How We Are All Robbed of Our Feminine Selves

Prompt Response: Beauty in the geography of my body

In many religious and spiritual traditions, The Divine Feminine and The Divine Masculine principles make up the foundation of the Universe. The Shakti and Shiva, Yin and Yang constitute the basis of all of creation. While they may seem to be in opposition, they are moving in a way to keep everything in balance in the universe.

The inward going force can be referred to as the Feminine principle and the outward going force as the Masculine principle.

Nature is in constant state of movement by embodying these principles. For example, the plants and the trees go inward by shedding parts, cleansing, and then to grow and display it’s leaves, fruits or flowers to the world in the outward movement. The waves and tides in the mighty sea are in the inward and the outward flow. Similar to our breathing, which also represents the constant inward and outward movement of air.

The cosmic dual principles are part of every system in the universe, including us human beings. It has nothing to do with our gender or sexual orientation. The principles make up each one of us.

They are, moreover, an intrinsic part of Yoga, which is seen as a process by which we unite these principles. Yoga which means “union” is the particular development of awareness of these principles within us and balancing them.

I am borrowing the below definition from Alan Lew’s insightful article referenced at the end of this piece to understand more of our Self.

The Divine Masculine You — expansion, expressing, acting, thinking, innovating — Left side of the brain and Right side of the body for most people

The Divine Feminine You — contraction, receiving, perceiving, understanding, creativity, intuition — Right side of the brain and Left side of the body for most people

In an ideal world, each one of us (men and women) would be able to connect with both of the principles within us and engage in the cosmic dance of recognising when we are “in our masculine” and when we are “in our feminine”; honouring each energies contribution to the process we are experiencing.

The interplay would also result in us making conscious choices, whether to connect more with our inward going energy or the outward going energy in any situation.

However, today in our societies, due to the lack of awareness we have created stereotyped, dysfunctional forms of feminine and masculine principles.

I was tracing back in our history to see where we have lost the essence of this understanding. For example, I was reviewing the Indian Vedic period and the ancient Egyptian civilisation where both the energies were in harmony and expressed. I still have more ground to cover on this and will circle back with an update.

But one can safely say, over the last 2000 years or so, the unawareness of the feminine and masculine principles, has resulted in a society in which the masculine energies have overpowered the feminine energies.

One can attribute the loss of the feminine principle to the origins of Patriarchy. The feminine energy was suppressed, to begin with, within the male population itself and as a consequence, the female population identified as the physical embodiment of the feminine was subdued.

While the correlation of Agriculture with patriarchy is debated, for purposes of this article one can say the patriarchal culture was the springboard for the development of the dysfunctional masculine and feminine energies.

Because of lack of space and expression for the inward going feminine principles, such as empathy and being able to reflect on the results of our actions, the toxic forms of masculinity and femininity (sometimes referred to as phallic identity) have grown extensively and are the hallmark of our current times.

Toxic Masculine Energy

The Toxic Masculinity is deeply rooted within all societies, no matter who we are (he/she/they) we have all had a taste of it one way or the other. The images of masculinity, portraying ‘real men’ as aggressive, physically strong, and always in control of their emotions and the men who reveal their feelings as weak, spineless, and unmanly make up for the toxicity.

This convoluted form of masculinity has been abetted and nurtured with constant validation and feedback deep from within our households, our communities, extensively shaped through our communication channels. Our magazines, TV, film industry, music, social media, celebrities, you name it the list can go on.

The media predominantly works with the corporations to manufacture and maintain ideals of masculinity like being physically strong, with no feelings, objectifying, and dominating women. They are equally made to feel entitled to the female body and the consequences that come with such beliefs and notions.

The feminine principle that men retained access to in women, unfortunately has been lost in its essence with the culture of objectification

“which involves lowering a person, a being with humanity to the status of an object” — Immanuel Kant

Both men and women can all refer back to their experiences of interactions with the dysfunctional masculine.

The way men relate to the meaning of the word feminine or the feminine energies itself is completely misguided and corrupted today.

Toxic Feminine energy

Women on the other hand have internalised this misogyny as well, learning to be sex objects to find their place in the world.

The sexual objectification of women in films and other sectors of the media has a detrimental effect on our young girls and women. The struggles show up in a myriad of forms as depression, anxiety, eating disorders, body dysmorphic disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, reproductive or parenting issues, even relationship crises.

The women have also misunderstood the masculine or the masculine energies in the process. We self-objectify our bodies and absorb ourselves in vanity to compete for the male gaze as if that is the ultimate goal! As if we were born in this world as accessories or objects to satisfy the man and the men on the other hand are here to be entertained.

Unfortunately, if we look around we can see the interplay of the dysfunctional feminine and the masculine playing out in our societies all over the world.

I highly recommend you to watch the below video by Dr. Heldman who talks on objectification, watch it till the end.

The media allows the exploitation of women’s bodies for profit. It is all about money at the end of the day and in that process,

It teaches women that we must perform a very high standard of objectification and that objectifying ourselves is normal.

Yesterday, my close friend said to me; women have such pressure in society to look good. Not to mention the supply chain of the beauty industry, the cosmetic surgeons, and so on. This pressure is blindly accepted as necessary, as gospel truth and hardly questioned.

We are so deeply plugged in this code or the matrix as I like stating it, it is worrisome, nonetheless.

It equally made me wonder if this was our way of the mate selection process? Well, it awful lot explains the state of our intimate relationships these days.

Thank you for being with me so far in the article. All is not lost yet as each of us remain an agent of change. With enormous power within to influence our own lives, the lives of our children, our emerging generation.

I for one have consciously stopped consuming the content or the products that perpetuate the toxic forms of masculine and feminine aspects in the entertainment industry or any form in my daily life. That itself has aided me to think clearly about these things.

But lest not be quick to judge when we see anyone displaying these toxic forms as they are just the symptoms of the incoherent path humanity has taken. We will have to compassionately work with people in correcting the incoherence.

The shift has already begun with the Feminist and the LGBTQ movement when we started questioning the violations of freedom & sovereignty of this group and in particular standing up against the dysfunctional masculine in the society.

The road to the Eternal Dance or the Leela

The future is in each of our hands as we can cleanse the dysfunctional forms and embrace the Divine Masculine and Feminine energies flowing within us.

We need to work together to create the balance and harmony by recognising and engaging in the cosmic dance of our inward and outward movement.

It can subsequently bring about a high level of consciousness with a profound connection with nature, trust in our inner wisdom, our inner self, our intuition to then manifest equality, justice, space for free will in the material world.

A complete human being is in equilibrium between the Masculine and Feminine — Jaggi Vasudev

Thank you very much for reading and dancing along x!

Additional reading if it interests you:

Alan Lew’s article below.