Jekyll2026-06-25T08:32:03+00:00https://feminist-reading-club.com/feed.xmlFeminist Reading ClubMonthly gatherings for cosy, insightful discussions on intersectional feminist topics — guided by papers, essays, films, and books. Based in Brussels.Esotericism & Feminism2026-06-21T00:00:00+00:002026-06-21T00:00:00+00:00https://feminist-reading-club.com/sessions/esotericism-and-feminismAstrology apps, crystal healing, divine feminine content, and trad wife aesthetics are everywhere online — often among the same audiences. This session tried to understand why esoteric spirituality is booming, who it serves, and where it shades into gender essentialism. We asked whether the divine feminine is a genuine reclamation of suppressed spiritual traditions, or a new container for old ideas about how women should be.
Materials
Main
To start with, you could briefly check what people who stand behind the concept actually mean with it, e.g. here(YouTube · 10 min), or even how you inspire masculine energy in your man(YouTube · no need to watch it all, I could only do 10 minutes)
Coming back to the more esoteric vibe of this topic, we can read on exclusion of queer people in these practices here(article · FSRI)
And eventually we can link the topic as well to the current political climate here(Teen Vogue) and toxic masculinity here(paper · Taylor & Francis · 2026)
Supplementary
In case you want some more examples, you can also check out the masculinity coaches here(Instagram). For a general analysis on femininity coaches, we recommend Shanespear's video(YouTube · 40 min)
Session structure
What is the divine feminine?
Origins in Carl Jung — male and female energy as psychological archetypes, now circulating widely stripped of context
How this concept maps onto gender: feminine energy = receptive, nurturing, emotional; masculine = active, rational, dominant
Gender essentialism — is there one correct way of being a woman?
What is gender essentialism and why does it appeal?
How esoteric content online often reasserts it — femininity coaching, divine feminine branding
What does science say about gender difference? (PMC article)
Esotericism as an alternative to institutional religion
Why might women seek spiritual practice outside churches, mosques, temples?
The appeal of a women-centred space — and who gets to be in that space
Exclusion of queer people, trans people, BIPOC practitioners in many esoteric spaces
The political connections
Why does trad wife content overlap so often with astrology and witchcraft?
Divine feminine on TikTok — a gateway to conservative gender politics?
Links to the rise of toxic masculinity — the two sides of the same gender-essentialist coin
What do we make of it?
Can esotericism be feminist? What would that require?
Where do you personally draw the line between spiritual practice and harmful ideology?
]]>Circular Fashion2026-05-25T00:00:00+00:002026-05-25T00:00:00+00:00https://feminist-reading-club.com/sessions/circular-fashionFast fashion is one of the most visible examples of capitalist overproduction — and women are simultaneously its primary consumers and its most exploited producers. This session explored the health, environmental, and social costs of how we make and buy clothes, and the limits of supposedly ethical alternatives like Vinted and second-hand markets. We asked a harder question: in a system that makes cheap clothes by externalising harm onto garment workers and the environment, what does shopping responsibly actually mean?
Materials
Main
To start: reflect on how you shop and how that has evolved — the session opens with a personal round
Introduction to the three pillars of the problem: health issues (synthetic fibres, microplastics, dye chemicals in garment workers and in water), environmental issues (overproduction, landfill, water consumption), social issues (poverty wages, unsafe factories, predominantly female workforce)
Overproduction and overconsumption — the reality of how much we produce vs how much is worn
The relationship between poverty and fast fashion — both for producers and consumers: who benefits from cheap clothes, and at whose expense?
Inclusivity in fashion: fair fashion vs fast fashion and who can actually access either
Supplementary
How fair is second-hand? The reality of Vinted and reselling platforms — flipping fast fashion at a markup is not the same as reducing consumption
"There is no ethical consumption under capitalism" — where does this argument go, and is it useful or paralyzing?
Session structure
How do you shop — and how has it changed?
Personal round: where do you buy clothes? Has that shifted in the last five years?
What would you need to change to shop differently?
