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oa Practising the personal in a political context: How the FORT movement contributed to a spiritual and political consciousness for feminists in the Netherlands between 1975–1988
- Amsterdam University Press
- Source: Tijdschrift voor Genderstudies, Volume 25, Issue 3, Oct 2022, p. 199 - 211
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- 01 Oct 2022
Abstract
This article discusses the history of FORT (Feministische Oefengroepen Radicale Therapie), a Dutch ‘consciousness-raising’ movement during the era of second-wave feminism. In comparison to other consciousness-raising groups, FORT groups focused even more on exploring the personal in a political context. Still, contemporary feminists as well as historiographers have argued that the FORT groups were mostly spiritual rather than political. Based on oral history interviews with former FORT women, an analysis of written primary sources, and literature study, this article further explores this paradox. It is argued that, for the women involved, the ‘internal’ spiritual path of action and the ‘external’ activist path of action were very much intertwined, and both paths were political. This interpretation challenges the dichotomy of spiritual versus political, and once again confirms that the personal is, in fact, political.