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Subscribe to this list via RSS Blog posts tagged in Feminism

Posted by on in Studies Blogs
On Veils, from PantheaCon

Picking up where I left off my previous blog about PantheaCon –

On Saturday evening I went to a workshop called “Taking Up the Veil,” with Xochiquetzal Duti Odinsdaughter.[1]  The description in the program intrigued me:

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Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Amarfa
    Amarfa says #
    Sometimes this topic makes me upset, and sometimes it doesn't. I've deliberately gained weight at certain points in my life in or
  • Aline "Macha" O'Brien
    Aline "Macha" O'Brien says #
    Thanks for your comments, Constance. It's a complicated issue. As you said, the choice must always be that of the wearer.
  • Constance Tippett Chandler
    Constance Tippett Chandler says #
    Dear Aline, Part of my religious past was spent in the Hari Krishna Movement and we where expected to have our heads COVERED. It w

Posted by on in Culture Blogs


Canadians Take the Gold (Photo courtesy of The Guardian) 

Okay, so this is completely off the topic from what I usually post in this blog, but I am a proud Canadian, and like all Canadians, I watch when our team is at the gold medal hockey final.  It's kind of like Americans and the Superbowl.  I think it's a Canadian law or something.

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  • Sable Aradia
    Sable Aradia says #
    And the boys did us proud too!
  • Ted Czukor
    Ted Czukor says #
    Yes, congratulations indeed. I was a Landed Immigrant in Canada from 1971-1973. I was a company member with the Shakespeare Fest
  • Sable Aradia
    Sable Aradia says #
    That strikes me as a uniquely, and perhaps iconic, Canadian story. Thanks so much for sharing it!
  • Greybeard
    Greybeard says #
    Congratulations to the Canadians on the victory. The big problem I have with Hockey is that so many games and championships are
  • Sable Aradia
    Sable Aradia says #
    I agree! Fortunately that wasn't the case here. Also fortunately, the Stanley Cup is not resolved that way; it's overtime period
Matriarchal or Patriarchal ideal? The utopian myth...

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  • Carol P. Christ
    Carol P. Christ says #
    You might enjoy Women at the Center by Peggy Reeves Sanday and Societies of Peace by Heidi Goettner-Abendroth. Matriarchal societi
  • Joanna van der Hoeven
    Joanna van der Hoeven says #
    Thanks Carol - I shall defininitely look into it! x
  • Ted Czukor
    Ted Czukor says #
    Lovely expression, Joanna - and so very reasonable! Your vision is so clear, I wonder that anyone could see it any other way. I r
  • Joanna van der Hoeven
    Joanna van der Hoeven says #
    Hi Ted - thank you for your kind words. Yes, I have been to the White Spring - last spring a friend and I booked some private time
  • faedragon@verizon.net
    faedragon@verizon.net says #
    Dying is the opposite of birth, as it is singular event. Death is the ongoing condition,ie: once one dies, they continu

Here in the Deep South, it's been a rough few months for women's health. The passage of a draconian anti-abortion law -- despite the courageous efforts of Texas State Senator Wendy Davis and her allies -- has led to the closing of several women's health clinics, and will lead to the closing of many more. In Arkansas, one of the most restrictive abortion bills in the country was signed over the summer, banning the procedure in most instances later than 6 weeks. At no other time in American history since Roe v. Wade have women's reproductive rights been so under attack.

A large portion of the work I do as a Feminist Witch centers on securing social justice for women, including the right to bodily autonomy and self-determination. I see my pro-choice politics as a logical extension of my spirituality. Part of what draws me to Feminist Craft is the idea of empowerment through ritual and magick, and my feminist politics hold that we can never be truly empowered until we have control over our fertility -- from having the ability to prevent or terminate a pregnancy, up to and including the ability to make our own choices about how, when and whether we will birth and raise children. Although I am committedly child-free, I am passionate about reproductive justice for all -- not just choice but justice in terms of access to resources that allow us to make choices.

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  • Susan Harper
    Susan Harper says #
    Thank you, Paola. Jia, I think that's a question that each person who considers terminating a pregnancy has to consider for thems
  • Paola Suarez
    Paola Suarez says #
    Since it seems that Jia has confused us when commenting I wanted to take a moment to applaud your response Susan. It's sad to me t
  • Paola Suarez
    Paola Suarez says #
    I support your work! I have liked your page as my own page "Goddess Spiral Health Coaching" and also made a post today to share ab

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
Covering as a subversive feminist act

Covering and modest/plain dressing can be an act of subversive feminism. Hear me out, because I'm sure some people's knee jerk reaction to this is gonna be "I didn't come this far to get sl*t shamed and told to cover up." I'm a feminist myself and I'm not a fan of sl*t shaming either; people that do that can f right off as far as I'm concerned. So for me, the right to veil or engage in modest dressing has nothing to do with the body being impure, or other such puritanical BS; it has everything to do with a person's prerogative to show as much or as little of their body as they want. I'm using "they" here because men can be feminists too, and I know a gentleman who is participating in veiling as a protest against laws restricting a woman's right to cover.

The Second Annual Covered In Light Dayis tomorrow, Friday, September 20th. I personally cover for ritual, but tomorrow I'll cover all day in support of those who choose veil and dress modestly, because bodily autonomy is a feminist principle, and because I am the sole arbiter of how much or how little of my body you see, no matter where or when.

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Posted by on in SageWoman Blogs

Admittedly, most of the time, when someone refers to me as a feminist, the word they follow it up with is not “Witch” (though the word they choose does rhyme with Witch). In fact, I find that people are somewhat confused when I refer to myself as a “Feminist Witch.” This confusion is probably best summed up in the question I got from a young woman in a college class I had been speaking to about Witchcraft and Paganism. Her voice full of sincerity and clear perplexity, she asked, “So you're a feminist? What's the difference between you and a man-hater?”

Well then. I guess that's better than the “What's the difference between you and a Satanist?” bit I usually get at these public lectures, I thought to myself. Then I took a deep breath and gave her my standard answer: “Feminism is the radical idea that women are people. Feminism is the idea that there is no such thing as a lesser person, and that all people deserve dignity and equality, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, class, or anything else.”

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  • Ashling Kelly
    Ashling Kelly says #
    Couldn't have said any of this better myself; in fact, you expressed it far better than I could have. Thank you for bringing this
  • Greybeard
    Greybeard says #
    Its good to hear that young women in college today have so much wisdom.
  • Heather Freysdottir
    Heather Freysdottir says #
    I just love how every time a woman self-identifies as a feminist, that has to be quantified with "but I'm not a man-hater, honest!

Peter Dybing gave Sunday's keynote speech, "Stirring the Cauldron of Pagan Sensibilities."  A worthy pursuit to my mind.  In an animated talk, Peter emphasized that Paganism was not a monolithic institution.  He also spoke of the need for boundaries, avoiding what he called "the 2 a.m. crisis."  During feedback, I reminded folks that one of the required courses for degree-seeking students at Cherry Hill Seminary is Boundaries & Ethics.  I took the proto-class from Cat Chapin-Bishop back around 2000 and found it one of the most valuable classes I've ever taken.

He itemized several issues and then compared the attitudes about them of older Pagans and to those of younger generations.  He said that older Pagans generally held tightly to beliefs whereas younger ones welcomed debate.  I think this is true of any social phenomenon when it achieves some years; however, I don't think it's universal.  I count many Pagans, myself among them, as being open-minded, adaptable, and willing to engage on current issues, far from being hidebound.

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