Witches, Sluts, Feminists by Kristen J. Sollee EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available For Free Download
- Author: Kristen J. Sollee
- Language: English
- Genre: Family Life Fiction
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
INTRODUCTION
Maleficent was my first childhood crush. I was hypnotized by her stately
horns, her pale green skin, and her extravagant eyes. I had no love for
Sleeping Beauty’s heroine, Princess Aurora. She was too perfect, too unrelatable. But Maleficent? I could appreciate anger, frustration, rejection,
and the raw expression of emotion all rolled into a roiling grand dame.
Back then I didn’t realize just how much Maleficent’s character reified
harmful stereotypes about witches and women—I was too busy crafting my
black cape out of bedsheets. This was long before Disney humanized her in
the 2014 film Maleficent. This was when Maleficent lived up to her name,
epitomizing chthonic forces and forbidden female power. She was the witch
I wanted to be: a woman in control. A surviving video from my early years
shows me with hands out, claw-like, brow furrowed, doing my best
Maleficent impression. “On her sixteenth birthday, she shall prick her finger
on the spindle of a spinning wheel—and die!” Somehow, I made it into
adulthood without becoming a vengeful, horned villain.
Instead, I became a feminist.
Like many millennial women, I see a reclamation of female power in
the witch, slut, and feminist identities. Each of these contested words
conjure and counter a tortuous history of misogyny, and each in its own
way can be emblematic of women overcoming oppression.
After a decade of exploring gender in contemporary music, art, and
culture as a journalist, I started a sex-positive feminist website called
Slutist. At the time, “slut” had recently been listed in The Atlantic’s “Worst
Words” of 2012. The anti-victim-blaming SlutWalk movement was also
gaining traction, and slut-shaming was becoming a frequently covered topic
in the media. Playing upon the power of the word “slut” with both tonguein-cheek revelry and dead seriousness, the site began as an outlet to address
gender politics and female sexuality through op-eds, interviews, personal
essays, and original artwork.
Before long, my lifelong fascination with the occult, alternative spiritual
practices, and macabre aesthetics began to creep in. I found that dozens of
the feminist writers, artists, and activists who contributed to the site felt as
comfortable reclaiming or allying with the word “slut” as they did with the
word “witch.” Building community with those similarly entranced by
transgressive sexuality and dark, dynamic, and misunderstood women,
Slutist quickly spun into a leather- and lace-clad celebration of the witchslut-feminist trifecta like Stevie Nicks sweeping the stage in 1976.*
After producing two critically acclaimed music, art, and burlesque
festivals called “Legacy of the Witch” honoring the witch as a feminist
icon, curating an interdisciplinary gallery show called “Witch Slut Are
You?,” and teaching multiple college courses on fourth-wave feminism and
the feminist legacy of the witch at The New School, I knew it was time to
examine the connections between witches, sluts, and feminists in a more
codified form.
Witches, Sluts, Feminists: Conjuring the Sex Positive is an introduction
to the sex-positive history of the witch. With a focus on sexual liberation,
this book traces the lineage of “witch feminism” through art, film, music,
fashion, literature, technology, religion, pop culture, and politics.
For More Read Download This Book
EPUB