Taking it Literally: Indulgent Musings on UFO Craft Shapes and Sexual Dynamics

28.01.2008 08:18 UFO - Source: UFO Digest

Richelle Hawks lives in Salt Lake City with her teenage son. Next year, she will be moving to a small town in upstate New York, where she has just purchased a house with her longtime partner, the paranormal writer Stephen Wagner. She has been practicing bodywork for nearly a decade, and maintains a large full time private practice. She also maintains an online bookstore, makes and sells art items, and homeschools her son. Richelle attended Washburn University, the University of Utah, and the Utah College of Massage Therapy. Her writings on the paranormal, UFOs, legends, the occult, and healing therapies can be found at . Her blog is found at www.beamshipsequallove.blogspot.com. She also contributes to the Women in Esoterica blog, www.womenesoterica.blogspot.com, and has a weekly column at Binnall of America.

Taking it Literally: Indulgent Musings on UFO Craft Shapes and Sexual Dynamics
by Richelle Hawks
(Copyright 2007, Richelle Hawks - All Rights Reserved)

Posted: 00:50 December 21, 2007

I believe it may be possible to glean some information through a study of language and specific terms used in within UFO narratives. And in this case, through the symbolism and sexual/cultural associations of the very terms used to describe the UFO craft itself. There are many UFO craft terms, but there are several that are very common: saucer, bell, cigar, and triangle.

It is often pointed out that the origins of the term 'saucer' is ironic within the UFO realm, since Kenneth Arnold did not use it to describe the actual objects he witnessed, but their movement-- that of a saucer skipping across water. Skeptics and debunkers have even asserted this discrepancy in itself may serve to validate subsequent reports of round, disc-shaped craft as products of the imagination, since the mistaken idea of this shape was merely 'planted' by Arnold in a misconstrued reporting.

However, this is merely a random, superficial deduction of logic, and does not take into consideration many things, including a plethora of unknown disc-shaped objects within historical, artistic, ancient, and otherwise.

It is also important to note that the assertion of the 'imagination' in explaining UFO accounts does not necessarily debunk as is often intended, and could even at some future point even serve to actually support the physical existence of the UFO. It is interesting that even within this developing mass belief that the creative mind can manifest things physically, or is otherwise engaged with tangible results and 'reality' (one has only to look at the enormous popularity of The Secret) that the idea of the 'imagination' is still conveniently used by skeptics, and then generally accepted as a warehouse of foolish made-up fancies.

If the imagination was involved in Kenneth Arnold's sighting and subsequent reports, it wasn't on the level of suggestion, it was on the level of resonation. The idea of a wildly mysterious disc shaped object moving through the sky resonated with the masses. Nuts-and-bolts theorists may argue that is because these and other objects are, in fact, moving through the sky. Socio-cultural theorists may argue that the saucer shape held some power or meaning.

Arnold's actual quote is a bit curious "as if a saucer was skipping across the water." He clearly states the crafts were boomerang-shaped, so the word 'saucer' clearly aims to create a mental picture. But, why wouldn't he then just say a boomerang skipping across water, or maybe more obvious, a rock? A rock skipping across water conjures up a specific unmistakable image-I would dare say almost everyone has witnessed.