish church, a genre whose purpose is unknown: ‘This tells you,’ says Bonnie, ‘…that we’re mortal, we’re human.