Page:What Men Want - Initial Thoughts on the Male Goddess Movement.pdf/16

Rh libertarian. This is typical of mainstream Pagans, but was over-represented to a greater extent in the MGM. Secondly, this acted as a critique of normative and essentialized social constructions of gender. Whilst their practices were obviously built around sexual difference (men venerating female deities), they rejected gender essentialism. Typically, masculine traits of excessive aggression and dogmatic rationalism were seen by participants as social constructions historically rooted in the marginalization of female spiritual archetypes in world religions, specifically Christianity. This, for many practitioners, was exacerbated by the rise of modernity. Capitalism was viewed as being built upon masculine traits such as ‘ruthlessness’, ‘aggression’ and rational calculation, marginalizing the emotions and intuition. As this respondent observes, ‘We are encouraged as men to be closed off emotionally. Spiritually. This is not what men are ... It is modern society that has made this worse ... I was raised a Baptist and Christianity is to blame too ... God is not a male.’

Goddesses were almost universally seen as panentheistic. That is, they are co-extensive with the material universe, but also independent of it – a mid-point on a continuum of belief between deism and pantheism This has implications for the way that respondents viewed gender difference. As goddesses manifest a reality that is external to the material world (and human bodies), but which also suffuses it, panentheism is antiessentialist. This was viewed as positive by practitioners, opening them up to better relationships with women, both platonic and sexual; to create a balance between the intuitive, spiritual and emotional sides of their psyche with rational thinking; and, a closer relationship with nature. As this respondent observes:

"As a gay man I have many female friends, but those relationships tended to be a little superficial. Maybe artificial is a better word. My work with Isis has changed this. Now we have an understanding which is not just me being seen as a fashion accessory ... Many of my straight friends who do this have had their sex lives and relationships improved too. We are closer in touch with our feelings. It IS is? OK to cry as a man ... I am also in touch with nature. Growing up without belief makes you complacent about the world around you ... Knowing that Isis is THE World changes that."

But what of these practices? Ritual universally lays at the heart of relationships between goddesses and their male adherents, as it does in all Contemporary Paganisms. Ritual is the major way in which gender is 320