Documentary on Teen Wiccans.
Part One.
This is an interesting documentary, but it’s not without serious problems. It perpetuates the myth that a modern witch = Wiccan. All of the girls on the episode identified as Wiccan, and the hostess often used the terms Wicca, Wiccan, and witch as if they were interchangeable. In reality, Wicca is a religion in which witchcraft plays a role, but it’s far from the only religion that involves witchcraft - and witchcraft doesn’t necessarily require a religion to practice.
All of the teens were female, which perpetuates the myth that Wicca/neopaganism is a ‘girl thing.’
The hostess tries to link modern interest in witchcraft to fiction like Harry Potter, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Twilight. Wait, what? What does Twilight have to do with witches?
She also says that Halloween has its origins in Wicca. Um, no. Wicca is only about 60 years old. She also says that “witches call Halloween ‘Samhain’,” which implies that Halloween is the default holiday and Samhain is the offshoot. In fact, Samhain was celebrated first. The term “Halloween” stems from “All Hallows Eve,” the day that preceeds the Catholic All Saints Day, which was created as the moral substitute for the pagan holiday of Samhain.
While it’s important that people come to understand that modern witches aren’t evil Satan worshipers, it’s really sad that what little portrayal we do get ends up so inaccurate and wrong. This kind of thing actually hurts us more than it helps us because people will be put off Wicca and Wicca-derived religions when they find out they’ve been lied to and that the “horrible” truth is that the “old religion” is only about 60 years old and was plagiarized from *le gasp* Aleister Crowley.
