Heide Göttner-Abendroth, "Nine Principles of a Matriarchal Aesthetic"
[This is an exciting article, at least on account of its awareness of lots of key issues. THE MAIN THING IS TO READ THE NINE PRINCIPLES themselves (which I'm not typing out for you--but see pp. 566-69). After some brief indications of her positive program, there follow notes for comments and discussion. As you accept, modify, or reject different components of the author's vision, think about the history and destiny of the practices being discussed. Can you sense a possibility here of significantly enhanced way of living for ourselves and our communities? Explain.]
Heide Göttner-Abendroth affirms the following thoughts.
Matriarchal art moves beyond fiction to magic, which, in modern times, changes psychic and social reality.
Matriarchal art has an enduring and universal mythological framework.
To realize ecstasy beyond all separation of feeling, thinking, and doing, beyond all categories of emotional identification, theoretical reflection, and symbolic action, matriarchal art demands the total commitment of all participants.
Beauty is not a commodity but a way of living in which one allows oneself to be transformed by an art process uniting the natural with the spiritual.
The ritual dance ceremony embraces music, song, poetry, movement, decoration, symbol, comedy and tragedy, all for the purpose of invoking, imploring, and praising the goddess.
In the new form of life organized around matriarchal ritual in motherliness and sisterly love, there is new balance in spiritual ecstasy, which has often been too intellectualized or too activist. The balance comes from thinking, feeling and doing—intellect, emotions, and action—being expressed maximally and simultaneously.
Art and life are commonly dominated by motives of power, control, and greed.
Beauty is commonly regarded as mere appearance and as commodity.
Art is widely experienced as merely fictional, artificial, denatured; divided into a formalist, elitist, socially effective art on the one hand and a popular, widespread, but socially vilified and outcast art on the other.
Nature is exploited and regarded merely as quantifiable.
[False freedom is discouraged:] subjective indulgence, allowing erotic and aggressive drives simply to run wild, undisciplined eclecticism, arbitrary chain of associations, chaos.
HG-A separates (1) emotion (in subjective sentimentality or in ecstasy as a kind of delirium leading to total incapacity, or at best a kind of gentle madness, thoroughly irrational) from (2) intellect (in abstract arbitrariness and disguising ideology) and (3) action (as mere catharsis—blowing off steam).
HG-A criticizes the evaluation and repression of the erotic in ascetic patriarchal religions and moral systems.
HG-A criticizes dogmatism in theory, religion, and art (prescribing themes, meanings and tone).
HG-A observes that psychology is used to promote social conformity, commerce or war.
HG-A criticizes a bleak scientific attitude to death and a cynical perfection of machines.
She challenges the fragmented, specialized, stereotyped, and supervised individual of today, whose individualism refuses participation in community life.
She challenges patriarchy.
She wants to replace political action as an exchange of hostilities by a tactic of returning artistic beauty for aggression.