The Latest Media Kerfuffle

When you are a member of a minority* religion (or "race" or gender, for that matter), you come to expect people mischaracterizing your ideas and culture. You expect bigotry and misinformation spread about you. It sadly comes with the territory.

You especially expect to have that bigotry come from people with a specific political agenda, like Fox "News". This is a network that literally invents news that fits its agenda, edits video to make people say the exact opposite of what they actually said, and adds constant right-wing commentary while delivering alleged "news".

So it was no surprise that Fox and Friends, the network's "Wake Up, America! It's a New Day to Hate!" program decided to rant for a few minutes on "Wiccans".



What do I think about all this? As I say, I am not surprised. I am not outraged either, considering the source. Anyone who takes Fox seriously is so far gone that reason will not aid them.

The reason Fox brought up the news item was that colleges are starting to recognize minority religions and our holidays in their academic calendars. The University of Missouri asked professors not to schedule exams on holidays listed on the calendar. It is a win for religious minorities everywhere and people who believe in pluralism and equality. The Fox "News" reaction is some of the expected backlash. It is simply small, scared people who are currently entrenched in power getting mad that others are being given a place at the table. It scares them.

What I am more concerned with is the reaction I see coming from the greater pagan community. Outraged petitions being spread on Facebook (that will not do a thing, as it is falling on deaf ears- Fox itself).

And of course, it was only a matter of time before one of our resident media whores decided this was a great opportunity to get more attention for himself. We have among us "Warlocks" (groan) that use every opportunity to get in front of the camera for personal ego stroking and profit (is it a surprise this dude not only owns stores, but  mentions them in a press release supposedly about media bias? He sells the Craft to the highest bidder and then gets "outraged" that someone else gets to defile us? Puh-lease.)

People like Day make our community look like a bunch of buffoons. (And no, I am not talking about the excessive eyeliner here.) I am far more concerned about how we come across - OUR voices, not the voices of those outside wishing to mock us. People who are constantly posturing and pimping are the ones that we, as a community, need to worry about.

To the non-Witchy world out there reading this: Despite what Day says in his press release- not all Witches are Wiccan, and not all of us act like him (thank the gods). We do not posture and profit from ill gotten gains.

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*When I say minority, I always mean political minority. Women, for example, make up more than half of the world's population- but for the most part have far less political power over their own lives and the lives of others. Same with Muslims and Witches in this country. We are a minority- in population, but when I use the term, I specifically mean political minority.

Warlocks, really?

This is a warlock- TV is make-believe.

I have been asked by several people recently about the warlock bruhaha. In case you were unaware, some men in the Witchcraft scene are going around trumpeting themselves as "warlocks" in the name of "reclaiming the word" and coming up with a masculinized version of Witch.

It's no surprise that the men that I have seen doing this mostly are (pardon my French) media whores.

After all, these are men who are trying to sell many many things (in their stores, with their lines of merchandise, their services, their classes and workshops), and what makes a bigger splash than having everyone talk about you? Masters of PR, that's what they are. They are looking to become a big fish in a little pond (and for those of you that do not know, the pagan community is a very small pond, let me tell you).

My problem with the word "warlock" is not that the term historically means "oath breaker" (it possibly doesn't) or even that is may mean "war lord". The fact is, it's a stupid word to reclaim because to most modern Witches, it DOES INDEED mean an unscrupulous person- an oath breaker, a cheat, a liar. Even if it never historically existed as a negative word, it means that now. It means the worst kind of person, actually. Oath breaking is the worst thing you can do as a Witch. So why strut around trying to reclaim a word like that?

It's not like the word Queer or Black. Those words were used by the dominant culture to oppress a minority of people with intrinsic qualities (their queerness or blackness). These words were reclaimed by people with that intrinsic quality because the word was used to make them feel shame. Nope warlock is not like those words at all. Far be it from me to tell people what to do- if folks want to use "warlock" to describe themselves, go for it. But that doesn't mean folks like me won't look at you and consider you stupid.

So this leads me to wonder- who are these warlocks talking to- most Witches are not convinced, so they must be talking to those on the outside. And if you look at it this way- their move makes sense. After all, warlock was used on the TV show Bewitched to mean a male Witch. It's friendly and familiar to non-Witches. So I believe that these folks are actually marketing their wares to those that are not part of our religion- but are merely Witchcraft tourists. (One of these warlocks is even in Salem- the biggest Witchy tourist trap of all!)

Uncle Arthur has it right-
this is a farce, for shits and giggles.

But here's my main objection to using this term. These folks are coming up with a male equivelent of Witch WHEN NONE IS NECESSARY. (Witch does not mean male or female.) This is just another stupid gender essentialist reaction on the part of cissexual men who have their panties in a bunch over not getting enough attention. It creates yet another divide of the sexes in a place where none existed before.

Despite what this writer says, (or this one) Warlock is NOT the male counterpart to the female Witch. It never was and still isn't. Witch HAS NO counterpart. Male and female mysteries have been a part of WITCHCRAFT for centuries, and no special word was ever needed to delineate or set apart men from women before. To do so, in a religion that celebrates the place of all genders is a travesty, a falsehood, and just plain bad theology.

I recognize that the beings we call gods and goddesses have no gender- not as we experience it, anyway. We experience these beings in these ways because of our own filters. As a Witch, I have access to all of the Divine. In my experience, being a Witch makes you fey- that is, beyond gender. You are both and neither, because you are in the process of realizing your own god self- and gods aren't "male" and "female".