Health issues
Synthetic fibres and skin irritation; chemical dyes in production
Microplastics released in washing — and their path into food chains
Health risks for garment workers: chemical exposure, unsafe buildings (Rana Plaza)
Environmental issues
Fashion is one of the world's largest polluters — water consumption, CO₂, waste
Overproduction: garments made that will never be worn
Synthetic fabrics take hundreds of years to decompose
Social issues
Poverty and fast fashion — garment workers earning poverty wages, mostly women in the Global South
Inclusivity: fair fashion is expensive — who does "ethical consumption" actually serve?
Second-hand and the circular economy
How fair is Vinted actually? Reselling fast fashion at profit is not circular
Issues with reselling platforms: price inflation, gatekeeping, the disappearance of cheap second-hand
The role of women
Blame is placed on women for consuming too much — is that framing fair?
Women are the majority of garment workers and the majority of fashion consumers — who is this system actually serving?
"There is no ethical consumption under capitalism" — useful provocation or excuse?
]]>Women in Sports2026-04-26T00:00:00+00:002026-04-26T00:00:00+00:00https://feminist-reading-club.com/sessions/women-in-sportsFrom the Boston Marathon’s ban on female runners (lifted in 1972) to the IOC’s 2024 decision to screen athletes for the SRY gene, women’s access to sport has always been a site of struggle. This session covered pay gaps, sexualised media coverage, sexual abuse in gymnastics, and the fraught debate around trans and DSD athletes — where even the language of “fairness” hides deeper questions about who sport is actually designed for. We also took time to reflect on our personal histories with sport, and what was permitted or discouraged.
Comparison of men vs women sport category salaries for select sports + highest earners: Adelphi University overview — not 100% recent but still holds (article)
The Sports Bra — a bar in Portland where only women's sports are shown: short video(YouTube · 2 min)
Do you do any sport? Did you growing up, and at what level?
Do you follow any sport? Men's or women's?
Trans and DSD athletes in women's categories
New IOC decision: from the 2028 LA Games, eligibility limited to biological females determined by SRY gene screening
"Attracting women into sport requires a fair playing field" — but what's with the other glass ceiling?
Caster Semenya and Imane Khelif — were these cases handled well? Would their treatment have been different if they were not women of colour?
In elite sport, even the slightest physical advantage can be decisive — that is what makes this genuinely complex
Do you think the IOC solution is inclusive and fair?
Should there be new categories that move away from male/female classification altogether?
Sexism in sport
Pay gap: men in basketball, golf, soccer, baseball, and tennis earn 15–100% more than women
Uniforms: beach handball, too short or too long — who decides, and why?
Oversexualisation of female athletes in media — how are women covered vs men?
Why are men so triggered by female trainers coaching men's teams?
Maternity and sport
What should professional athletes be entitled to during and after pregnancy?
The Nike case: what happened to Allyson Felix?
Should there be enforced maternity leave for professional athletes?
Women's access to sport — structural barriers
Boston Marathon banned women until 1972; women's football marginalised for decades
By age 14, girls drop out of sport at twice the rate of boys
Girls have 1.3 million fewer opportunities to play high school sport than boys
Societal pressure: contact sports, football, hockey — "not feminine, dangerous"
Women's sport gets dramatically less media time
What can change?
Should there be enforced time quotas for women's sport on TV and radio?
Should equal pay be enforced at national federation level?
Is the attitude about "unfeminine" sports changing fast enough?
]]>FRC & History2026-03-08T00:00:00+00:002026-03-08T00:00:00+00:00https://feminist-reading-club.com/sessions/frc-and-historyOn International Women’s Day, we traced the origins of patriarchy — asking why male-dominated social structures emerged and why they proved so durable. Biology, agriculture, and early state formation all featured in the debate, as did the uncomfortable question of whose narrative shapes the historical record. We sat with the realisation that patriarchy’s most effective trick was to make its hierarchies appear natural.
