THE GENDER-ISM IN SPIRITUALITY

Or why masculine and feminine labels are outdated.

If you like to stay in your white-cis-heteronormative-privilege comfort zone, you should not read this article. If you are on the other hand the person that I think will learn, understand and grow from this article, you can continue.

This article is by no means a “this is how it should be” but simply an invitation to open up space in a very gender-labeled spiritual industry as of now. Yes change has been happening. Yes there are certain practitioners, spaces + places that invite and welcome change as much as I do - but, there is still the undertone of a story (from patriarchal resources of course) we have been told and sold.

What it’s like to be feminine. What it’s like to be masculine + how these energies should be and look like.

This article will take you on a journey of exploring the boxed gender-narrative the industry likes to sell, why that is problematic in itself + WHY we all win, if we invite change, expand language AND learn to listen to those who aren’t included in spirituality yet.

HOW DID THIS ALL START?

I came across an article from a very famous German Coach Laura Seiler - first I want to mention that this is not in any sense name bashing, but a simply a case example of the same thing you see over and over again in the industry. White-cis-privileged coaches (privilege referring in this sense to someone with a high platform) that keep repeating three factors of an oversold gender-ism story that has nothing to do with energy, what gender actually is and or/ how we can actually improve our lives by using these energies. I think Laura like many other coaches have a good intention behind this article, nevertheless it beams of ignorance against the LGBTQ+ community + lack of scientific research in connection to gender and energy and labels feminine and masculine energy by old colour concepts that are simply outdated.

But let’s dismantle this

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM WITH THE MASCULINE AND FEMININE ENERGY BOXES?

The internet is full of lists on “this is what Yin energy looks like” and “this is what Yang energy looks like” and I agree that someone who has never come across the concept of spiritual energy can use these tools to get an idea of what these two energy strings look like. However, it leaves out a big question - WHAT DOES THIS LOOK LIKE TO YOU? Coming from an approach of an individual perspective, rather than a “this is what it should look like for you”

But let’s go back even further. Where does the whole construct of gender-ism start? There is folklore and mythology as well as ancient concepts that refer to Yin as the divine feminine and Yang as the divine masculine - but the concept to attach these two energies to gender itself is what white-cis-western spirituality has been sold since the last somewhat 30 years by attaching the feminine to PINK themes and masculine to BLUE themes. This has nothing to do with these energies in itself + makes as much sense as attaching to gender to planets in Astrology.

Because all in fact starts with energy as source itself. But let’s break this down to clear the confusion.

THE ANCIENT CONCEPT OF ENERGY

Is first and foremost NOT universal. Especially in the western-spiritual industry I often see white practitioners refer to the universal laws as practice of why certain things work in the universe. This is also where the gender-ism begins by stating the “law of gender” Law of Gender? In the universe? Sounds hilarious to me and much so outdated. The concepts like law of gender have only one thing - feed into a conservative way of thinking on how humanity should act and be like. Now without turning this more political than it is already (to some, to me, it’s simply humanity) - any box that tells someone how to behave referred to as woman, man or person in general is questionable.

Recent field research + neuroscience has shown us that the universe we often refer to is the energy where it all comes from, stating first and foremost that the concept of two energies is a concept that followed AFTER the understanding that all is one source. This is then true to a lot of beliefs around the world - for some its god, for others its multiple deities, higher-self and so on - the source above all. Then broken down into labels, boxes and so on becomes organisation and therefore concept of creation that we can work with + then becomes a popular concept of the two energies that flux around our body.

Nassim Haramein is a Quantum Physics Practitioner + master in the field and I can recommend looking into his videos and watching Quantum Revolution where the source and concept of energy is broken down and further explained.

So if all is one energetic source + we are being one, how come the industry is still so attached to the concept of two energies, in connection to gender even?

