Contrasting cultures: the female witches are winning in San Francisco, but in Africa women are dying.
Yesterday I celebrated my wife’s birthday, and we went to see Wicked. This is a highly successful play, musical, it’s been to Broadway, and has many companies playing all over the globe.
I was so very pleasantly surprised.
Culturally speaking witches have gained a great friend in this play. The main characters are taken from the Wizard of Oz, before Dorothy drops in, and their struggle is about lookism, discrimination, friendship between girls. While there is a man involved who loved both young women, Glinda and Elphaba, ultimately he chooses the girl with the green face. The different one. Her character can be seen as a feminist character. She stands up for herself. She makes waves. And when she gets angry, she shakes the rafters. She makes the stars fall all over the scene, frightening even the great Wizard. This green girl liberates the flying monkeys, saves animals. She is obviously a woman of our times.
Glinda also learns not to rely only on her looks, and to be less shallow.
At the end, the part when the couples get together, wedding bells are absent. Nobody gets married. Certainly a new twist in musicals.
The green woman gets glorified into Goddess proportions. She is elevated to the top of the theater, strong lighting makes her look like an apparition from above and later, the two women hand-in-hand take their bows, while a hundred or so little girls in their own ruby slippers cheer them on.
I am talking about the images the positive messages these little girls absorb from this musical.
The main message is that best friends outrank boyfriends. Two women can be friends even if they are from different races, or families. The green woman is just as acceptable as the “normal” one. They need each other, and there is a lot of hugging as well.
Next the musical talks about how “good” people are kind to animals. But the most important message is, a witch’s powers used for positive goals is a blessing. You don’t see this message too often. The witch’s power in Wicked is celebrated.
Contrast this with the recent Oprah show where she exposed the plight of our sisters in Africa.
Nicholas Kristof, writer and activist, was the guest with his wife. His book Half the Sky is a best seller.
Here, on the other side of the earth, women are enslaved, beaten, raped, starved, denied medical attention when injured. All of the starving, still pregnant, women die in childbirth one every minute.
Orphans left behind get to be used in the sex slave trade. The sex trade is supported by western or wealthy males, selling and buying little children.
Hexes on pedophiles! Every dark Moon witches should send them a whammy.
What I didn’t hear much about was “who” is raping these women, who is knocking them up, withholding food from them, or any support. Who is frequenting the children’s brothels? Poverty creates a pedophile’s cheep paradise.
Oprah doesn’t like to say this, but the answer is “men.”
Women are ashamed to say that men are out of order, because we know so many real good humans. Many good men, yet they cannot change the way other men behave. Where is a movement of good men defending against violent men?
Islamic soldiers, Arab fighters on camels backs (Darfur), burning down their already impoverished homes, raping the women and children alike. Once a girl is raped, she is damaged goods, her own family abandons her. It’s a death sentence.
Oprah doesn’t like to say the negative things, naming names. She is Ms Positive. She was asking us to donate money via her website. We assume Mr. Kristof has given her the right contacts, so the money will go to the abused sisters. I trust Oprah more then anybody else on TV.
So I went and clicked on the “For All Women” registry. There I have taken on the support of a girl to go to school for at least a year. Get lunch, books and uniform. But 75 cents can get a little boy or girl dewormed. I dewormed my dogs regularly. If you have any heart, you’ll send money to these women; be part of the good guys.
Get the book Half the Sky read it, and pass it to your friends. Pagans must get involved in politics. Without our spells and money, change is slow and generations of mothers are wiped out.
The Goddess is alive in the lucky West, but she is barely alive in Africa. It will be a long time before they can see Wicked, and celebrate the female to female friendships. Or celebrate the power of righteous anger. Or that of spiritual liberation through study.
This Full moon my prayers go up to expose woman hating religions, take them down morally and financially.
Support the women who are surviving, let there be less orphans in the world.
Happy Yule to you all.
Christian and Lori are honored and excited to welcome Z. Budapest to Hex Education! Dianic Feminist Wicca Founder and Women’s Spirituality Movement Foremother, Z. Budapest is at the top of any Who’s Who list in the Craft. Her first book was The Feminist Book Of Light and Shadows, later retitled The Holy Book Of Women’s Mysteries. This was followed by The Grandmother of Time, Godmother Moon, and Goddess In The Office; at least one of these books is probably in your library! In 1974, she was arrested for fortune telling as a result of reading tarot cards, and that lead to her being the last person to be tried for witchcraft in the United States. This is a rare opportunity to hear from one of the true pioneers of the Craft!
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