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A 'giantess' is a female giant. The word has at least three interpretations:

★ A mythical being resembling a woman of superhuman size and strength.

★ A human woman of exceptional stature, often the result of some medical or genetic abnormality (see gigantism). A typical example was Jane Bunford (died 1922) who grew to a height of 7 ft 7 in (2.31 m).

★ A ''giganta'', a figure several metres tall representing a woman. It is carried by a strong man in street festivals in Spain.

Contents

Mythical giantesses

Greek mythology

Norse mythology

Eastern mythology

Celtic mythology

Medieval European literature

Later European literature

Comic book art

Motion pictures

Adult art and literature

Spanish street festivals

See also

Mythical giantesses

Greek mythology

Giantesses are worthy of separate discussion from male giants for a number of reasons. To begin with, although Classical mythology contains many references to giantesses, very little information is given about them (This is in sharp contrast to the detailed stories of male giants). This may be because of the patriarchal nature of these societies, which, with the exception of goddesses, did not heavily feature female characters in their myths.

Norse mythology

'Grid' was a giantess who saved Thor's life. She was aware of Loki's plans to get Thor killed at the hands of the giant Geirrod and sets out to help 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 'Gerd' was very beautiful and her brilliant, naked arms illuminated air and sea. Freyr fell in love at first sight and the account of her wooing is given in the poem Skirnismál. She never wanted to marry Freyr, and refused his proposals (delivered through Skirnir, his messenger) even after he brought her eleven golden apples and Draupnir. 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 Fjölnir.
'Skaði' journeyed to Ásgard 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 choose Njord because his feet were so beautiful that she thought he was Baldr. Then Loki succeeded in making her laugh, so peace was made, and Odin 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 (Noatun). 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 Frigg's entreaties, delivered through the messenger Hermod, Hel promised to release Baldr from the underworld if all objects alive and dead would weep for him. And all did, except a giantess, 'Thokk', who refused to mourn the slain god. And thus Baldr had to remain in the underworld, not to emerge until after Ragnarok, when he and his brother Hod would be reconciled and rule the new Earth together with Thor's sons.

Eastern mythology

Giantesses are fairly common in Indian mythology. The demoness Putana (who attempted to kill the baby Krishna with poisoned milk from her breasts) is usually drawn as a giantess.

Celtic mythology

Giantesses are common in the folklore of the British Isles, particularly Scotland and Ireland. 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 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 ''Scivias'', 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 Baudelaire, in his poetic cycle ''Les Fleurs du mal'' (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 Swift's Gulliver's Travels (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. Lewis'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's story ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'', 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. Clarke's story ''Cosmic Casanova'' describes an astronaut's revulsion at discovering that an extra-terrestrial 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 Patrol'', ''Team Youngblood'', and ''Femforce''. In the latter series, the giantess-superheroines Tara and Garganta 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 Woman foe Giganta, use their strength and beauty for less altruistic purposes as a weapon to dominate their foes. Giantesses are also common in the Manga/Anime mediums of Japan.

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-movie ''Attack of the 50 Foot Woman'' formed part of a series of size-changing films of the era which also included ''The Incredible Shrinking Man'' and ''Village of the Giants''. The 1993 remake of ''Attack of the 50 Foot Woman'', starring Daryl Hannah in the title role, was advertised as a comedy; many scenes did parody earlier size-changing movies (most notably ''The Amazing Colossal Man)'', 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 ''Malèna'', the 2001 movie ''Dude, Where's My Car?'', and the 2002 ''Hable con ella'' a.k.a. ''Talk to Her''. In ''Malèna'', there is a scene where the young protagonist, Renato Amoroso, fantasizes about being a few inches tall and having Monica Bellucci (Malena), pick him up and take him to her bosom. In ''Dude, Where's My Car?'', five nubile female characters morph into an extra-terrestrial giantess played by Jodi Ann Paterson (Playboy Playmate of the Year 2000). ''Talk to Her'' 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.
Outside of Hollywood, giantesses have also appeared in special interest films. AC Comics giantess Garganta 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 Woman''. 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 Italian 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 Buffon) 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 Silvstedt (1997 Playboy Playmate of the Year) posed as a giantess for an advertisement for Max Power London, a car show held in London in November of 2004. In the February 12th, 2005 edition of the UK newspaper, ''The Sun'', Miss Silvstedt again posed as a giantess of Godzilla height next to various London landmarks.
The giantess theme occasionally manifests in music videos as well, notably Pamela Anderson's role as a giantess in the video ''Miserable'' for the rock group Lit. 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 macrophilia is a paraphilia, 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 scale, 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 erotica and even some pornographic movies. For example, Giantess Zone is a film studio dedicated to giantess films. 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.

Spanish street festivals

In Spanish festivals, it is common to find a procession of ''gigantes y cabezudos'' ("giants and big-heads").
The giants are hollow figures several-meters tall depicting the upper part of a person and having a skirt.
The skirt covers a strong man that carries a harness linked to the internal structure.
The porter turns and shakes the giant to the tune of a marching band.
Giants usually parade in couples of ''gigante'' and ''giganta''.
Rich towns have more than one couple.
The figures usually depict archetypes of the town, such as the bourgeois and the peasant woman, or historical figures of local relevance, such as the founding king and queen.

See also

★ Giant (mythology)

★ Macrophilia