Perverted.
Distorted.
Uncontained.
Developed through doctoral research at the intersection of mythology, Jungian psychology, history, madness, archetypes, and internalized sexism, The Perverse Feminine examines how culture casts feminine power as dangerous, excessive, or deviant—and what becomes possible when it is named and reclaimed.
Through Lilith, Kalen traces an enduring archetype from ancient Mesopotamia through the witch hunts, hysteria, imprisonment, and their present-day forms. Across the research, framework, book, and film runs one question: What becomes possible when women befriend the righteous rage buried beneath oppression and trauma, embracing what has been named perverse to reclaim the rightful position of selfhood—not as objects, toys, or cyborgs, but as living, breathing embodiments of the animal within?
Discipline
discipline
Selected Intellectual Lineages-
Examines how culturally disallowed forms of femininity become constructed as excessive, deviant, unstable, or disordered.
Key thinkers
Louise J. Kaplan · Estela Welldon · Elaine Showalter · Phyllis Chesler · Jane Ussher · Dana Becker · Paula J. CaplanVisual and cultural theory
Bram Dijkstra · Barbara Creed -
The symbolic and psychological foundations of shadow, archetype, individuation, myth, and the reclamation of disowned parts of the self.
Key Thinkers
C. G. Jung · Marie-Louise von Franz · James Hillman · Marion Woodman · Clarissa Pinkola Estés · Demaris S. Wehr
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How gender, race, culture, and systems of power shape identity—and how social hierarchies can become internalized and reproduced within the self.
Key Thinkers
bell hooks · Judith Butler · Patricia Hill Collins · Kimberlé Crenshaw · Simone de Beauvoir · E. J. R. David
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How bodies and identities are regulated through representation, diagnosis, surveillance, beauty standards, and popular narratives of acceptable womanhood.
Donna Haraway · Michel Foucault · Susan Bordo · Elaine Showalter · Phyllis Chesler
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The historical and mythological construction of dangerous femininity through Lilith, witchcraft, persecution, sexuality, and women’s refusal of obedience.
Key Thinkers
Raphael Patai · Siegmund Hurwitz · Silvia Federici · Anne Llewellyn Barstow · Carol F. Karlsen
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Download complete APA-style bibliography
ORIGINAL RESEARCH BY KALEN ARADIA, PHD
The inquiry behind the framework
This doctoral research developed The Perverse Feminine as a four-stage archetypal framework for examining how culturally forbidden forms of feminine power are disowned, distorted, and reclaimed.
01
Research question
How are culturally forbidden forms of feminine power internalized, distorted, and reclaimed?
02
Method
Qualitative inquiry integrating feminist depth psychology, archetypal theory, and intersectional analysis.
03
The Study
[NUMBER] women interviewed about shame, identity, power, and their relationship to the feminine.
04
Findings
Four recurring stages emerged: Societal Indoctrination, Shapeshifting, Awareness, and Embodiment.
Published works
A scholarly monograph
The Perverse
Feminine
An Archetypal Reclamation of Forbidden Power
Grounded in Jungian theory, feminist psychology, mythology, and qualitative research, The Perverse Feminine traces how forbidden forms of feminine power are cast out, distorted, and reclaimed.
View the book- Routledge
- 2025
- ISBN 9781032596945
Stage I
Societal
Indoctrination
The Inheritance of Obedience
How the feminine gets perverted by culture—the collective unconscious, patriarchy, the witch hunts, and the demonizing of Lilith.
Stage II
Shapeshifting
Fractured Identities
Shadow formation and internalized sexism; the pathologizing of feminine power; Lilith crowned as Queen of the Shadow.
Stage III
Awareness
Awakening the Perverse
Shadow confrontation and active imagination—the deliberate turning toward what was exiled, dangerous, or true.
Stage IV
Embodiment
Embodied Authenticity
Shadow integration—uniting with the lost parts and living the reclaimed, whole self out loud.
A short documentary
Perverse
Feminine
Four voices in forbidden power
Through intimate interviews and personal testimony, the documentary brings the framework to life, tracing how shame, identity, power, and reclamation take shape in women’s lived experiences.
Watch the documentary- Short documentary
- Four interviewees
- Qualitative research
The Witch
The Burlesque Dancer
The Renaissance Woman
The Avant-Garde Artist
Kalen Aradia |Berlin, Germany | GRRL HAUS Screening | Il Kino | May 2026
One inquiry, carried across forms.
Kalen Aradia, PhD, is a researcher, author, filmmaker, Registered Associate Clinical Social Worker, and ICF-certified leadership coach. Working across depth psychology, feminist theory, cultural analysis, and social work, she examines how identity, relationships, culture, marginalization, and power shape inner life.
The Perverse Feminine began as a qualitative doctoral inquiry and developed into a four-stage archetypal framework, a Routledge monograph, and a documentary film. Across each form, the work considers how feminine power becomes condemned, distorted, or forced underground—and what becomes possible when women develop a different relationship with what they have been taught to disown.
This inquiry also informs Kalen’s broader intellectual and professional perspective, including her clinical practice, leadership coaching, writing, and public scholarship. Each remains a distinct form of work, connected by an enduring interest in how people meet the parts of themselves shaped by shame, culture, and power.
- PhD
- Qualitative Research
- Author
- Routledge
- Film
- Documentary
- Practice
- Clinical + Coaching