ABSTRACT

Alternative therapies which aim to enhance women’s wellbeing have been accused of contributing to healthist and postfeminist agendas which rest upon a neoliberal logic. I critically engage with this issue here through an ethnographic study of womb yoga, a women’s alternative therapy developed in the UK. I argue that while being commercial and emphasizing personal responsibility, womb yoga largely works against the current neoliberal optimization ideal. Womb yoga practitioners dismiss goal-oriented self-management and discipline, and avoid a simple reproduction of gender stereotypes by deflecting care away from other-directedness and opening the interpretation of femininity to the imaginative and experiential realms.

摘要

旨在提高女性福祉的替代疗法被指责为基于新自由主义逻辑的健康主义和后女权主义议程做出了贡献。我在这里通过对子宫瑜伽的民族志研究批判性地参与了这个问题，子宫瑜伽是一种在英国开发的女性替代疗法。我认为，在商业化和强调个人责任的同时，子宫瑜伽在很大程度上与当前的新自由主义优化理想背道而驰。子宫瑜伽练习者摒弃了以目标为导向的自我管理和纪律，避免简单地复制性别刻板印象，将关心从其他方向转移，将女性气质的解释开放到想象和体验领域。