The Teenage Witch — Enabling Self-love and Power
Now, more than ever, community is vital. More and more women are looking for new ways to express their wants, needs and desires in a safe space, surrounded by other like minded women. Many women have found this solace in witchcraft. Self-care and self-indulgence through witchcraft has been a growing phenomenon through the past decade and this resurgence of ‘Witch culture’ is bringing the idea of powerful, self-loving women to the masses.
The term ‘witch’ is a hard one to define, there are many religions based around ‘witchcraft’ and said ‘witchcraft’ comes in many forms. ‘Witch’ can really refer to any woman who wishes to be one, from those who strictly practice wicca or pagan religions to someone who simply feels a connection to ‘magic’.
In some ways, “witch” can simply refer to more of an aesthetic choice than anything else — fashion choices, carrying crystals, growing cute kitchen herbs, and arranging household decor in meticulous placements. It would be far too easy to underestimate these actions as superficial affectations as beneath that gloss and glitter, the same idea that has tantalised girls for millennia still has hold; the fact that to be a witch is to be a woman with power in a world where women are often otherwise powerless.
It’s not about broomsticks, pointy hats or cats. It is about power. The rise of Witchcraft’s popularity coincides with many important feminist moments; during the second-wave feminist movement, in the 90’s after the Anita Hill hearings and most recently again after the election of Donald Trump and the #MeToo Movement.
In many ways, toying with witchcraft is a teenage girls rite of passage. There’s a persistent draw to ‘magic’ for young girls who are trying to feel some control. Control over the unknown, our unsure futures, the emotions of others and even the supernatural. Messing with ouija boards at sleepovers, lighting candles and chanting the names of our crushes, standing in the girls toilets at school trying to summon bloody Mary in the mirror to no avail, nearly every girl has stories like this!
Similar teenage-sleepover styled actions can even link back to the beginnings of the Salem witch trials where two young girls, who had been using fortune telling to figure out what lay ahead for them, became sick — the diagnosis? Bewitchment. Obviously.
We now theorise that the likely cause of the sickness was a fungus growing in the crops eaten by many in Salem, giving symptoms resembling that of taking LSD. But as more young girls got sick, the tension among the community grew stronger and the witch hunts began. The young girls naively pointed the blame at various women in their community and people with different religious views, people who defied the social norms and people of different ethnicities were damned to death.
Stories just like this one were found in all corners of the globe, women who don’t conform to the social normalities or don’t fit with the white-village conservative stereotype were outcast. ‘Witch’ was a term used to oppress, outcast and condemn women for centuries, attempts to control women have been disguised as crackdowns on witchcraft. This left the craft to be conducted in the shadows and very little information about it’s origins is known, its history is untraceable to one single culture and origin. But now the secret’s out and women from many different cultures, backgrounds and locations are using witchcraft to empower themselves and encourage self-love.
For many women, simply self-identifying as a witch — — is a form of activism. Unsurprisingly, many men still fear these strong, self-loving women standing up for what they believe in and try to diminish their power. The term ‘witch-hunt’ is still used against women in 2020, the US President has used the term in his tweets 337 times since his inauguration — mainly to reference the #MeeToo movement.
Modern witchcraft has drawn in people from all walks of life, such as; women, people of colour, and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Communities that have been oppressed by the elite of societies want to look for different channels to either disengage from harsh realities and show themselves care through the practise or they want to overtly use witchcraft to help improve their situations — for example, a quick Google lists off many spell books giving insight on how to hex capitalist organisations or sharing spells to protect reproductive rights.
The ideals of the teenage witch have been shared in pop-culture for decades, cult-classics like ‘The Craft’ and ‘Sabrina The Teenage Witch’ are being re-imagined and brought to a new generation. The young girls experiencing the world right now need powerful role models, showing them alternative ways to fulfil their needs and desires.
“Both boys and girls can be badly wounded by traditional Christian or Anglo-American gender roles, especially if they’re queer or trans or otherwise ill-fitting to those roles. Magic is an unofficial shortcut to a feeling of spiritual power and belonging when legitimate methods have been closed off to you, and that happens to girls more often and more traumatically than boys in our culture. But I think that magic appeals to a lot of people who feel like they’re out of place in their local religious or social landscape. I don’t think Christian rituals (broadly speaking) serve young people very well, and I don’t think they serve young girls well in particular, which is another reason why young people find ways to fulfil their ritual needs elsewhere. There are so few formal, public rituals that recognise and affirm girls.” — Ayşe Tuzlak
The broad interpretation that encompasses witchcraft leaves the witch to decide how she will use the craft to enhance her life. Witchcraft is about freedom and power. Diminishing a woman to simply the word ‘witch’ used to be a symbol of oppression, now we’ve taken the word and changed the meaning. A witch is now a symbol of strong female power, especially in the face of the violent, misogynistic backlash. A witch is a self-loving and empowered human being who knows her worth and isn’t afraid to stand up against injustice.
Going forward, (and I say this knowing that it’s impossible to encompass the feelings of an entire generation of ‘witches’) as long as there is a hierarchical power structure in place that systematically excludes certain groups of people, those groups of people will look to other places for fulfilment. While traditional power structures continue to systematically oppress people, there will be people fighting back. While there are people looking for alternative routes to happiness, self-love, friendship, power, religion, self-acceptance, and even simply distraction from daily life, witchcraft will be there.
A witch is a survivor and witchcraft is a means of survival in a world that does not always value your life — Anne Theriault
