Women's "Cocoon Work" in New Religious Movements: Sexual Experimentation and Feminine Rites of Passage.

On the basis of research into alternative women's roles in eight new religious movements, this study addresses conflicting views concerning the relationship between gender role ambiguities and women's participation in the sexual innovations developing in NRMs, summed up as the "empowerment" versus the "neopatriarchy" school of thought. A close study of the literature and histories of these groups suggests that they are more varied, flexible, and experimental in their patterns of sexuality than previous studies would indicate; and that, for the majority of members, involvement is a transitory phenomenon, providing them with opportunities for participating in laboratories of sexual experimentation. Adopting a "gendered" approach to the issue of "cult conversion," this study argues that contemporary women find protective, supportive microsocieties in NRMs, which enable them to try out a spectrum of clearly defined roles that prepare them to choose a more personally gratifying adult mode when they eventually defect. By temporarily inhabiting the stylized feminine roles in NRMs and submitting to their leaders' erotic/ascetic ordeals,. members appear to undergo a self-imposed psychological metamorphosis, or cocoon work," which in many ways resembles the ritual process found in feminine rites of passage in traditional societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]