Red Moon and a Cyclical Woman: new modes of femininity between de-traditionalization and re-traditionalization
| Autoři | |
|---|---|
| Rok publikování | 2015 |
| Druh | Další prezentace na konferencích |
| Fakulta / Pracoviště MU | |
| Citace | |
| Popis | The contribution discusses a question what discourses are employed in the construction of „new femininities“ (e.g. Gonick 2004) in the context of discussions about menstrual cycle as a source of female spiritual and creative power. It is based on ethnographic research, especially participant observation in two Czech centres for personal and spiritual development that organize regular circles and seminars for women. I focus on the question how are the objects of menstruation, of the menstrual cycle and of a "natural" femininity created in these settings. In relation to this aim, I explore individual and collective practices that help to discipline female bodies, establish new self-perception as a woman and create the sense of participating in a bigger interconnected collectivity of women. This new gender identity is created while dealing with an ongoing tension between 1) the emancipation concept of a woman (as an independent, wild, "wolf" woman), connected also to a critique of gender-based inequalities in the social system, and 2) a rather traditional approach to roles of women as mothers and housewives. The emerging gender identity thus springs from a discursive mix which contains both aspects of detraditionalization and retraditionalization of gender; aspects of innovation and conformity. Thus, by analysing this specific case of construction of the "cyclical" femininity I would also like to shed light on the ways the processes of detraditionalization and retraditionalization are entangled in contemporary society. |
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