The Sluts are at the Slots

Yes, we know we've been neglecting Evil Slutopia this week. We were preparing for our trip to VEGAS for the BlogWorld Expo and now that we're here, we've just been way too busy at the conference drinking and gambling to blog much yet.

We'll try to live blog some of the most informative sessions this weekend... oh... who are we kidding? We'lll be lucky if we can pull ourselves away from the slot machines long enough to even go to one of the sessions. We have to keep reminding ourselves that this is a business trip and not just a Vegas vacation!

Wookie Monster

We're so happy to introduce our newest guest blogger, Dinah.

Dinah was a daughter of Jacob who sold her into marriage with a Canaanite prince. Her brothers claimed the prince had defiled her and killed every man in the city, including Dinah's new husband. There was even debate amongst the brothers and Dinah's father about whether or not Dinah should be put out as a harlot. No one ever asked if Dinah was really raped, she was just an excuse to pillage a city and was still blamed for being a whore simply because she was there and a woman.

Our Dinah is a US Marine, a published author and has a B.A. in Political Science. She is active duty so she's probably not really supposed to be writing something like this, but we're glad she is! We know there must be other military women reading our blog who can relate to her and non-military women will appreciate her perspective of a woman in a "man's world".



Since the ladies of Evil Slutopia decided to reclaim the word “slut,” I feel inspired to reclaim “Wookie Monster.”

What is a “Wookie Monster,” you ask? Wookie Monster is my favorite variation on the acronym “WM”- Woman Marine. Also popular is “Walking Mattress,” because everyone knows females Marines are sluts.

The image of a Wookie Monster is fabulous: big, hairy, grunting and growling and good with a gun. I am neither big nor hairy, though I do growl when angered and am very good with a gun.

“Wookie Monster” is a term of derision for female Marines, though very few have the testicular fortitude to say it to a woman’s face. Even Han Solo knows you don’t want to piss off a Wookie.

In fact, very few ignorant a-holes use this term in any situation that is not playful mockery.

On that note, you should also know that Marines abuse each other. It’s a sign of affection, really. Verbal, physical and emotional abuse tells us we’re loved. If you see a bunch of Marines having a good time, they’re probably making fun of and/or hitting each other.

But then there’s that one jerk, or sometimes a whole group of jerks, who really means it when he says “Wookie.” This person really does believe that all females in the Marine Corps are big, hairy and promiscuous.

As the ladies of this blog have pointed out, it’s not just men who jump on the slutshaming bandwagon. It’s very often other women who hate on their own kind.

“You don’t look like other woman Marines!” exclaimed the wide-eyed wife of an infantry Marine I had the displeasure of meeting recently. 1. “Woman Marine” is outdated. Catch up, sister. 2. Did you mean any other female Marine you know?  I’m pretty certain Marines come from all backgrounds and walks of life, and there are thousands of females in the Corps. Have you seen pictures of all of them? And I really don’t look like ANY other female in the Corps? Wow, I’m special!

“What does a female Marine look like?” I shot back with the special belligerence all Marines learn in boot camp.

The woman faltered a little, probably realizing just how insulting that statement was. “Well … I know this one and she has the short hair and is a lesbian.”

That’s my favorite. You know one female Marine and suddenly you know them all. That is like me (all blonde hair blue eyed Western European-ness) approaching an African American woman and saying, “You don’t look anything like the other blacks!” Are you offended yet?

I did not realize when I signed the contract to enlist that I was supposed to have short hair and be a lesbian. My bad. I guess that means I’m not being a good Wookie.

This lovely lady also told me later, as she inserted herself into a conversation that did not include her, that I should be used to being called a “Wookie.” I wanted to know if she was used to being called a lazy bon-bon eating breeding machine, but I don’t think it’s fair to stereotype anyone, even Marine spouses. That and I’m pretty sure she would have cried.

So, I’m reclaiming what it means to be a Wookie. Turns out, I am hairy - I have long blonde hair that makes me basically in disguise whenever I take it out of its uptight bun. I am not huge, but I carry the same god awful heavy gear as the Marines who weigh 200 lbs. I have sex when I chose with whomever I chose, so I guess that makes me a slut, too. I growl when no other noise will sufficiently express my anger. (I can’t make that cool Wookie noise though.)

I am strong and beautiful and yes, a Marine. I refuse to believe being a Wookie is a bad thing. I have accomplished things as a Marine that would make a grown man cry and I can still pull off wearing a designer dress with the best of them.

