Uncanny Powers Are a Feminist Issue
Commenter RY steers us to another contender for our series of classic sentences from a certain newspaper:
Witchcraft – and the embrace of “magical” practices, like reading tarot cards – has recently experienced a resurgence of sorts among young, creative, politically engaged women.
Ah, you didn’t see that coming.
The bearer of this hitherto suppressed knowledge is Ms Sady Doyle, who further enlightens us,
Women in the US have been harnessing its power for decades as a “spiritual but not religious” way to express feminist ambitions.
You see,
A popular Tumblr blog, Charmcore, purports to be run by three witch sisters; it gives sarcastic “magical” advice and praise of the female celebrities it deems to be “obvious witches.” On the more serious side, teen sensation Rookie magazine has published tarot tutorials along with more standard-issue feminist and fashion advice, and Autostraddle, a popular left-leaning blog for young queer women, has an in-house tarot columnist.
Yes, all that. And furthermore,
Tarot cards are available in trendy Brooklyn knick-knack shops and Urban Outfitters, as well as New Age stores. And these days, no one thinks there’s anything weird about herbal medicine and other potions.
Apparently, there are also “witchcore” punk bands. And – and – if even more proof were needed, a book:
Mixed in with the spells and rituals of The Spiral Dance, you will find meditations on sexual violence, ecology and anarchist group building, and thoughts on how men can overcome patriarchal conditioning in order to participate effectively in leftwing activism.
Clearly, it’s a vibrant and thrusting cultural force, a subversive political juggernaut, one that will topple The Patriarchal Hegemon™ any day now. It’s game over, man. No, there’s no time to collect your belongings, we must flee to the escape pods.
Heh.
Tarot card reading and other semi-charlatans are a sort of psychotherapist, . . .
Oh, yes, there is a well established set of people with rather definite skills in reading people while shifting cards about. That is indeed a skill, of reading people, only capable if indeed the reader is indeed actually skillful . . .
And there is the immense majority of bullshit piled on bullshit, which is the hipster version of reciting paranormal related phrases, followed by the demand to be acknowledged as The Great Expert . . . . where with the first hint of anyone with any actual skill, the smokescreens and denials start pouring out.
And then there are those who scare the crap out of the posturing idiots, there are the actual readers:
. . . any sort of actual practitioner . . . not Great Expert . . is rather likely to toss in lots of disclaimers, and at most will state that you might try X . . . or Y . . . and when it works, Oy, Veh does the message come through—noting here, that I here state of my exemplary personal experience, Your Mileage Will Vary.
I put down a card one time, and about a minute later then explained what I would describe as a shifting cascade of layers of data that had been arriving, and then arriving and then arriving . . with no idea of the relation to the client, but ohhhh boy was the data there . . . And with the two clients above—particularly the one with the insistent denials—I had no idea what exactly I was describing, I just handed on the info that arrived . . . and then rather awhile later found out about the results.
And then there are those comely psychic Fortune-Teller TD Ameritrade financial planners…
http://www.youtube.com >Watch > v = OMJUUOzWyA
Bad link, try: http://www.youtube.com >Watch > v = OMJUUOzWyA >
Oh Well..
http://www.youtube.com/watch/?v=OMJUUOzWyA
Not sure what’s turning your slashes into greater-than signs, but that’s what’s messing you up.
Great, my link doesn’t work either.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MJOUUQzWyA
Ah. That first character is a zero, not a capital O.
Davey:
I have an entry for your “Peak Guardian” series:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/23/if-britons-want-to-join-isis-let-them-go-london-schoolgirls
The money quote:
“Is it really so hard to discern the attractions of a journey, especially one with an altruistic and religious purpose, to girls who may have led very sheltered lives?”
Note also the mugshot above the article, the head turned to look, slightly angled to suggest superior intelligence and discernment. When, in reality, she’s just another mad old bat at the Guardian.