A podcast covering the history of patriarchy with the author of "The Patriarchs: How Men Came to Rule" — either this one (very entertaining) or that one (a bit shorter) (podcast · Spotify)
And another podcast — by a religious fundamentalist (trigger warning: he really means this): The most common lies feminists tell about the patriarchy — you can report content on Spotify as hate speech (podcast · Spotify · 14 min)
What are your thoughts on IWD? What did you read or see about it?
What were you taught in school or university about gender roles — through history, biology, ethics?
How did that shape your current thinking?
What does biology say about patriarchy?
Insight: bonobos are not patriarchal — patriarchy is therefore not explainable by biology alone
160 matrilineal societies exist (e.g. the Mosuo in China)
The 9,000-year-old site of Çatalhöyük in Turkey: gender did not determine social organisation
Victorian sexism influenced Darwin — he dismissed female agency and downplayed competition among sperm
Darwin: "I certainly think that women, though generally superior to men in moral qualities, are inferior intellectually"
Origins of patriarchy
Agriculture hypothesis: strength needed for fieldwork, passing on wealth → restricting women's sexual freedom. But women have always done agricultural work — the timeline doesn't add up
State formation hypothesis: more citizens = more power → women expected to produce offspring → women disappear from historical records and become property of men
"The lasting psychological damage of the patriarchal state was to make its gendered order appear normal, even natural" — Angela Saini
Who was telling this story? Who wrote what you consumed?
Whose research? Whose narrative? Whose definition of "natural"?
What is society saying about patriarchy today?
Social media influencers — connection to Andrew Tate and "maximising reproductive success"
Is matriarchy a solution? Or is the goal something else entirely?
What role does religion play?
How does this change your perspective?
What will you do differently after today?
]]>Alternative Relationship Models2026-02-22T00:00:00+00:002026-02-22T00:00:00+00:00https://feminist-reading-club.com/sessions/alternative-relationship-modelsSociety scripts a specific life arc — get together, move in together, buy a house, get married, have children — and this session asked why, and what we lose when we follow it by default. We explored friendship, polyamory, solo living, and platonic co-housing as relationship forms that deserve to be named and taken seriously. The session closed on a key takeaway: this is not a competition, and no model is inherently better than another.
Another podcast on friendship — you could start with just the first 20 minutes, it gets slightly repetitive in the middle (podcast · Spotify · 20 min+)
Relationship escalator: get together → move in → buy → marry → children
What would be possible in your own culture or upbringing?
Which relationship forms have you experienced — now or in the past?
Definitions (introduced by Dana)
Metamour: the partner of your partner
Polycule: a connected network of people in consensually non-monogamous relationships
Nesting partner: the partner you live with
Compersion: feeling joy for someone else's joy — being happy for your partner on a date with someone else
Kitchen Table Polyamory: all partners get along well enough to share a meal
Open relationship vs polyamory vs ethical non-monogamy: no fixed definitions — use what fits
Romantic relationships
Societal pressure to conform to normative relationships
Is having a boyfriend embarrassing now?
Pressure from family, culture, class
Friendship as a primary relationship
Why does friendship get so little cultural status compared to romantic partnership?
What would it look like to treat friendship as a primary commitment?
Housing and community
Do we really need a romantic partner to live with?
Co-housing, intentional communities — only for people who never left their village, or a real option?
What happens when you move countries? How do you build community?
Takeaway
It's not a vs question — no model is better than another
What would you change in how we talk about relationships?
]]>AI & Feminism2026-01-11T00:00:00+00:002026-01-11T00:00:00+00:00https://feminist-reading-club.com/sessions/ai-and-feminismWe explored how people are using AI chatbots as therapists, romantic partners, and spiritual guides — and what that says about loneliness, gender, and the limits of technology. The session centred on documented cases of “AI psychosis” and the ways that gender bias, deepfakes, and misogynistic content circulate through AI systems. We asked where AI is reflecting back our worst assumptions about gender, and how feminist frameworks might help us think more critically about the technology we adopt.
Have you heard of misuse — by yourself or by others?
