GSWS 2162 Week 10

Lesson 1 - What is a Witch? What is Witchcraft? Witches of Pop Culture Podcast  Traditionally were represented as old hags or sexualized young women  Actually traditionally were healers and midwives who would offer remedies and help w deliveries  Over sexualized  Some were actually 'witches' o Potions, rituals, etc  Birthing was dominated by women, as men took over the medical industry, men were trying to force midwives out - push them as witches  'paganism is the oldest religion'  A lot of shows about witches are incorrect Important terms  Occult – A term first used in the 16th century, referring generally to astrology, alchemy, and magic. Many different views of the term have led to few people actually calling themselves occultists. There are many interpretations of occult: for some, it represents the world of paranormal activity and mystery. To others, it implies sorcery and dark intentions. As noted, few people call themselves occultists because of the "darkness" and negativity surrounding the whole concept.  Neopaganism – Considered an umbrella term for groups that centre on worshipping nature, the earth-mother goddess, and the seasons. Dates differ – many argue has strong roots in 1960s counter cultural movements and communities (also sometimes called Modern Paganism).  Wicca - One branch of neopaganism with a focus on nature, unconventional lifestyles, and a sense of spirituality divorced from traditional religious doctrines. Wiccans believe in the Goddess, respect nature, and operate through an ethical code that states “If it harm none, do what you will.” Wicca centres on free thought and will of the individual, a deep adherence to nature and natural law, and an attention to the cycles of the earth and the lives within it.  New Age - Spiritual thought systems that unite theology, nature, and philosophy – origins around 1970s. A “New Age” included a new era of love and light and offered a taste of the coming era through personal transformation and healing. The focal point of New Age is thought to centre around feel-goodism (do whatever feels good, as long as you are not hurting someone else), moral relativism (situational ethics), and pluralism (universal tolerance). New Age is generally tolerant of almost any world religion/philosophy, and s opposed to the "narrow- mindedness" of Christianity (where there is one saviour). With New Age, there is no centralized hierarchy, doctrine, or membership.  In your required reading for this week, Waldon argues that differentiating between the New Age movement, Wicca, and Neopaganism is difficult, particularly because of the number of commercial books on these topics, as well as the influx of representations on film and TV. There is lots of overlap between all the concepts described above, so if you're finishing this section thinking there's a lot of similarities, you're not wrong!  The entirety of modern Witchcraft offers a unique opportunity to see a religion being made from readings and re-readings of texts and histories. No one person is in charge of the process, so

modern Witchcraft is not a unified set of beliefs. Every interpretation is subject to reinvention by others. (Purkiss, cited in Waldon, p.35) Video - What is a Witch?  What is a witch? o All women o Witches used for more intuitive women with healing capabilities  Too powerful o "a powerful woman who uses her intuition and personal power for good or bad" o "it's a word used to demonize power and opinion within women" o "I grew up in the time of Bewitched reruns. Witches were cute blondes married to regular people trying to keep their powers under control" o "an archaic term for a magical, evil, or otherwise misunderstood but demonstrably powerful woman; a healer, a feminist; a bitch with skills" o An identity forced upon women, an identity freely taken up by feminine individuals, and as an embodiment of those who practice withcraft o Women who won't conform to what women should stereotypically be, and so they are demonized o Few representations:  Old hag - frightening  Young and attractive, charming, sexual - also frightening  Wicca - nature based practice, more pride in being a witch o Witches can't really be contained by type  Liminality o Very fine line between good and bad o Liminal space - the in between space o "witches are the living embodiment of liminality; neither good nor evil, but always, somehow, both at once" o Liminality as the fine line between ambition and greed, light and dark, horror and fairy tale, life and death, etc. o The legacy of the witch as a liminal figure exists in Christian stories, Irish folklore, Egyptian, and Hindu legends o Always positioned as a posing liminal threat, a group that lingers just outside of social boundaries and snatches up children and/or community members that may go too far astray  Ruthlessness with which we imagine women o Chilling adventures of sabrina - aunt zelda and aunt hilda represent the inbeteween (liminal) spaces of good and evil quite well, as does sabrina's internal fight between light and night o 'but in any movie where there's a white witch and a dark witch, that's just another way to pin women against each other" Video - Why are we scared of witches?  Oppressed people w power are always feared  African, Indigenous, feminist, queer - identities that have suffered violent persecution and suppression

