Yin Yang and FMB
“Why didn’t you use yin and yang rather than the terms feminineand masculine in your book?” people ask me, particularly those wedded to the feminine being synonymous with women and masculine synonymous with men.
My answer is that if I had used the terms yin and yang, not only are they foreign terms and people get confused with which is which, but we are not addressing that very issue of people using the term the feminine synonymously with women and masculine with men. This masculine-dominated thinking is so deeply entrenched in us that it is quite a stretch for us to think otherwise. In other words, if I had used the terms yin and yang, we would not so easily see the importance of having both attributes within us all and this leads to us realising that women and men are different, not opposites.
To clarify, masculine and feminine energies, or principles, have been recognised for eons and the terms yin (feminine) and yang (masculine) are concepts used within Taoism. They are considered to be two halves of a whole/two sides of a coin. As you can see in the image, the yin and yang in the symbol are fused in a circle with a bit of each in the other.
As with yin and yang, I think it is also important to look at feminine and masculine as two parts of a whole/two sides of a coin that need to be in balance, rather than the feminine and masculine being separate.
Once we understand that people, regardless of gender have feminine and masculine energies within them in different proportions, this can help bridge the gap between women, men and those of other gender identities. It also gives people permission to express themselves in a variety of ways that are misunderstood by those entrenched in the Masculine-Dominated Society (M-DS).