Thread by @mpgPhD, this is it, #NUwitches: our last lecture of the semester!I know, I'm [...]

this is it, #NUwitches: our last lecture of the semester!

I know, I'm sad too.

but hey, now y'all can focus on the bazillion assignments you have due for finals

(too soon?)

1) On today: the history of the Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell (W.I.T.C.H. - get it?), the rad work that WITCH is doing in the 21st century, and how the specter of The Witch is still haunting American politics

#NUwitches

2) #NUwitches know, because this has been the not-so-secret secret lesson this semester, that the figure of The Witch is *always* political

and that The Witch does especially effective political work around issues of religion and gender

(which is what this class was about)

3) we've also talked a lot about reclaiming abject figures, like monsters and (yes, obvs) witches -- insisting that there is power for historically abjected folks in saying, "you know what? you're right to fear me, because I AM different and that makes me powerful"

#NUwitches

4) broadly, politics = systems that govern bodies

so politics, yes, is stuff like Congress, but also just how communities organize & control members

so to say that the Witch is always political doesn't necessarily mean the Witch only works in, like, legislative ways

#NUwitches

5) that said, today we're focusing specifically on how witches (and W.I.T.C.H.-es) shape and influence HOW the United States is governed

#NUwitches

6) first up: the Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell (W.I.T.C.H.), a group founded in the late 1960s by feminist poet and activist Robin Morgan

#NUwitches

https://www.robinmorgan.net

7) for some, like Daly and Lorde, the figure of the witch or the idea of the Goddess was explicitly religious as well as political

Morgan and WITCH were less interested in the religious piece, except insofar as "religion" had historically demonized women

#NUwitches

8) for organizations like WITCH, the Witch was a powerful symbol of women who resisted patriarchal oppression

it's very this

#NUwitches

9) so for Robin Morgan and the other members of WITCH, being a witch was less about religious innovation (like with Pike's "serious playing with the Self" or Romberg's Halloween brujas or Chireau's Conjure women)

being WITCH = reclaiming women's power

#NUwitches

10) again, for tiny baby witchlet @mpgPhD in college, this was So Important and So Powerful

the idea of there being something inherently strong and untamable and unrepentant in being a woman?

#NUwitches

11) but YOU #NUwitches have probably already spotted Some Problems with this idea of The Witch, yeah?

like: are women the only folks oppressed by the patriarchy? (nope - what about trans, GNC, NB folks?)

12) #NUwitches are probably ALSO asking: are all non-male people equally, identically oppressed by the patriarchy?

(also nope: what about white supremacy, classism, ableism, homo- and transphobia?)

am I going to link to Audre Lorde again? you betcha

http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/lordeopenlettertomarydaly.html

13) #NUwitches, who are VERY smart about this sort of thing now, are ALSO wondering, like, what does WITCH mean by "religion?"

do they just mean Christianity? just white Christianity?

14) doesn't that exclude all the ways that folks, especially POC, have used religion--including Christianity, since Vodou, Lukumi, Conjure, etc all adapt and reimagine Christianity--to resist and subvert oppression?

it sure does, #NUwitches

15) so okay, yes, #NUwitches Have Notes about WITCH

but also: this was a really interesting, very provocative public performance second-wave feminist activist group

I mean, look at these ladies, for real

if they show up at a protest, you're gonna pay attention

16) this video is a little cheesy, but it's got some great vintage footage of protests

#NUwitches https://rumble.com/v7ws9z-stuff-mom-never-told-you-feminist-witchcraft.html

Stuff Mom Never Told You: Feminist WITCHcraft

W.I.T.C.H. was a feminist group that dressed as witches to get attention. Learn more about W.I.T.C.H. in this video from Stuff Mom Never Told You.

https://rumble.com/v7ws9z-stuff-mom-never-told-you-feminist-witchcraft.html

side note: this vice piece is also a pretty decent overview

#NUwitches https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/43gd8p/wicked-witch-60s-feminist-protestors-hexed-patriarchy

The Coven of Witches Who Gathered to Curse Wall Street Bankers

Forty-eight years ago, a coven of self-styled witches gathered to curse Wall Street bankers, beauty pageants, and the Playboy Club. We speak to two former W.I.T.C.H. members about their spellbinding...

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/43gd8p/wicked-witch-60s-feminist-protestors-hexed-patriarchy

17) for today, I assigned you a 2016 piece that insisted WITCH needed to make a comeback, which is worth it for the images alone

#NUwitches

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/get-witchy

18) which seems prescient now, because WITCH *did* come back in the wake of the 2016 election

there are chapters in a number of cities, including ours (shoutout to @witchboston - check out their instagram)

#NUwitches

https://www.instagram.com/witchboston/?hl=en

19) you can see from their protest pictures that WITCH focuses on MUCH more than just gender oppression now

their protests and their mission are intersectional, addressing trans rights, protection for immigrants and asylum seekers, and religious violence

#NUwitches

context: the image above was posted after the 2018 Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh

a white supremacist, anti-Semitic man killed 11 people at the synagogue, in part because the synagogue was working to help immigrants

#NUwitches https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/us/pittsburgh-funerals-synagogue-shooting.html

Pittsburgh Grieves, With Back-to-Back Funerals and Mourners 50 Deep

The public rituals of mourning those killed in the synagogue shooting are accumulating day by day.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/us/pittsburgh-funerals-synagogue-shooting.html

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