DEITIES PICK’N MIX + CULTURAL DIFFERENCES + WHY GENDER HAS NO COLOUR

This is where it gets tricky. Concepts such as pink is for girls and blue is for boys are concepts the generations before us have been brought up with + passed on. But hello it’s 2023 and the matter of colour referring to gender should not matter in the first place. Wear whatever you want, no matter the gender. This is also not something out of the blue but anyone that has studied art or different cultures knows that again there is no universal thinking of colour, because depending on the culture you grew up with, colour has a different meaning + if we are now also referring to different witchcraft practices again colour won’t have the same universal meaning. (There are dozens of books that will refer to colour in sense of this or that, but again my say in this is that people should ask themselves what a colour means to them, rather than blindly follow a 101 witchcraft book that refers to red candles for love spells).

A quick sidenote on that - especially nonbinary, transpeople + those who are part of the big beautiful umbrella get excluded by the forced ideal of what feminine and masculine looks like. And if you have a big platform and now argue that you target a certain market with this, I argue that you should be more responsible and aware how to include and make more space for all kinds of human beings (gender identities included). If Veit Lindau (another big German coach that mentioned the LGBTQ+ in his books, programmes + has created a programme where he directly addresses nonbinary people) can do it, so can other big practitioners in the German industry.

But despite the preferred colour-ism in the industry, this also counts for deities. Aphrodite always happens to be blonde, white and thin in certain mentions. The ignorance screams even louder when certain nonbinary gods get ignored and framed into a white-western standard, barely mentioned. So if nonbinary gods are barely mentioned in practitioner books and circles, that is also a reflection of nonbinary people in itself being mentioned and addressed in the industry.

BUT LOLA I AM FINE WITH MY FEMININITY BEING PINK GLITTER AND HEART-WARMING

And that’s fantastic and beautiful. If your identity as a woman and pink is your glamour and shine-a-light-momentum, that’s fantastic. But what I want is that you use that awareness and privilege + understand that there is no universal feminine because what it’s like to be feminine + being a woman in the 21st century is highly individual based on background + cultural etc. Not to mention that I am tired of practitioners referring to “less feminine” “well-dressed” woman as automatically having more masculine energy. Just because a woman that has short hair, speaks directly and has a logical approach to life doesn’t fit into your frame of what it’s like to be woman, doesn’t mean she should be automatically boxed as more masculine. Same counts for me as a nonbinary person, just because I decide to put on pink make up, wear lipstick and show off in a hot bra, doesn’t mean I am less nonbinary. Y'all need to check your bias on this one when it comes to make up, nail polish and clothes itself in the aspect of gender-ism.

That is the crux and complexity of this whole topic. We need to stop labelling people and feeding into a stereotypical fed up policy on what it looks like to be feminine and masculine. If we start doing that, we dismantle the source from gender itself and keep creating more space for inclusive rooms where everyone can feel safe.

But it doesn’t stop on looks and articulation alone, it also leads to actual energetic work + epigenetics on the inside. Someone that is diagnosed with autism, ADHD, mood swings, bipolar and more won’t have the same energetic scale + energy as someone that has a neurotypical way of their brain + body working. And also for women who don’t bleed, don’t have a uterus or reasons why their period is different to others. Does it mean they are lesser of what they would define as feminine?

People we all have wok to do.

SO WHAT CAN I DO NOW?

  • Label your courses as - all genders are welcome here (unless you specifically want to work a womb healing session for e.g.)

  • Take a stance on social media + share things of LGBTQ+ practitioners + sources that educate your community

  • Give nonbinary and trans folks a platform to speak up about this and make space

  • Stop using “feminine and masculine” labels and use “active and passive" energies - what these energies look like again is different to each individual, and we really need to stop feeding into a standard of what any of these energies look like for a neurotypical audience.

  • Raise awareness by sharing this article + go into conversation with me

  • Ask your local practice places if they are holding circles for LGBTQ+ people and if not start one of your own

  • Stop referring the energies to gender in the first place, it has nothing to do with it + you need to educate yourself I will link an article over here https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/language-in-the-mind/202308/why-biological-sex-is-not-the-same-as-gender

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