It takes one hell of a strong woman to earn the title: Wookie Monster.

Cosmo Quickie: PostSecret

[via PostSecret]

Getting Ready for Vegas

So we realized that our trip to Vegas is in less than two weeks now, so it's time for us to start procrastinating and start planning. We've never been there before so we're doing some research and collecting tips from people that we know who have been there.

A lot of our time is going to be spent attending the BlogWorldExpo conference. We're excited about that, of course, but we also want to make sure we make the most of our free time. The conference is at Mandalay Bay this year, so we'll probably spend a lot of time there and at the surrounding hotels and casinos. We're not really big gamblers, but...it's Vegas! We've got to do some gambling.

Basically we want to make sure we have two things - the 'only in Vegas' experiences and our usual 'only the ESC' experiences. Sometimes we can combine the two. Like, we wanted to see a Cirque du Soleil show, so we decided to go with Zumanity, which is described as "the sensual side of Cirque du Soleil" and "part burlesque and part cabaret". We also want to check out the Las Vegas area gay scene. Even though we're not gay, we feel like we can usually find 'our people' there. It's a strategy that usually works for us in New York City and always works at BlogHer - the coolest people are always at the Queerosphere - so we're going to stick with it in Vegas too. We found a site that has a lot of tips and info for gay travel, which has been helpful in planning for a scene that we're not familiar with. Our list of stuff to maybe do also includes a strip club and an all-you-can-eat buffet, because...well, we're us.

So who has some Vegas tips for us? We're up for almost anything, so tell us where to go, where to eat and drink, and what we should see and do.

Witch Quickie: Senator Dick Durbin's Email Fail

I recently wrote about the Wiccan community's response to Republican Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell's ignorant comments about witchcraft. Well, apparently it's a trend, and now it's Senator Dick Durbin's turn.

Veronica from Viva La Feminista caught this line in a recent email sent out by Senator Durbin's office:

Across Illinois and across America, millions of voters are ready to hear a call to gather and fight the witches and wingnuts who worship Sarah Palin, stand in awe of Glenn Beck, and arrogantly profess to speak for our future.

Wingnuts may "worship" Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck, but witches most definitely do not. Selena Fox of the Circle Sanctuary has described the pagan community as "multi-partisan", but considering that witches revere nature and believe in the divine feminine, I don't think that there are tons of hardcore Palin/Beck supporters in the group. As Veronica put it:

I'm sure that there must be Republican witches (I think the Wicked Witch was one) out there, but for the most part, the witches/pagans/wiccans I have met are all open-minded liberals if not radically lefty. We might not be the biggest religious group out there, but we do take offense to being liken to something to be defeated, especially, for me, to radical right wingers who don't believe in women's rights, evolution or caring for their fellow human being.

Go read the rest of her post: Senator Durbin I'm betting that most witches are Democrats.

Recent Posts From ESC TV

Here are some recent posts from ESC TV:

Hellcats!

 

We watched and reviewed the first two episodes of the CW's new show Hellcats.

 

Selena Gomez at a bar (and why I watch the Disney channel)

 

File this one under 'Dumb Things Guys Say'.

The Vampire Diaries: Your Refresher Course

Our guide to The Vampire Diaries Season 1... catch up in time for Season 2.

The Vampire Diaries: Season 2

 

Review and recap of the first two episodes of the new season of The Vampire Diaries.

The Gates: Sucking less, but still sucking

Our review of The Gates Season Finale: It sucked less than the premiere, but still sucked.

The Vampire Diaries' Kat Graham Covers Paula Abdul

Bonnie from The Vampire Diaries covers Paula Abdul's "Cold Hearted Snake".

Making Fun of Fat People: Mike & Molly

We watched and counted all the unfunny fat jokes. Long list for a show that's supposedly 'not about weight'.

Re-Run Celebrity Spotting on The Ghost Whisperer

It's Margaret Cho!

Wiccan Community Responds to Christine O'Donnell's Ignorance

If you follow politics at all, you're familiar with Christine O'Donnell, the Tea Party-backed candidate who recently pulled off an upset victory in the Republican Senate primary in Delaware. She's gotten a ton of press coverage thanks to her unexpected win and her views, which range from extreme to ridiculously extreme to extremely ridiculous.

