Hex Appeal

[dreamer_easy]

Heh. The SMH's Spike column nailed the downside for women of the popularisation of witchcraft:
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Ladies, forget feminism. It seems all you need to succeed in life these days is a few nifty spells. A copy of a new book, Hex Appeal: Seductive Spells for the Sassy Sorceress, landed on the Spike desk yesterday, and boy did it make for some interesting reading. Did you know that if you want to make your man call you, all you have to do is light incense, carve an arrow into a candle and recite the following: "Hear my will, I am in your heart, I am in your mind, I am in your thoughts, you need to call me, you want to call me, you will call me," nine times. Or then again you could just call him. The book also advises how to stop men falling asleep after sex, curb a boyfriend's bad habits, and turn an ex into a toad. Very useful.
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Wicca and Paganism can teach women the confidence to find and use power, but it can also divert us into games of powerlessness. Spells, like prayer, are only part of achieving your goals - as in the familiar story of the chap on the roof of the flooded house who refuses rescue because God will save him, or the oft-quoted Buttprints in the Sand.

Comments

[barrington.livejournal.com]

Not wanting to start anything nasty, but I'm curious: most Wiccans and Pagans I know despise Fiona Horne. What's your opinion? Has she done more harm or good for Wicca?

(I found an interview with her via a Vampire web site (roleplaying game...yes, yes, move along) at www.bitememagazine.com (http://www.bitememagazine.com), though the site was doen when I wrote this.)

[barrington.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...it would seem you've answered my question above, though without your usual eloquence. ;)

Actually you might want to read the interview on the site above, when it's available; she talks about the Playboy spread and why and how she did it.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

You know, in a context which *wasn't* selling her arse as wank material for a bunch of sexist old guys, it could've been a really interesting shoot. Wouldn't have been as lucrative though. I go euw when my religion is used to provide mere naughty exoticism. Horne is hardly the first to do that, though - sexy "omg nude covens!" books are a dime a dozen in any second hand book shop; the Playboy shoot is just part of a long tradition of exploitation. It's a challenge for Wicca trying to be pro-sex *and* pro-woman when there's so much anti-woman commercialised sex out there - trying to disentangle sexuality from sexism. Horne ain't helping by dropping trou for Hefner. That said, you have to hope the shallow end of Neo-Pagan culture, the endless money-making Books of Shadows, has a chance of leading a few people to the stuff that they need, that could change their lives.

Must get back to writing my best-selling Celtic Crystal Angels for Health, Wealth, and Success.

[alryssa.livejournal.com]

I'm TELLING you, woman. You'll make shedloads off that thing.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

It's going to tie in to my epic fantasy trilogy in 700 books, the Ormaniad.

[alryssa.livejournal.com]

But not before the opus that is the Deleriad!

...erm. I think I need sleep.