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plant lover, cookie monster, shoe fiend
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Of course, the portrayal of this idea on social media isn’t the full scope — some ideas reflected in divine femininity have been around for a long time, and it’s one that some find deep independence and empowerment through. Online, divine femininity borrows heavily from ancient spiritual traditions, though not always responsibly, according to Neha Chandrachud, a writer and cultural critic who often discusses religious and conservative movements.
“Divine femininity is really a misinterpretation of a lot of … Eastern philosophical principles about embodying the masculine and the feminine within,” Chandrachud says. “When you remove these ideas of Eastern spirituality from their original containers and you commodify them under this Western principle, you end up with a very bastardized idea of what masculinity and femininity are supposed to be.”
As the conversation has migrated to social media, many of the posts encouraging this idea are little more than repackaging rigid gender roles as spiritual self-help. Content creator Jess Britvich explores common entry-points to far-right ideology. She defines divine femininity as “the belief that men and women are biologically destined for certain character traits and that by embracing these traits, individuals will find happiness, fulfillment in relationships, and ultimately, purpose in life.”
Britvich says that this content "plays a huge role" in the alt-right pipeline for women. Although engaging with this content isn’t inherently dangerous for everyone, it can lead you down a slippery slope, Britvich says. “It’s gender essentialism, plain and simple, and gender essentialism is central to authoritarian ideologies like fascism and Christian nationalism. It tells people you are either a man or a woman, and your role is fixed.”
Many Divine Femininity influencers draw on prehistory to justify gender roles, using the idea that “men were hunters.” They advocate a return to our “ancestral roles” in which men were “providers.” However, it seems history wasn’t that simple. Cara Ocobock, PhD, and Sarah Lacy, PhD, co-authored two studies showing that prehistoric women commonly hunted, and that our ancestors’ roles weren’t so rigid.
“There's no one universal way to be human,” says Ocobock. “There is no one universal pattern of femininity or masculinity, or typical gender roles.” When asked why she thought Divine Femininity creators invoke prehistory or biology, she said, “People are picking and choosing various versions of our evolutionary past in order to justify modern day behavior.”
But this rigid categorization might be part of Divine Femininity’s appeal. Britvich suggests that it plays on our love for self-categorization, appealing to millennials who grew up on BuzzFeed quizzes and Gen Zers who subscribe to certain aesthetic identities. As Ocobock puts it, “Humans like to organize things by categories and then, of course, apply a hierarchy to them.”
It seems Divine Femininity also taps into a deeper desire. Many young people are losing interest in the life path set out by previous generations, feeling burnt out by the rise of hustle culture and disillusioned with the promises it makes. For women, this can feel particularly frustrating. A large part of a generation of daughters watched their mothers work doubles — career and home — while their fathers clocked off at 5 p.m. Although pop feminism told women we could do anything, our childhoods suggested we’d have to do everything. For women of color, the message cuts deeper. Many women of color feel overworked, unprotected, and robbed of the ability to be soft.
Epiphyte City
Epiphyte City
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