My body, my rights, my sacredness: secular agendas and sacred rituals towards reproductive justice

KARINA FELITTI

Santa Clara, California

Conferencia; Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Genders and Sexualities; 2023

Santa Clara University, California

In recent years, while feminisms began to be recognized as a significant political actor and also as a positive and appealing cultural identity, the New Age movement experienced a similar process. Both together developed a spiritual female feminist identity by doing politics in micro and macro levels. ‘Women’s circles’, archetypical and concrete expressions of women’s spirituality, offer the opportunity to investigate this convergence of feminist ideas and spiritual practices. This situation invited us to reflect about second wave feminist slogan “the personal is political” and suggest that, in some cases, spirituality is also political and feminist. This paper presents the main findings of a survey conducted in more than 30 women’s circles held in Buenos Aires city, between 2015 and 2022. They were focused on sexual and reproductive health, women’s empowerment and self-knowledge. There feminist ideas were introduced, discussed, rejected and embraced. The circles I observed were constituted by cis-gendered, heterosexual, white, young/middle age, middle class and educated women. This study was based on participant observation, semi-structured interviews and the analysis of booklets and contents shared by women’s circles organizers, in the gatherings and on their social networks (Instagram & Facebook). Also, I identified and analyzed the bibliography, films, music and other type of consumptions (foot diet, clothes) that were referenced and observed in the circles, which shape the material cultural of feminine spirituality.