AI psychosis — what is it?
Documented cases of chatbots reinforcing delusional thinking
Chatbots as therapists: what they can and cannot do ethically
Strengths and weaknesses of ChatGPT in mental health contexts
AI and spirituality
People using chatbots to talk to God — what does this tell us about loneliness and spiritual need?
What happens when AI starts to provide what religious communities used to?
Gender bias in AI systems
How training data encodes misogyny and whose language models learn from
Deepfakes of women — consent, harm, and legal grey zones
AI-generated misogynistic content and how it circulates
AI relationships
AI girlfriends and boyfriends: who uses them, and why?
What does a romantic relationship with an AI require of us, and what does it give us?
Does it replace or supplement human connection?
]]>Witches2025-12-07T00:00:00+00:002025-12-07T00:00:00+00:00https://feminist-reading-club.com/sessions/witchesThe witch hunt was not supernatural hysteria — it was a targeted campaign against women who existed outside patriarchal norms, disproportionately poor, old, or sexually autonomous. This session traced that history through the Malleus Maleficarum and the 45,000 deaths between the 15th and 17th centuries, then looked at how witch hunts continue today across sub-Saharan Africa and Indonesia. We also turned to the contemporary revival of witchcraft — WitchTok, pagan online communities, and where the divine feminine loops back into gender essentialism.
Materials
Main
Wikipedia overview of witchcraft laws and countries with reported witch hunts today — a useful map of where this is still happening (article · Wikipedia)
Podcast on the cult of Etsy witches — to learn more about contemporary witchcraft communities (podcast · Spotify)
Session structure
Important note to open with
We are looking at witch hunts from a very Eurocentric point — we do not go into detail on voodoo, West African practices, or other non-European traditions
"We are the daughters of women you did not burn."
Personal experience with witchcraft
Do you have any personal experience with witchcraft? Do you believe in magic?
Do you know someone who practices witchcraft?
History of witch hunting
Key facts: ~45,000 deaths from 15th to 17th century; 90% of accused were women (in Russia only 32%)
Women accused of making men impotent; women also accused other women
Heinrich Kraemer — Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches) — pope-sanctioned inquisition in Innsbruck; really started the witch hunts
Secular governments were involved, not only churches
Shanespeare: misogyny, class, disability, and racism all drove witch hunts — as a way of surveilling and controlling women
McCarthyism as a modern "witch hunt" — singling out marginalised groups as scapegoats
By the 17th–18th century, arguments against witch hunting gained ground and the practice finally lost power
Witch hunts today
"Witch hunts due to superstitions, lack of education, and societal issues" — Sub-Saharan Africa, India, Indonesia
In Gambia, state-sanctioned witch hunts still occurred in the 2010s
Child witch hunts still happen sporadically
Were you aware of these things going on?
WitchTok and pop culture paganism
Masculine and feminine energy online — where esoteric spirituality and gender essentialism meet
Love spells: binding people to each other, breaking up couples — manipulative, taking advantage of vulnerable people
Twin flames — people genuinely believe they share a soul with someone
What is dangerous about this?
"I am not a girl, I am a witch" — otherness, empowerment, or pickme culture?
Can be very exclusive: central focus on the divine feminine excludes gay men and other groups. Very white as well.
]]>Architecture & Space2025-11-16T00:00:00+00:002025-11-16T00:00:00+00:00https://feminist-reading-club.com/sessions/architecture-and-spaceCities are not neutral. This session looked at how urban design, architecture, and public space systematically prioritise male-coded uses, bodies, and movements — and what it would mean to design differently. We explored concrete examples from public toilets and park lighting to transport routing and workplace temperature, and asked who else gets left out when the default is male.
Materials
Main
A YouTube video on why cities are sexist — good overview of the basics (YouTube · 3 min)
Underrepresentation of women in architecture and urban planning creates inequity for the majority of the population
Design creates sexism: public transport prioritises car ownership and peak-hour commutes; streets favour speed over safety
Statues: only 2–3% of public statues in most European cities represent women — and most are allegorical, not historical
Public space and safety
Do you feel unsafe at night? What would make you feel safer?
