Talk:Goddess movement
This article is a bit of a mess. It started life as part of a not-very-encyclopædic essay by Shan Jayran under Goddess. People have since added stuff before I cut this piece out to make Goddess movement, but it could use organising, NPOVing, and generally de-essaying... —Ashley Y 03:56, 2004 Nov 7 (UTC)
- I have added it to my to-do list, which is currently in my head. --Viriditas 13:14, 7 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Starting revision
No one has done anything on this though there was apparently agreement that revision is needed. To get started, I propose that the first two sentences be deleted and they be replaced by the following (with quotes removed):
"What is sometimes called the contemporary Goddess movement grew out of second-wave feminism in the 1970s, with the realization that women were not treated equitably in many mainstream religions and that masculine gender and male imagery were attached to deity to the exclusion of feminine gender and female imagery.
"Some people in the Goddess movement recognize multiple goddesses; some also include gods; others honor what they refer to as "the Goddess," which, although, rarely, may be meant as monotheistic, is usually understood to be a conceptual umbrella term incorporating many goddesses in many different cultures. The term "the Goddess" may also be understood to include a multiplicity of ways to view deity personified as female, or as a metaphor, or as a process."
If any of you disagree with this, please let us know by 12/30/05.
Thanks Judith Laura 21:35, 23 December 2005 (UTC)
Here are some other suggested changes and thoughts:
Moving on to the subhead "Terminology": Unless one of you (who are reading this in the last week of Dec. 2005) has a source for the capitalization distinction currently given, I'd like to change that. In my experience, capitalization of the words g/Goddess and g/Goddesses may be the author's choice, or it may be the publisher or editor's choice so that to say it signifies the distinction given here is confusing and misleading. If no one posts a source here by Dec. 30, 2005 for the distinction presently given in the text, I'd like to replace it with a statement noting that some authors and/or publications capitalize G/goddess and G/goddesses and some don't, and that the capitalization may reflect either the preference of the writer or the style of the publisher. I would then delete the "(small g") after "goddess" and make it plural "goddesses" and pluralize the nouns and verbs in that entry where necessary. For example, it would then read: "refers to local or specific deities, linked to a particular culture and probably to particular powers (I don't see why we need the present adjective "clearly" before "linked") . Under the definition of "The Goddess, the Great Goddess, (removing the now repetitive 3rd mention of Goddess and the notation "(capital G) I would move the discussion of Kali to the definition of goddesses; and remove the clause "and her greatness and complexity and tends to invoke the skills of thealogy" as this statement seems to be a snide remark. But please feel free to pursuade me otherwise or suggest a way that this might be stated to avoid this. To me, however, it just seems unnecessary. I would also delete the sentence about Wiccans and Discordians as it seems unnecessary as Wicca/Wicce is discussed below and Discordianism, as fun as it is, doesn't seem particularly relevant in an article on the Goddess movement (though it would be appropriate in an article on modern Paganism or Neo-Paganism). I would delete the "God/dess/ God/ess/ Godde" entry as these terms are not usually used in the Goddess movement but rather by those outside it (such as Christian and Jewish feminists) as alternatives to the word Goddess an alternative would be to leave the words, but to add or edit it to include what I've said here about it. Again please post your opinion here by Dec. 30.
I have gone ahead and edited the "Thealogy" entry in this section since the "Naomi Goldenberg" link led to a no-longer-existing Wikipedia article and while I was at it did some other minor editing on the language describing that term.
I also feel the section on "Prehistoric Matriarchy" needs to be more balanced. At minimum, references need to be provided for the assertions made in paragraph 2 of this section, and then a summary of the view of authors such as Riane Eisler, (who don't use the term matriarchy because they don't want to imply a reversal of power but rather a sharing of power) need also to be presented and referenced. As it is, it now seems to be an attack on Goddess movement assertions.
Judith Laura 17:31, 26 December 2005 (UTC)
Additions to Background section
I've made some additions to the ==Background==section, including: mention of Elizabeth Cady Stanton's Women's Bible, the journals, WomanSpirit and The Beltane Papers, and the UUA course "Cakes for the Queen of Heaven." Related references also added to ==Reference Section==
Judith Laura 19:25, 27 December 2005 (UTC)
I've also added a subhead "Use of Mythological Materials" to the Background section, and under the Wicca subhead, I've added a sentence indicating that not everyone involved in the Goddess movement considers themselves Wicc-ans,-ens, or even Pagans. I've added References related to these text additions.