Nurturing the new woman: experiences in the Colectiva Mujer y Salud. (Dominican Republic).

   Sexuality has such a strong revolutionary potential that many men
   and women involved in politics fear it.

   Evelyn Accad, 1991

Historically, one of the strongest manifestations of the patriarchy is expressed in the use of women's bodies and their sexuality. Women's lives, bodies and sexualities are denied, hidden and appropriated in order to satisfy the needs and interests of men, governments and other social institutions.

From an early age, women are taught to concentrate our efforts on pleasing others, thus limiting our right to define our own lives in accordance to our own needs and desires. Gradually, we become sexual objects and reproductive machines, slaves of men's sexual needs and responsible for the reproduction of human beings. Totally dedicated to these two tasks, our development is based on others and not on ourselves. As a result, women's sexuality has become a force that minimizes their lives.

The women's movement has long focused on understanding this situation of oppression in order to transform it. However, if we focus on sexuality in the context of human contact, as a way of gaining knowledge about our bodies, pleasure and eroticism, we discover that our sexuality is a source of power and vital energy. Therefore, repressing our sexual energy in order to adapt to the impositions of society interferes with our growth as human beings.

Body, Mind and Spirit

By satisfying and using appropriately our sexual energies, we connect with our spiritual powers. The union of body, mind and spirit broadens people's capacities. Integrating these different aspects within ourselves increases our possibilities of communication, allows us to transcend physical barriers and heightens our mental abilities.

The importance of this work stems from its empowering potential. Sexuality is a powerful force, able to transcend the barriers of time and space and connect us with our present, past and future.

Audre Lorde describes the erotic as an inner resource that inhabits a profound, spiritual plane within women, firmly rooted in the power of feelings that we neither express nor recognize. She explains that in order to perpetuate itself, each system of oppression corrupts or distorts the sources of power of the cultures of the oppressed that could provide energy for change. In the case of women, this has meant the suppression of the erotic as a source of power and information in our lives (Lorde, 1978).

Comprehending the transforming force of this work, we women have had to make a concerted and persistent effort to rescue and redefine sexuality and eroticism.

Our Experiences

Promoting this work in the Dominican Republic has been extremely difficult. Even among feminists there is significant resistance to making sexuality a priority on the agenda of the movement.

Nonetheless, a number of actions and events have given impetus to our study of sexuality, such as the Latin American and Caribbean Feminist Encounters, especially the First and Second. Having contact with groups and women from throughout Latin America and the Caribbean greatly expanded our perspectives. One of these groups--Taller Salud from Puerto Rico--later provided us with training in the area of women's health and sexuality. In addition, our commitment to celebrating the campaign against violence against women provided another forum for the introducing the forbidden topic of sexuality.

Founded in 1984, the Colectiva Mujer y Salud (Women and Health Collective) was the first organization in the Dominican Republic to address the issues of women's health and sexuality from a feminist perspective. Since it was first formed, the collective has had a special interested in women's sexuality. One of our fundamental objectives is the deconstruction of the patriarchal ideology that identifies women as sexual and reproductive objects, in order to open the way for the new identity of a woman-subject able to determine her own life and destiny.

In 1984, our first year of existence, the Colectiva Mujery Salud designed the project "Talleres sobre Salud y Sexualidad de las Mujeres" (Workshops on Women's Health and Sexuality). Successfully implemented with rural and urban women from 1984 to 1990, these workshops became a fundamental instrument for our organization's work. While the topic of sexuality was developed in eight workshops, we placed special emphasis on the workshop sessions entitled "Anatomy and Physiology of Women's Sexual and Reproductive Organs" and "Sexuality and Pleasure."

In 1992, the collective's workshops were extended and organized into numerous sessions in the "Cursos de Educadoras en Salud y Sexualidad de la Mujer desde una Perspectiva de Genero" (Courses for Peer Educators in Women's Health and Sexuality from a Gender Perspective). In addition to training peer educators, these courses promoted the personal growth and development of the women who participated.

This new model analyzed sexuality in the session on "Knowing Our Bodies" and especially "Women's Sexuality," which addressed issues including: sexuality, culture and religion; sexuality and power; pleasure, sensuality and eroticism; sexual options; and sex work.

