How do I Discover the Masculine and Feminine within Me?

 Recently I attended a lab conducted by Sumedhas Academy for Human Context which was titled Gender and Identity. There was a very deep level of introspection around Gareth's framework around how each one responds in a Masculine and Feminine manner.

My discovery of myself was that over these years I have made a choice of being in power being in control and being at the top of things related to a Masculine identity.

According to the framework, feminine does not denote any weakness but different types of choices like nurturing, creativity, and taking initiative.

Through my fighter identity, I always respond to situations through a warrior-like identity. For me losing has always been very difficult therefore made all choices related to the dynamic masculine identity.

It was a journey of deep reflection and intensity where I discovered that I have completely disowned the static feminine within me which needs to rest and be at peace with whatever the situation comes.

All these identities reside at different points of time within us and it depends what is the situation and evocation of the self and the situation at that time.

There is a quadrant that justifies one being better than the other because every dynamic quadrant also has a shadow side to its responses. Because you anchor yourself in one location you resist seeing the shadow part of that identity.

It was a very interesting and insightful journey which way facilitated by Sarbari Gomes and Roop Sen.  

The participants came with their own respective identities and deeply shared the different quadrant that each one belonged to. For example, there were Quadrants, Dynamic Masculine, Static Feminine, Dynamic Feminine, and Static Masculine.

Each quadrant had its own characteristics pulls and propensities that made us respond through different lenses.

Each pattern is positive only insofar as it does not dominate at the expense of the others. When pervasive and dominant, each pattern represents it negative aspects.



Created by Sarbari Gomes for Sumedhas Academy For Human Context

We also worked on how our body and response to different body parts are impacted by gendered identity. It was an interesting revelation when each participant shared its pull and propensity to respective body parts.  

Author:-Dr. Nayana Shah (Ph.D.)

           Director, Manthan

             Ahmedabad

Comments

  1. Sudeshna bhojiaJanuary 3, 2022 at 10:27 PM

    This is something very new to me. Nice to read through. Why don't you take a session like this in one of the VTG meetings? A presentation followed by a workshop will be a great input session for the VTG members. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete

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