ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses therapeutic engagements such as the abovementioned angel healing event observed by the first author (Suvi) during ethnographic fieldwork. The relationship between the therapeutic and gender has been contested in previous literature. The ethnographic fieldwork for this study was carried out in Finland, a Nordic welfare state that is often considered a forerunner of gender equality. In her thought-provoking study of the American right, sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild coins the concept of ‘deep story’ to capture the cultural scripts through which people perceive, evaluate, and make sense of social reality and their position in it. The neoliberal policies that have permeated Finnish society during the past decades have effectively tapped into this cultural ethos and articulated with it to reproduce and reinforce its key elements. The repertoire of vulnerability proposes that power is unequally distributed in society, with masculinity being privileged and femininity undervalued.
