Resistance: The Rise of Feminist Witchcraft

From organizing mass hexes to setting up witch-themed Etsy stores, the feminist movement and witchcraft are becoming increasingly entwined.

In an article this week, feminist and author Laurie Penny documented the “boom in online occultism” and why feminists are so attracted to witchcraft.

“Days after Donald Trump won the U.S. election, videos of women ‘hexing’ Trump went viral around the world, encouraging budding magical practitioners to burn images of the president-elect to bring his works to ruin,” reported Penny on Wednesday. “Meanwhile, an entire explosive industry of witch-paraphernalia is boiling out of the cauldron of digital consumer culture.”

“You can buy your crocheted bat-bunting and your broomstick-decals on Etsy, while a couple of clicks away anonymous web artisans peddle laptop stickers declaring the owner, with more or less accuracy, a daughter of the witches they weren’t able to burn,” she explained. “Commodification is usually a poisoned apple for movements like this, but there’s a proud legacy of re-purposing the witch-aesthetic for radical ends.”

The two scenes have become so intertwined that the term “witch” has even started to become synonymous with “feminist,” as online stores such as Witchsy sell feminist witch-themed goods.

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