Why Goddess Feminism, Activism, or Spirituality? by Andrew Gurevich

I am a Goddess Feminist because I understand that we have close to 600,000 years of mythological and sociocultural expression of the sacred feminine archetype (dating back to the Venuses of Tan Tan and of Berekhat Ram). These symbols emerge from the deepest part of our collective psyche and thus express something fundamental about what it means to be human. But these mythological archetypes are not meant to confine us to limited roles within a culture. They are not meant to bind us to the unyielding chains of tradition and hegemony. There is fluidity and permeability with the traditions. There are male gods who exhibit “feminine” qualities. There are female gods of war and conquest. Male gods sometimes give birth. There are androgynous gods and asexual gods. Although certainly related, mythological gender and human gender expression are not the same thing from my perspective. Anymore that linguistic gender and physical gender are.

In other words, the recognition of the sacred feminine principle of “mother” does not suggest that women are only important if they are mothers. Or that all women should be mothers. Or that a woman is only valuable if she produces children for the dominant culture. It simply means that all living humans come from a mother. And to recognize this is a primary manifestation of that which binds us all. Our animality. Our mortality. Birthed through the body of a woman. There is no getting away from this. It is, in fact, the only thing we can all agree upon. So it seems as good a candidate as any from which to build a mythological awareness of our common fragility, connectivity and shared sense of beautiful, terrible becoming. Of our individual and collective emergence.

Or as Dr. Cornel West puts it, “We are beings toward death. Featherless, two-legged, linguistically conscious creatures born between urine and feces, whose body will one day be the culinary delight of terrestrial worms. But in the womb, we are beings introduced to the funk of life and the love push that gets us out. Covered in water and blood. Surrounded in Mother. Pushed into the world by a wave of love, blood and sacrifice."

Anti-feminist critiques are almost always rooted in pure delusion, myopic renderings of feminist ideology or antiquated versions of the movement that no longer apply across the board. Women have endured male oppression and control for over 8,000 years in an unbroken chain of patriarchal dominance. That is 320 successive generations of limited access to their own self-determination. 320 generations of marital rape and no control over who they have kids with or when they have kids or if they have kids at all. 320 generations of being slapped on the ass at work and being forced to give up their own career dreams and aspirations in order to rear and raise children. 320 generations of gang rape and foot binding and body shaming and eating disorders. Now, for five or six generations, we have a women's movement that simply says women are not possessions and that they are entitled to the same respect, protection and access that men are. However, they are still not granted this opportunity, safety and access in most of the world. In fact, in the 20th Century alone, more females were murdered worldwide simply for being female than the total number of people killed in WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan combined.

Goddess feminism allows us to peel back the scales and emerge into the light of our original inheritance. But we emerge not into a world of ecological balance and peaceful equanimity but rather onto the front lines of this several millennia long war on women. I am so honored to be a part of this vital work. I know of no more important work to be doing. And no more honorable people to be doing it alongside.

Blessed BE.

Andrew Gurevich 
Portland, OR

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This is an ongoing collective writing project, initiated by Magoism: The Way of S/He and Mother Tree Sanctuary in response to the question, "Why Goddess Feminism, Activism, or Spirituality?" We will feature different women's answers here and on the Magoism blog in the months to come as part of this project.

Contributions are welcome.  Please email magoism@gmail.com or join the discussion on the Magoism group on Facebook.