Abstract
Menstrual blood is still regarded as taboo in many places all over the world. An important form of breaking the menstrual taboo is the Red Tent movement, established in 2007 in the USA within the women’s spirituality movement. Studies on women’s spiritual movements in the West show how new spiritual movements such as Goddess spirituality, neo-paganism, and New Age offer empowerment to women that is otherwise lacking in more traditional and institutionalized religious traditions, promote equality, and affirm the values associated with practices of healing, and female solidarity. Although contemporary spiritualities present themselves as non-hierarchical and gender equal, spirituality and wellbeing in women’s circles is pre-dominantly practiced by white middle-class women and a lack of diversity may perpetuate social dynamics structured by systematic inequities. By concerning potential exclusion and privilege, particularly regarding social class, the purpose of this paper is to question whether the Red Tent movement reproduces the existing power structure where hegemonic norms and institutionalized forms of power are entrenched and reproduced. It derives from the assumption that by continuously exploring their spiritual life women from the Red Tent were also increasing their “spiritual capital”. In their pursuit of spiritual growth deriving from an exceedingly wide range of practices we can witness spiritual omnivorosity, because they combine multiple religious and spiritual traditions. The research is methodologically based on ethnographic fieldwork by participating in Red Tent gatherings in Slovenia, semi-structured in-depth interviews with participants and hosts and in-depth content analysis of interactions manifesting through digital communications (websites, Facebook etc.).
Presenters
Polona SitarAssistant Professor, Department of History, University of Primorska, Slovenia
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Red Tent, Social Class, Spiritual Capital, Spiritual Omnivorosity, Women's Spirituality