O'Donnell is anti-choice, anti-contraception, and anti-masturbation, believes that homosexuality is an "identity disorder", has claimed that condoms don't stop the spread of AIDS, once argued that letting women attend military academies "cripples the readiness of our defense", believes that American companies "are cross-breeding humans and animals and coming up with mice with fully functioning human brains", has said that President Obama is anti-American because he's so liberal, and once said of a trip she took to the Middle East that "it was refreshing not to be constantly bombarded with smut all the time". (See Think Progress' The Old Adventures of New Christine for more.)

A few days ago, Bill Maher released a clip of an appearance that Christine O'Donnell made on his show in 1999, during which she talked about having "dabbled in witchcraft". Here's the clip and the relevant quotes, via Think Progress:

O’DONNELL: I dabbled into witchcraft — I never joined a coven. But I did, I did. … I dabbled into witchcraft. I hung around people who were doing these things. I’m not making this stuff up. I know what they told me they do...One of my first dates with a witch was on a satanic altar, and I didn’t know it. I mean, there’s little blood there and stuff like that. …We went to a movie and then had a midnight picnic on a satanic altar.

A few days after this clip surfaced, O'Donnell tried to play down the comments by saying, "How many of you didn’t hang out with questionable folks in high school?"

Obviously O'Donnell is the type of candidate that comedians dream of, but joking aside, her comments are ignorant, incorrect, and potentially harmful. So I wanted to highlight some of the responses to this incident that have come from the Wiccan community.


Witch Says Christine O'Donnell is Confused About Witchcraft: Despite O'Donnell's 1999 Confession, Real Witches Don't Worship Satan or Hold Dates on Altars With Blood [ABC News. Emphasis mine. And I will say that I do kinda love the fact that this is now a real news headline that exists.]

"It leads me to believe she's making it up completely out of whole cloth with poor information," said Sylvia T. Webb, the first officer of the Covenant of the Goddess, a national non-profit organization. Comments like O'Donnell's, she said, are "bizarre" and contribute to misinformation about the religion.

...Webb scoffed at O'Donnell's claims. "It's very hard to worship something you do not believe in and Satan is a Christian concept," she said. "Wiccans don't have Satanic altars."

...they do have altars, but "there would be no blood," Webb said. "She might have had a date with some ... want-to-be goth child who was into thinking he was Satanic or something," Webb said. "There are a lot of misinformed young people trying to be wild."

In reality, Wicca is a denomination of Paganism, a religion that pre-dates Christianity.

Jim Lewis, a leading expert on new religious movements, wrote in an e-mail to ABCNews.com that while it's true many young people "dabble" in witchcraft and other neo-pagan beliefs as teenagers, the second part of O'Donnell's claim "is sensationalistic exaggeration."

"The stereotype of blood-sacrificing Satanists has been thoroughly debunked by mainstream scholars," he wrote. "Additionally, talking about neo-Pagans and Satanists as if they're part of the same movement is completely inaccurate. In fact, they actively dislike each other."

No ancient Wiccan texts were ever recorded, Webb said, but modern Wicca was believed to have been born in the early to mid-20th century.

"Most of us are proud to be called witches," Webb said, although she said some shy away from that term because of the negative connotation. "To me it is a title of wisdom and one who shapes through will."

Wiccan Community Upset With O'Donnell, Calls Witchcraft Comments 'Teaching Moment' [Huffington Post. Emphasis mine.]

"Yes, this was 11 years ago she said that," said Reverend Selena Fox, the High Priestess & Senior Minister of the Circle Sanctuary a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting paganism and nature spirituality. "But the kinds of things she is saying now, saying 'well in high school you are with despicable characters' or some such thing, she is actually defaming Wiccans. Whether she intends to do that or not as a way to try and get herself out of this political problem she has created for herself, the fact is America really needs to be a place where you can celebrate diversity and practice your religion without getting ridiculed or defamed."

Fox, who has been active in fighting anti-Wiccan measures in Congress and the military for the past 25 years, showcased a bit of political deftness when she diplomatically called O'Donnell's candidacy a "teaching moment" for the country. Debates over religious tolerance, she offered, have been shrouded recently in heated political rhetoric. And there was now growing concern among both she and members of her organization that "there will be more ridicule as well as more misinformation" about Wiccans and witchcraft because of O'Donnell's remarks.

"Any political candidate that is going to equate witchcraft with Satanism is ill informed and is not likely to get the support of people involved in nature religion," she said, noting that the pagan community was "multi-partisan."