In 1986, we benefited from the participation of feminist sexologist and instructor Fina Sanz, creator of the Self-Awareness for Change method (Autoconocimiento para el Cambio) and Re-Discovery Therapy (Terapia de Reencuentro). This experience had a significant impact on our theoretical approach and methodological focus on sexuality, pleasure and eroticism.

Fina Sanz carried out two training sessions in the Colectiva Mujery Salud, in 1986 and 1995. With this essential instruction, plus the support of a team of facilitators, we began to develop more specific and focused work in the area of sexuality since all that we had learned in these training sessions had been incorporated into our activities on sexuality. However, only in 1992 could we begin to develop the workshop course we know today as "Autoconocimiento para el Cambio" (Self-Awareness for Change), which at first was the workshop course "Crecimiento Erotico y Desarrollo Personal" (Erotic Growth and Personal Development).

This course works on two levels. The first level is a process developed over six months that encourages women's self-awareness and understanding as well as a transformation of attitudes that favor the increased integration of the body, mind and spirit and the enjoyable experience of one's own body. This level includes self-perception; understanding the body as a site of pain and pleasure; reading our bodies; learning to care for oneself; the integration of opposite roles (femininity and masculinity); comprehensive and genital erotica; body sensitivity and self-sensitivity; breathing and relaxation; opening the senses and the emotions; seduction; fantasy; and personal space.

In addition to continuing the processes begun on the first level, the second level addresses the ways in which we relate to other people. This level examines the different forms of communication through touch; seduction, fantasy and erotic encounters; falling in and out of love; getting together and breaking up; and corporal movements and rhythms.

The methodology is highly participatory, and it encourages the participants to bond as a group. The course develops through exercises, both verbal and corporal, breathing and visualization techniques, and drawing. With great care and respect, the facilitators encourage the processes of self-discovery, self-help and personal growth, while the group functions as a point of reference and support for all the women. This creates a space in which each participant feels free to become involved in her own personal growth.

The women begin by developing self-perception and then gradually integrate the body work. Through this process, they find themselves in a deeper dimension, discovering their potentials. The exercises to increase body sensitivity and to open the senses facilitate the exploration of the different parts of their bodies. In this fashion, the participants learn to perceive their bodies as not just their physical appearance, but rather as a treasure that endows them with unimaginable experiences and sensations.

As this process develops, the women question the imposed models and slowly redefine sexuality and life based on their experiences and insights.

The Impact on Women

The possibility of measuring and quantifying the transformation experienced by the participants is beyond our reach at the present time. However, we can make some observations based on our perceptions, notes and evaluations. The following are some of the aspects that have produced the greatest impact in the women who have participated in the workshop courses.

Self-Awareness

Touching, recognizing and appreciating their body is something that is prohibited for most women. For many of the women who take part in the workshop course, this prohibition is so strong that it causes serious limitations and/or traumas.

Getting to know our body, appropriating, recovering and taking care of it for our sake, for our pleasure, in order to be able to communicate and create with it, is one of the most important steps in the process of discovering and generating our self-esteem.

Working to increase the sensitivity of our senses is a fundamental aspect of self-awareness because our senses link us to the world around us. To the extent that we can exercise our senses, we can increase our capacity to know and enjoy our environment, other people and ourselves in a more conscious fashion.

Knowing more about our bodies, feelings, emotions and sexuality allows us to love, value and focus ourselves, balance our emotions and develop our potentials.

"I'm getting to know myself more, and I'm accepting who I am. I've understood who I am, without justifying myself. I am finding myself. Through the exercises, I'm learning and recognizing different aspects of my personality in order to use them positively" (Marilyn, workshop course participant).

Ruptures

Through the entire process we confront myths, looking at those areas that have been off limits since we were little girls. One of the strongest ruptures has to do with learning to look at and touch our own bodies. The participants slowly learn that women's bodies are not inferior, dirty or ugly and that we have the right to our bodies and our sexuality.

"A process of positive change has occurred in my life. My physical sensitivity has increased, as has my self-esteem. I've been able to create a space for myself in order to do things that I have wanted but hadn't been able to do for years, like walk, listen to music, etc." (Marta, workshop course participant).

Learning to Take Care of Ourselves

Women are taught to care for others. All our lives we are focused on the needs of our husband, children, friends and others. Learning how to take care of ourselves is one of the hardest aspects.

In light of this reality, we slowly incorporate the practice of conscious gifts into our daily routines: we allow ourselves special things or treats, guilt-free rest and enjoyment. Gradually, we become aware of a daily life in which we care for and enjoy ourselves.

