F*oRT is a form of self-organised group therapy for women.
“FoRT” originally stood for Feminist Oefengroepen Radicale Therapy in Dutch – “Feminist Radical Therapy Exercise Groups”. F*oRT originated in the Netherlands and the first group was founded in 1975. Today, Radical Therapy is practiced mostly in Germany and Austria. We’re hoping to set up English-language groups as well, with other languages hopefully to follow!
In German, the “F” came to stand for Frauen, which means “women”. The asterisk in F*oRT– known as Gendersternchen (gender-asterisk)– is used to expand the concept of “woman” and to indicate that we’re talking about femininity as a social construct, not a biological fact. Given that the Gendersternchen is an established sign in the German context but not in the English language, we refer to F*oRT in English (Women* organise Radical Therapy).
The word “radical” comes from Latin radix – the root.