Are there particular places in Leuven (or your hometown) where you feel unsafe?
Reclaim the Night movement — history and current relevance
The violence statistics: what the graphs from the German study show
How we were taught to be afraid of going out at night — and who profits from that fear
Example of bad design: the Leuven train station — unclear entrance, poor lighting, feeling of unsafety
City design beyond safety: making cities more women-friendly
Streets: women drive less → prioritise public transport (also at night!) and walkways
Lighting, park design, safe cycling infrastructure
City zonation is male-oriented: financial districts (Docklands, La Défense, Brussels Noord) designed around male-coded work
Vienna and Barcelona as examples of more female-oriented public space design — did you visit them?
Intersectionality: less policing benefits women of colour; inclusive design benefits everyone
Public toilets! And who pays for them
Homes, workplaces, and the built environment
Does your office or university have facilities specific to women? Pad dispensers, lactation rooms?
Temperature in offices — calibrated to a 1960s male metabolic rate
Accessibility: all Belgian buildings must be wheelchair-accessible, but not the interior spaces necessarily
Conclusion: what do we take from this?
What are our immediate, feasible actions?
How would we design a city — if we could start from scratch?
]]>Female Rage2025-10-26T00:00:00+00:002025-10-26T00:00:00+00:00https://feminist-reading-club.com/sessions/female-rageAnger has been coded as masculine and unfeminine for most of recorded history, and women who express it have been dismissed, pathologised, or punished. This session explored what happens when that suppressed rage becomes visible — in MeToo, in TikTok activism, and in the aesthetic of female rage now circulating online. We asked whether rage is transformative or self-limiting, and how intersectionality changes who gets to be angry — and who pays for it.
This paper on the transformative power of female anger in politics — read the Abstract, Introduction and Conclusion (paper · PDF)
This thesis on TikTok and female rage — read the Introduction (p. 1), Digital activism (p. 22–26), and Reflection on own biases (p. 41–42) (thesis · PDF)
What is anger, and what are women taught to do with it?
Sadness is coded as more womanly; anger as a loss of femininity
"People need to calm down to have a discussion" — how this framing keeps injustice in place
Little Women: "Repress your anger, the problem is you"
The angry women script — being reduced to one emotion instead of acknowledging frustration, fear, grief
Historical and cultural context
Men created the first stories of female rage — what does that tell us?
The "final girl" trope in horror: the one who deserves to live is chaste, restrained
Female rage is accepted when it's fictional, but policed on social media
The "good for her" trope — films where women get justified revenge
MeToo and political anger
What did MeToo unleash? What did it leave unresolved?
Female anger as political fuel — and how it gets coopted
Maya Angelou, "Still I Rise" — as a counterpoint
TikTok and the female rage aesthetic
Digital activism: how the platform shapes the message
Sad girl aesthetics → female rage aesthetics — is it a catalyst for change or rebranding?
Stereotype of the "angry Black woman" — who pays the highest price for female rage?
How to channel rage
Organising and political engagement as an outlet
Intersectionality — take racism into account when talking about women's anger
Female rage can also be linked to helplessness, not only personal hurt
]]>Feminism & Religion2025-09-07T00:00:00+00:002025-09-07T00:00:00+00:00https://feminist-reading-club.com/sessions/religionReligious institutions have shaped what it means to be a woman across cultures and across history — through purity culture, polygamy norms, and theological arguments about female inferiority. This session examined feminist movements within Christianity, Islam, Mormonism, and Hinduism, asking where institutional religion and women’s liberation are in tension, and where women are reclaiming faith on their own terms. We also explored the recent global rise of religious conservatism and its intersection with trad wife culture.
Mormonism: Dear Mormon Man — an essay by Amy Allebest (article), and the first 10 minutes of a video by Alyssa Grenfell on growing up Mormon as a woman (YouTube · 10 min)