The song's title is a reference to the eponymous sheela na gig statues. The lyrics to "Sheela-Na-Gig" make several allusions to the statues in lyrics such as "look at these, my child-bearing hips," "you exhibitionist," and "put money in your idle hole." However, the lyrics narrate "imperious male demands and female self-loathing" and "a leather jacket-wearing rocker, black-humouring the boys with her twangy moan." The male character conveyed in the lyrics is uninterested in the female due to her exhibitionism and him not wanting to be "unclean." The lyric "dirty pillows" is a reference to the Stephen King novel Carrie, in which Margaret White uses the term to describe breasts. The repeated lyric, "I'm gonna wash that man right outa my hair" is the title of a song from the 1949 musical, South Pacific.