Today the first edition of my book Sex Trouble: Essays on Radical Feminism and the War Against Human Nature is available for purchase from Amazon
http://theothermccain.com/2015/02/26/sex-trouble-yes-feminists-do-practice-witchcraft-and-become-lesbians/
A recent troubleshooting phone call has reminded me of regional situational pretentiousness and complete cluelessness . . .
Are you in The City?
No, I’m in San Francisco, haven’t been in London in years . . . .
More astrology.
The comments section of the “Don’t read cis white male authors” article led me to this:
http://yourfaveisproblematic.tumblr.com/
A lot of good stuff here. Trans* is transphobic apparently. Spell check is telling me transphobic isn’t a proper word. How’s that for transphobia?
About halfway down the page you’ll find a post from a person of some sort lamenting that it’s easier to find large men’s clothing than large women’s clothing. I say person because the author reports being of “butch” gender which seems pretty fast and loose even by the non-cis crowd’s terms.
Also, someone named Kerli is problematic because she had two girls with dreadlocks in one of her music videos. David, I think you’ve commented on racist hair before. I wonder if Jess Zimmerman would applaud those white girls for empathizing with the people of color.
Apparently, there are also “witchcore” punk bands.
There are also Islamic punk bands. See “taqwacore”.
I guess this is a corollary of Rule 34.
Also, someone named Kerli is problematic because she had two girls with dreadlocks in one of her music videos. David, I think you’ve commented on racist hair before.
Oh yes. And it’s amazing just how often hair is the fuel for bedlamite theatre, a parlour game for the passive-aggressive. You could choke on the accumulated dishonesty of it all.
The list of things found “problematic” is of course extensive. Apparently, just about any fashion acknowledgement of non-Western cultures is “racist” and “appropriative,” even if done to celebrate that culture’s aesthetics at a politically correct fundraiser. And any attempt to disagree with this supposition is itself “racist,” “triggering” and inexcusable. Because everything must be mentally balkanised, categorised, and ranked in a hierarchy of grievance. No woman must ever participate in an “objectifying” photo shoot, regardless of how she, the model, feels about it, and the ladies who choose to model in them should presumably be made redundant in the name of gender piety. The adjective “native” (as in indigenous to a place) must never be used, about anything, at least not by white people. And no non-black Marvel fan is allowed to dress as Nick Fury.
It’s incorrigibly pretentious, but it can be fascinating to watch. It gets very competitive and the rules seem to change very rapidly, in some cases practically by the hour. The object seems to be to catch someone out for using the “wrong” pronoun or adjective, or for failing to add the obligatory politically correct qualifications, which also grow in length and convolution. It’s basically a game of Gotcha! and even the hosts of these tumblrs can find themselves being scolded for the slightest infraction or for not being up-to-date with the very latest Rules Of Pretending™. And scolding is what it’s all about. It’s the pay-off for all that uptight pseudo-piety.
You can imagine the kinds of people, the kinds of personalities, to whom that might appeal.
David @ February 28, 2015 at 08:24:
Would that be Sergeant Nick Fury, leader of the Howling Commandos?
I remember buying 12 cent comic books like that one. The Sergeant was quite melanin-challenged, though his squad was integrated. It even included a Brit.
Would that be Sergeant Nick Fury, leader of the Howling Commandos?
Heh. Quite.
Hardly new stuff. As Orwell wrote
“One sometimes gets the impression that the mere words ‘Socialism’ and ‘Communism’ draw towards them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, ‘Nature Cure’ quack, pacifist, and feminist in England.”
Indeed feminism has long argued that millions of women were murdered by the patriarchy, allegedly for witchcraft. Most say that these witches were in fact guilty of nothing more than being ‘independent women’, whilst feminists go further and argue that they were ‘healers’, practitioners of alternative therapies or community doctors. Anyone who watched “world without end” knows the archetype. That’s no to admit there’s no dichotomy but anyone with a passing acquaintance knows that the whole gamut of alternative therapies from healing crystals to homeopathy is tolerated at worst and celebrated at best at any gathering of progressives.