No, the tendency to “reconnect with one’s sacred feminine” is not feminist

Spiritual content that mentions the existence of a higher feminine energy, a biological sex that would draw its strength from nature, or even a sacred power from which women would be disconnected, abound in our feed social networks and on bookshop tables.

What is the “feminine sacred” and how can it be dangerous?

In summary, the “sacred feminine” refers to a profound nature of the woman, unaffected by the patriarchal culture. This would have been inherited from prehistoric times where what was sacred was considered feminine, presumably. To reconnect with it, there are different practices, often linked to natural elements such as herbal recipes (such as the potions of “modern witches”, an expression that is often found in this area), the use of stones and crystals for healing (gold, lithotherapy is a myth disputed by science), accessories such as flower crowns and other rites marked by the stars.

However, there is a big difference between recognizing the influence of lunar cycles on the rhythm of the tides and believing that this would have a direct impact, for example, on human menstruation. If you want to add spirituality to your life, you can quickly fall into esotericism. If nothing is wrong, certain drifts can prove dangerous to themselves.

This was the case, for example, with the mugwort vagina steam baths recommended by Gwyneth Paltrow in 2015. A harmful practice that could be forgotten, but without taking into account the prescription power of such a celebrity, and the growing popularity of the female sacred that even Kourtney Kardashian says will continue to indulge in 2022.

In addition to the danger to oneself, individually, enthusiasm for these practices can also cause damage to feminist struggles and other minorities, on a collective scale.

Indeed, some of these ideas have already largely overtaken the Internet and the literary phenomenon, and we also find them in the field of motherhood, notes Illana Weizman, author of This is ours after giving birth and of White people like the others? Jews, the blind spot of anti-racism. According to the feminist and anti-racist essayist, the main idea conveyed would be that women carry within themselves a natural strength that would allow them to better endure suffering during childbirth. Speeches that want to empower women, but which are above all alienating, explains Illana Weizman a Lose :

“They convey the idea that births don’t have to be as medical as they are. But the line is thin between this desire to claim childbirth, to be able to overcome the pain, and to fall into an essentializing discourse that assigns physical characteristics to psychological traits, thus leading to sexist injunctions such as sacrificial motherhood or self-sacrifice. “

A step backwards for the feminist struggles

While these theories may seem revolutionary, they are actually nothing new. They belong to the spiritual movement new era dating back to the 1960s and advocating a return to nature. The movement is also often seen as an attempt to enchant the world again in the face of the crisis of ideologies and the rejection of consumerism. A thought based, in matters of gender, on a biological consideration of the latter, counter-current of feminist work in recent years and of progress in LGBTI + struggles, aimed at overcoming a certain sexist binary, continues Illana Weizman:

«With the sacred feminine we return to an extremely binary world, with very clear assignments at the gender level, where feminism really wants to emancipate itself from the biological consideration of gender, in particular at the level of sexuality, orientation, parenting. Feminism of the feminine sacred is a false feminism that makes the bed of the patriarchy, because it is completely aligned with what this system expects of us. “

While bringing gender and biology closer together is an idea that couldn’t be more regressive, it was at the center of feminist debates not so long ago.. This was particularly the case in the 1970s, when the subject was still only academic and militant, well before its popularization following the #MeToo movement in convergence with the emergence of Gender studies in the United States and then in Europe. This is observed with Lose Marie de Gandt, Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Bordeaux:

” The popularization of feminism led to a return to the debates of the 1970s between the different branches of feminism, for example, between feminism essentialistwhich assumes that men and women are different in nature, biology and feminism universalist, affirming the idea that gender is a social construct. “

Reinforce the clichés to better support your social condition?

Although these debates between essentialist feminism and universalist feminism date back several decades, let us remember. feminism is a recent social struggle on a human scaleand that sexist clichés and body markers themselves evolve over time. Think in particular of the issue of menstruation, which has not always been a body marker, so much so that, in other times, men were also believed to have periods. Proof that these are only social constructions, notes Marie de Gandt:

” The so-called female bodies are not all rhythmic in the same way, but we insist that they are every 28 days with menstruation. On the other side, even so-called male bodies are rhythmic, but we are simply not interested in these rhythms. “

It should also be noted that the rhythms themselves vary according to the calendars used and that time is also a construction.

However, attributing what is considered feminine in our society to herself as a cisgender woman can have a reassuring side.. This phenomenon in particular can make it possible to better live one’s social condition in everyday life, precisely by re-evaluating the so-called feminine characters. This is what Daisy Letourneur, author of the blog, says The Mecxplicatorrejected in the test You were not born a boy – A short feminist treatise on masculinity. The trans feminist and lesbian essayist explains the following:

“We can understand that there is something gratifying when you are a cisgender woman to find yourself in this story of the sacred feminine. Being a mother, raising children, taking care of others and all those things they do on a daily basis that are associated with being feminine have value. Unfortunately, patriarchal and capitalist society does not recognize them at all. “

Despite the comfort we can feel in finding ourselves in these sacred values, it is clear that they still perpetuate limiting sexist assignments, without questioning them, continues Daisy Letourneur:

“This sacralization of the feminine is a scam. It’s a way of saying “it’s so good what you do”, without asking why no one helps women and pays them for what they do. As for the caregivers we clapped at our windows during childbirth, but whose status was never updated. “

A dangerous discourse between transphobia and sectarian excesses

In addition to the perpetuation of sexist ideas or even the regression from the point of view of some social struggles, theories related to the idea of ​​the feminine sacred are also dangerous. In particular, they represent a path towards transphobic ideas. Sometimes, it is rather the transphobia that serves its justification in naturalizing and essentializing notions such as those of the feminine sacred. Sometimes, these thought systems can lead to sectarian aberrations, Daisy Letourneur points out:

“If we take the speeches of some transphobic feminists, they are completely in these notions of the sacred feminine and in other esoteric concepts. It is no coincidence that the best known of them went on retreat this summer with Thierry Casanovas, antivax guru, quoted several times by the Mivilude “

A surprising discovery, in line with other conspiracy theories, such as those that claim that there is a transphobic lobby led by Big Pharma that would force all children to transition to make them patients for life through the dose of hormones needed every day, concludes Daisy. Letourneur:

“If we begin to disbelieve the doctors who claim that trans-identity really exists, the biologists, who claim that sex cannot be divided into two categories, it is a true gateway to obscurantist thoughts. “

Cover photo credit: Oleg Gekman via Canva.