 Chapters across NA  Fun but also political  Message quickly spread  The idea of by gathering together, by hatching plots, women might obtain power, that has fueled much of feminist organization throughout history  Also a part of the mythology and the legacy of the witch o The witch is one of the most frequently referenced mascots for the women's movement of the 60s and 70s o Trump repeatedly used the term "witch hunt"  And news casters on the conservative side  "me too" movement was referred to as a witch hunt  Offensive  Trump personally always used the term witch / witch hunt whenever he felt persecuted o During the 2016 election - targeted hillary clinton o During 2016 rallies: "He (Trump) had the entire arena chanting 'lock her up' - a cry that has become the mantra of the RNC. If you closed your eyes, you could imagine it being a lot like a witch trial - they were barely one step removed from screaming 'burn her at the stake"  Hillary was simply a woman who had the ability to threaten men  Transgresses the norms of female power  Witches were often called an unnatural threat to men o In the most misogynistic election to date, people on both sides consistently invoked the witch - as both the epitome of evil femininity and an emblem of female strength - once again, highlighting the liminal space in which the witch often resides  Bernie sanders side also got in on the witch hunt  Hillary supporters started reclaiming the witch - claiming they were witches, supporting another o The prevalence of witch-infused messaging during 2016 election (where gender equality was often discussed) reaffirmed the witches continued role in feminist activism  Many women today see a reclamation of female power in the image of the witch o "She stands strong and represents an act of resistance against patriarchal abuses of power. Long live witch hillary"  Witches can be emblem of women overcoming oppression, of women standing in their power despite persecution for being women The Craft  90s were all about the teen witch, where young women come into their magic at the same time as they come into puberty  Witches have become an important part of women's coming-of-age narratives o When you're a teen girl, you often feel like you have no power or control over your life, and so perhaps girls and young women start seeing witches as somebody they want to be  1996 film The Craft  Setting the scene: o All 4 girls are outcasts o Alone, they are vulnerable, together they are powerful

Video - The Craft and Female Power  The film is deeply ambivalent about how much power women can have, or want, without becoming monsters or completely insane o Nancy's goes insane - she's the wicked witch o Mostly the other women asks for gentle virtues o Element of abuse of power o Reinforces the light and dark binary  "sarah was not the point. The girl my friends and I really wanted to be, when we joined hands and muttered spells, was Nancy. We identified not with Sarah's niceness, but with Nancy's recklessness - her quest not just to seize fire from the gods, but to become that fire"  Consider broader cultural impact: "To describe The Craft as a mere movie seems like an injustice. The craft didn't scare people; it altered their relationship to the unseen world. And its converts were entirely young women" Reading - Witchcraft for Sale! - Commodity vs. Community in the Neopagan Movement  Investigating the relationship between witchcraft as a religious community and its representation in consumer culture and mass media is extremely significant  Contemporary witchcraft revival - AKA Wicca - a branch of the broader neopagan revivalist movement, is one of the fastest growing social and religious movements of the late 20th and early 21st centuries o A movement that is often idealized as a model of postmodern protest in the wake of disenchantment with empirical claims to historical legitimacy o Conversely, Witchcraft is also a religious movement with a significant spiritual component, which links, in a typically romanticist style, images of the divine with nature and the feminine in opposition to patriarchy, industrialism and science  One area where the cultural development and influence of the Witchcraft movement is particularly apparent is in the development of a proliferation of witch-inspired media, products, and artifacts of popular culture. o However, the development of a Witchcraft-related industry and its increased representation in mainstream popular culture have had a profound impact on the social cohesion of the Wicca movement. o The commodification of the movement's sacred elements and the commensurate development of witchcraft-related industries, has deeply affected the content of its identity, source of values, and sense of community  Differentiating between where the New Age movement ends and the witchcraft and neopagan movements begin is a problematic exercise  How are witches defining their cultural identity with regard to the increasingly diverse array of consumable products available to them? To what extent is witch/wiccan identity rooted in representations of witchcraft in popular culture?  Postmodernism, eclecticism, and commodification o Increasing rejection of empirically-based historicity and interpretive structures, excluding those defined in terms of individual experience and aesthetics, in defining the legitimacy of rituals, symbols, and foundation myths o Jim Wafer described this as a shift from foundationalism to postmodernism o Postmodernism - a recognition of the futility of seeking an absolute foundation for knowledge

o As with any trend, this 'cool' and 'accessible' aspects of witchcraft have been co-opted for mass consumption  Commodified  Affects the Wicca community  The more 'evil' aspects are absent from the marketplace  Only the 'cool' pastel things are marketed o Responses from Neopagan communities have been ambivalent  Increased visibility in pop culture - yay  You can't be what you cant see  Popularization and marketization led to acceptance of the neopagan community  On the other hand, the cultural understanding of women as powerful becomes diluted and changed when we have these commodified objects for sale o Aug 2018 - Sephora announces they will start selling "Pinrose Starter Witch Kit"  Social media quickly critiqued this product  Reckless mass marketing, commodifying religious/spiritual objects o Urban outfitters sells its white sage smudge stick, anthropologie, whole foods. Even GOOP sells tarot decks and medicine bags full of healing crystals  Consider: o Does it dilute the important and fraught history of witchcraft when it has become an increasingly niche market based on fashion and consumer-driven identities? o Does this work to deny the violence and history of persecution against 'evil' and 'wise' women, in real life and fictitious representations in pop culture? o Does this play a role in how our culture only accepts female power when it is marketable and made palatable for a mainstream audiences?