What Men Want? Initial Thoughts on the Male Goddess Movement

Abstract

This article examines the sociological dynamics of a number of contemporary Pagan men who venerate goddesses. Rejecting both mythopoetic and normative Western social constructions of masculinity, the Male Goddess Movement (MGM) equates social problems with traits usually associated with masculinity such as aggression and competitiveness. The MGM is built around the interiorization of the female antitype as a form of liberation from these dogmas of masculinity. In this respect ritual practice centred on Goddesses becomes of central importance to the performance of non-essentialized and enchanted forms of masculinity. This interiorization and ritualization has importance for both theory and practice. In sociological terms the MGM marks a new form of gendered religious practice which deliberately resists epistemological labels such as ‘modern’ or ‘postmodern’. Within Contemporary Paganisms it marks a new second wave of masculinist consciousness which, contrary to mythopoetic constructions of masculinity, seeks to dismantle essentialist forms of gender difference.