Chanting "I am power. I am love. I am light," several Philadelphia women prepared to open a "sharing circle" last night as the Christian Association hosted a discussion entitled "What Every Woman Should Know About Her Erotic Power."
Yesterday's event, the first installment in the "Erotic Power" series, focused on developing good relationships and avoiding bad ones.
The participants -- which included no Penn students -- discussed what they felt to be the marks of a bad relationship, the standards of a good relationship and how to spot a bad relationship. They discussed ways in which a good relationship is about making love and justice and also debated why terminating a bad relationship is often hard to do and suggested healthy ways to move on.
Rev. Beverly Dale, executive director of the Christian Association, declared that Christianity and sexuality are not mutually exclusive.
"We know God through our relationships with others, when we let down our guard and are intimate," Dale explained. "Good sexual relationships," she clarified, "should lead to the experience of the sacred."
At the discussion, female clinicians, non-profit consultants, musicians and Penn graduates shared their own relationship and sexual experiences, often invoking poetry and song lyrics to express their sentiments.
The women discussed the need for reciprocity, communication and positive growth in relationships. According to some participants, co-dependence is incorrectly equated with love.
Dale asserted that such notions might be caused by the silence within the Christian church regarding sex. She said that the "eroti-phobia" that many people experience causes unhealthy relationships.
She told the participants that she felt sexuality was a gift and not something to be feared. She also suggested that envisioning God as feminine might be helpful in realizing sexual confidence.
Christian Association staff member Marcy Francis added to the discussion with music and led physical exercises to allow the participants to "get in touch with their bodies."
Through the series, Dale said she wished to introduce new ways to approach sexuality in a spiritual way and to give permission to young women to "be the wonderful, beautiful, erotic creatures that they are." She encourages female University students to attend the discussions in the upcoming weeks.
The discussions take place on Wednesdays from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at the Christian Association building, located at 37th and Sansom streets. The next installment is entitled "What I Wish I Had Known About My Sexuality at an Earlier Age."
