Quotes from _The Flower and the Scorpion_ #55

"Tezcatlipoca, both in and outside of Toxcatl, both before and after the conquest, existed as a complex figure that moved beyond both Spanish conceptions of gender and Catholic moral frameworks in which sex equaled sin: Nahuas imagined him as a woman giving birth (just as they imagined the woman as a warrior), a man playing a masculine role, a trickster disappearing into the smoky mirror to alter his body into a body that appeared feminine, and a masculine warrior figure; he promoted sexual trickery and seduction, engaged in sexual activity as a woman and as a man, and seduced and even raped Xochiquetzal. This imaginary framework confounds contemporary analysts perhaps even more than it disturbed Spanish priests. Such deified sexuality shows us that the phallic warrior god can be a goddess too and a woman giving birth."