Attn: Gatekeepers at Instagram, aka Facebook...
I am writing with a very heavy heart and disappointed beyond words can express. First I would like to introduce myself to you. My name is Christine Gutierrez. I am 29 years old and I am a leading Latina Psychotherapist and spiritual guide for women of all ages. I spend my life working with women who have experienced trauma and abuse of all kinds. I fuse modern therapy with ancient wisdom. This is how they heal. This is how we come to peace with the chaos of everyday life.
The ancient wisdom texts that I work from are the stories of the GODDESS. Most of us are familiar with the archetype GOD, the masculine face of the divine. There is also a feminine face of the divine, to which we call her the GODDESS. She's also called GAIA, mother or shakti. In many spiritual paths, such as the one I practice, we devote ourselves to the feminine face of GOD, the Goddess, or Diosa in Spanish.
I lead an annual retreat called, The Goddess Retreat. I just completed my 4th annual retreat, where women learn to heal the pain of their sexual trauma, of the abuse that they experienced in childhood. I teach them through the philosophies of the goddess archetypes, how to learn to love themselves again. They came back from this year's retreat #goddessretreat2015 in Puerto Rico, feeling empowered as the Goddess, as the Diosa. And what did they find? The removal of the word that was the very catalyst in their healing. I repeat, it is a spiritual crime.
I have spent countless hours studying and teaching and empowering women around the world to embrace and own their inner goddess. This is not just a word, it is a spiritual path and for many of us it is our way of living and purpose. It was heartbreaking to see that you've chosen to delete and ban the hashtag #goddess.
In the tantric path there are statues, ancient texts and complete temples dedicated to the worship of the Goddess. It is a path and a way of life for countless hearts around the world that seek healing. What are we saying to the world when we don't allow a hashtag to honor their journey? What are we promoting when your platform allows degrading hashtags and posts such as #sexylatina and #felatio but bans words that inspire the feminine divine? Instagram, I'm upset.
How would the Christians and Catholics feel if their hashtag #GOD was taken away? Would the Instagram team even think to do that? It is a crime to do this. A spiritual crime, to dishonor the centuries of worship to the goddess faith and philosophy and religion.
I'd love to invite Instagram to a public conversation on why they consistently seem to be targeting hashtags that promote female empowerment without doing some thorough checking to see the relevance of those "questionable" hashtags. First it was #curvy, now it's #GODDESS. What's tomorrow? #Feminism?
I value Instagram and use your platform as a way to promote my work in empowering women and connecting with other women, but how can I do that when one of the most important hastags in my Diosa, GODDESS community has been taken away? Be honorable. Do the right thing and bring back the #GODDESS #iamgoddess #diosatribe #diosa #bringbackthegoddess #goddessretreat2015
Want to continue the conversation with me ladies? Help in supporting to bring back the #goddess on Instagram by sharing this with all of your friends and use the hashtags as listed above to grow this movement and bring justice to the #goddess