![\"Awesome](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/690\/2016\/09\/witches-pixabay-cropped-2.jpg\")
Taking It Serious, Makes it Serious<\/h2>\n
When it comes to certain types of stereotypes (not all types, just some) the very act of taking it seriously makes it serious and harmful.\u00a0 By being offended or insulted by the stereotype, you give it power over you, you give others power over you, to harm you.<\/p>\n
Laughter Removes the Power<\/h2>\n
The strength of laughter and humour is often under rated.\u00a0 They do say, if you are feeling bad or sad, forcing a smile onto your face can help improve your mood.\u00a0 This, to be honest, only works sometimes \u2013 but that\u2019s the thing, it does work, maybe only sometimes, but that is better than nothing.<\/p>\n
When we laugh at something like the evil hag witch, we take her power away from those who would wield her against us.\u00a0 By making fun of the stereotype we remove the power it holds, we remove the seriousness, it loses its strength.\u00a0 It can\u2019t hurt us if we laugh at it or have fun with it.<\/p>\n
This is why I make jokes as a homeschooler, lamenting that I have no basement to lock my kids in \u201clike a good homeschool mum should\u201d.\u00a0 This is why I enjoy sharing those little memes about how fattening and unhealthy kids are now days, so maybe we should eat them only as an occasional treat.\u00a0 This is why I think dressing up all evil witchy is fun and good.<\/p>\n
Because when someone comes up to me and tries to stab me (intentionally or unintentionally) with stereotypes about my labels, religion, practices and lifestyles \u2013 I can laugh at them.\u00a0 Their words don\u2019t hurt me, don\u2019t upset me, don\u2019t anger me, they make me feel amused.\u00a0 Suddenly they are the stupid ones for believing what they believe about me.<\/p>\n
My games, my laughter, takes their power away.\u00a0 Not all their power, just their power of jerkishness.<\/p>\n
Reclaiming is the Game<\/h2>\n
A lot of people and groups have taken to reclaiming things that were once used to hurt them or others in some way.\u00a0 Think of how African Americans use the N-word, women use the words \u201cbitch\u201d and \u201cslut\u201d in the same way.\u00a0 Think about the words we use \u2013 \u201cpagan\u201d, \u201cwitch\u201d and \u201cheathen\u201d.<\/p>\n
Why do you think we use these words? Because there is nothing better that could be found?\u00a0 Surely there is something better, something without any baggage, or at least without as much baggage.\u00a0 But by taking a word that has been used in a derogatory or worse manner, we again take away the power of the word to hurt us and use it to our advantage.<\/p>\n
Though the evil hag witch still exists in peoples minds, in media and pop culture \u2013 when you speak of being a witch, you have a pretty good chance (in the western world) of people not automatically thinking of old wart nose.\u00a0 Okay, they might think of teenage girls dressed in black, but that\u2019s a different stereotype altogether \u2013 and nowhere near so bad as the idea of evil baby eating hags poisoning your cows (which you probably don\u2019t own anyway).<\/p>\n
Of course it doesn\u2019t remove all the power of these words to be hurtful, but we are still only in the beginning stages for all of these things.\u00a0 And so it\u2019s the same with reclaiming the images of witches \u2013 however that may be.\u00a0 Putting pointy black hats on young women instead of old women, on beautiful women instead of warty nosed \u201cugly\u201d ones, innocent looking women instead of evil looking ones and best of all, on men of all types too, instead of a woman at all.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s Fun<\/h2>\n
All of the above are pretty compelling reasons by themselves, in my opinion and they certainly are part of the reason I enjoy the witch stereotype.\u00a0 But in all honesty the most important reason is that we like it, we find it fun, we enjoy it.<\/p>\n
The other year I bought a new straw broom, they\u2019re pretty good for sweeping the carpet \u2013 I don\u2019t even vacuum any more, just sweep.\u00a0 My kids asked me why I bought it (yeh I have no idea why they would ask that either) but I answered them, \u201cFor flying of course!\u201d\u00a0 And then proceeded to have hours of fun, first convincing them it was indeed for flying and then later having them tell me off when I used it for sweeping \u2013 because that is not what it is for mummy! Haha.<\/p>\n
Can you tell me that isn\u2019t fun? That isn\u2019t worth it?\u00a0 My kids know the stereotypical witch isn\u2019t what is real, isn\u2019t what I am, but they also love when I play games like that with them.\u00a0 When I pretend that pretty red apple I just gave them might be poison, when I pretend I am going to cook and eat them.\u00a0 They love it, why shouldn\u2019t I?<\/p>\n
We All Have Our Reasons<\/h2>\n
These are just some of the reasons I have for embracing something that otherwise might anger me or upset me.\u00a0 But it is part of my personality, to never feel offended and rarely feel insulted by anything \u2013 because I am easily able to twist things to be amusing to me instead, usually at the other persons expense.\u00a0 Poor them.<\/p>\n
But I understand why others feel differently, why they react differently.\u00a0 That\u2019s fine with me, we all have our reasons for feeling as we do.\u00a0 These are my reasons, this is what works for me.\u00a0 And what works for me, won\u2019t necessarily work for everyone else. That\u2019s as it should be.\u00a0 But it\u2019s important for us all to try to understand each others reasoning.<\/p>\n
If you hate the evil witch, well that\u2019s okay.\u00a0 I will embrace her for you.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By being offended or insulted by the stereotype, you give it power over you, you give others power over you, to harm you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2764,"featured_media":915,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,11],"tags":[18,20,32,55,60,59],"class_list":["post-912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-pagan-community","tag-debates","tag-opinion","tag-paganism","tag-stereotypes","tag-witch","tag-witchcraft"],"yoast_head":"\n