"I discovered myself as a person. It was a discovery of my potential. I learned to tolerate others, all sorts of differences, not only sexual. I became closer to nature, life and people in a different way. I learned to enjoy the texture of the walls, of objects, laughter, knowing my body just as it is, loving it, caressing it, giving it pleasure, time ..." (Olga, workshop course participant).

Redefining Sexuality

Society presents us with a limited and repressive concept of sexuality. From a very young age, we have been socialized to understand sexuality as something perverse, sinful and indecent, something limited to the sex organs and to the relationship between an adult man and woman (a married couple) with the purpose of procreation. All the other expressions of sexuality are forbidden to women.

Redefining sexuality means sensitizing the dead area of the body and rebuilding our selves, our feelings and identities. It means opening our inner selves and discovering what gives us pleasure and satisfaction. It means learning to ask for what we want and to say "No" to what we don't want.

The process of discovering our body and our sexuality helps us to accept ourselves and to relate to ourselves better, to define what is important and what encourages us to seek out new alternatives and make better decisions. Many of the participants report that, to the extent that they improve their relationships with themselves, their relationships with other women, partners, children, friends and others also improve.

"What was most important was getting to know my body on levels that I had never known before. Experiencing my sexuality as something beautiful and proving that it was also mine, that it didn't depend on others. This gave me a power that has grown little by little and an autonomy that I had never known" (Delia, workshop course participant).

Confrontation and Crisis

The processes of growth are not linear. Usually, we only open ourselves and grow in safe spaces. However, when we confront ourselves every day, we realize that very little has changed. These confrontations with reality are sometimes difficult. They produce crises, some of which demand the support of the group.

Self-awareness and empowerment make women question their relationships with their partner and family, their relationships at work and their friendships. Many of the women end violent and destructive relationships, while others successfully build more equitable relations. However, some women remain trapped between what they wish to change and their real possibilities. These processes take time and energy and need different levels of support, which sometimes go beyond what we are able to provide.

"I am trapped in a circle, and I cannot find the way out" (Altagracia, workshop course participant).

New Challenges, New Paths

However, by the end of the six-month workshop course, most of the women have experienced very significant changes. Some have obtained new jobs, others have begun to study or take part in a women's group. Others redefine their relationships with their family or at their jobs. Others begin to build or remodel their homes. All these changes stem from an internal transformation that is related to a new perception of themselves and their potentials.

"This voyage towards myself has an impact beyond my own skin" (Consuelo, workshop course participant).

"I can define who I am in many stages of my life, when and how I can do things that will be most constructive for me and those who surround me" (Nereyda, workshop course participant).

Bibliography 

Accad, Evelyn (1991). "Sexuality and Sexual Politics" In Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism. USA: Indiana University Press.

Aldebot Reyes, Nelsy (1991). "Sexuality: an Empowering Force in the Work of the Women and Health Collective in the Dominican Republic: 1984-1990." Unpublished thesis.

Aldebot Reyes, Nelsy (1998). Belleza y Fortaleza: Caminos hacia el Empoderamiento. Dominican Republic: Colectivo Mujer y Salud.

Aldebot Reyes, Nelsy (1999). Extasis Magico. Dominican Republic: Cocolo Editorial.

Sanz, Fina (1995). Los Vinculos Amorosos. Barcelona: Editorial Kairos.

Sanz, Fina (1995). Psicoerotismo Feminino y Masculino. Barcelona: Editorial Kairos.

The New Woman

   Young women
   come closer
   drawing a beautiful paradise.
   New ways of seeing ourselves,
   of loving ourselves, of creating.
   Brush strokes, dances
   awash in colors,
   incense, bright scarves
   dancing around the moon.
   We sing, we sketch
   a scene of love.
   Showing the world
   the essence of life,
   the hidden creativity,
   femininity, martyred
   and raped.
   We reclaim our hidden strength
   with a single stroke,
   we paint our love.
   In a dance of joy,
   we sing to life.
   With dry clay
   damped in spring rain,
   we shape and mom
   the new woman.

An activist in women's sexual and reproductive rights by vocation and psychologist by profession, the author uses a variety of alternative therapies in her work. For the past several years, she has coordinated the Emotional Support and Services Department at the Colectiva Mujer y Salud (Women and Health Collective).