Witchy Woman

I'm sure you're all asking yourselves:

Self? What is it that Kim, our resident PhD-writing expert on witches,* thinks about the ridiculous item of Puyallup Washington school banning Hallowe'en on the grounds that it is insensitive to Wiccans' religion"?

Well first, I think you ought to be careful talking to yourself like that. It has done me no good over the years and I tend to answer myself very sarcastically, starting an argument that I never let me forget.

But really I do have a lot to say about the ridiculous nature of the ban. As one person in the article I quote there says, I think it's much more likely that it's being banned NOT because someone is trying to be sensitive to Wiccans but more because someone actually buys into the negative ideas of Hallowe'en being about Satan and is using this to excuse getting rid of the one holiday that hasn't been sanitized out of all meaning.

If you really want to be sensitive to Wiccans, folks, you're going to have to recognize that pretty much ALL of your holidays are stolen from ancient pagan religions. And almost every single holiday tradition-- from eating chocolate bunnies to giving gifts at the end of the solar year-- is pretty much a pagan thing.

I am not a practicing Wiccan. I don't believe in ANY organized religion enough to call myself ANY official name. But I know Wicca. I know what it's about. And the Wiccans I know are actually pretty into the idea of the witch--including all the negative images for their camp value and are not at home lamenting the negative consequences of the images. The witch has been there to kick ass for so long, and yes, has suffered the consequences, that she's the ultimate rebel shaking her pointy green fingers at patriarchy and putting the fear of the goddess into them for a lonnnnng time. A lot of the Wiccans I have known have done things like dress up AS witches for Hallowe'en. On the clip about it I saw on Fox (yes, I do watch it... Andrew makes me!!) the woman who they interviewed who is a Wiccan was holding a cute little witch doll with a pointy hat and she said "I don't get offended by it cause that's NOT what I look like" (even though in some ways she did kind of resemble the doll, which was a cutesy witch with blonde red hair and a big smile like the Wiccan lady).

Anyway... it's pretty damn ridiculous to ban the celebration calling it about being sensitive to Wiccans. Ban it because it's expensive. Ban it because it distracts kids from school (not that you're going to get much out of them that day anyway). But don't go waving your PC crap at the witch. Cause she's NEVER PC.

It's certainly possible that a Wiccan might be offended by the image of the witch. Because I don't speak for anybody but myself. But you don't want to piss the witch off. She might waggle her fingers at you and scare the piss outa ya. Any peeing you do as a result of your guilty conscience does not violate the rule of threefold. Cause it's YOUR guilt, not mine.

Oh yes, check out this quiz....

You're a cat - the sexiest halloween symbol.
You're very laid back about the whole thing but
you feel most comfortable at this time of year.
you'll do anything for a treat!


"A spooky hallowe'en quiz!"
brought to you by Quizilla

*yes, that is what my dissertation is about. almost exactly this same damn issue, in a lot of ways.