"I'm concerned," she said. "I'm concerned that 25 years of work that the Lady Liberty League and other Wiccan and pagan civil rights and religious freedom groups have been involved in... that there will be more misinformation as well as ridicule and disrespect. We are living in politically turbulent times."

Wiccan: GOP candidate's witchcraft dabbling a teachable moment [CNN Belief Blog. Emphasis mine.]

“It’s an opportunity to get some correct information out there. That’s how I see it,” says [Selena] Fox, who is the high priestess and senior minister of Circle Sanctuary, a Wiccan church near Barneveld, Wisconsin, that serves Pagans worldwide. “There’s comedy about it, hot debate about it, lots of pundits weighing in. But one of the things that really hasn’t gotten through is how ridicule and defamation can harm people.”

...Pagan, she explains, is the “umbrella term for nature religion practices with roots in Old Europe.” Wiccans represent one branch of Paganism, as do Druids and Heathens, for example, she says. Fox, who was raised Southern Baptist, explains her beliefs this way:

We honor the Divine as a goddess and god, as well as a great oneness and a multiplicity. We celebrate the cycles of the sun and seasons. … We honor the five elements of nature: earth, air, fire, water and spirit. The circle that connects the five points [of the pentacle star, a symbol used by Pagans] represents the greater circle of nature that we’re part of, love and wholeness. … We honor ancestors and seek to live in harmony not only with other humans but with nature.

And, she insists, she and other Pagans do not recognize or speak of Satan. Some people within the nature religions are trying to take back the words “witch” and “witchcraft,” but she says others stay away from such terms because of the continued misconceptions....

"America, as a whole, needs to be aware that nature religion practitioners are part of the religious diversity in this country," she said.

Witches Blast O'Donnell [The Daily Beast. Emphasis mine.]

"The old nature religions of Europe were persecuted for hundreds of years," [Selena Fox] said, "and part of a tactic for suppressing the pagan practices of old was to label them Satanic or demonic."

For some, old habits die hard: Senator Jesse Helms tried to rob Wiccan churches of their tax-exempt status in 1985, while Rep. Bob Barr wanted to outlaw Wiccan services on military bases in 1999. According to Ivo Dominguez Jr., the owner of what he calls a “metaphysical general store” in Dover, Delaware, O’Donnell’s dabbling with witchcraft is really just another window into her Christian beliefs. “Basically, you have to be a Christian to believe in Satanism because you have to believe in the Devil,” he said. “So I think probably it was a bunch of teens that decided to do a pastiche of too many bad movies... It has nothing to do with witchcraft and paganism.”

Not all of Delaware’s politicians are as out of touch with the faith as O’Donnell. “There are probably more pagans in Delaware than Unitarians,” Dominguez said. Each year, the Delmarva Pagan Pride Festival draws several hundred Wiccans and other pagans to Dover from Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. “In past years, we have had politicians or parties show up at Pagan Pride Day with politicians wearing buttons and handing out stickers.”

“Our current governor came to a meet-and-greet that he knew ahead of time was going to be mostly Wiccan or pagan,” said Dominguez. Questions for Gov. Jack Markell, who was then a candidate in the Democratic primary, were mostly about the environment. “There were no questions about will you appoint an openly pagan blah blah blah,” said Dominguez. “At this moment of history, that’s not where our community is.”

Dominguez said that the surfacing of O’Donnell’s past comments is particularly unfortunate for Wiccans because it comes near “our least favorite media cycle,” the run-up to Halloween. “My biggest concern is that we will be receiving negative depictions on one side from the people that traditionally don’t like us, which are folks that believe the only thing that is a valid spiritual path is a narrowly defined kind of Christianity, and on the other side people that are progressive that we would normally see as our friends but who will be using the witch angle as a way of attacking a conservative candidate.”

No matter how Democrats treat the issue, it seems unlikely that Wiccans will turn out for O’Donnell at the polls. “Her inability to separate anything non-Christian from Satanic is going to be an issue not just with her potential pagan constituents but with any other non-Christians or Christians of a flavor that does not match hers,” said Michael Smith, the Wiccan IT analyst who hosted the meet-and-greet the governor visited.

“A couple of my local politician friends say she’s losing the Wiccan vote,” said Dominguez. “Well, I said she never had the pagan vote for the most part to begin with.”

Real witchcraft deserves respect --not O'Donnell's dabbling [Washington Post On Faith blog. Emphasis mine. This was written by Starhawk, "a prominent voice in modern Wiccan spirituality and cofounder of reclaiming.org, an activist branch of modern Pagan religion, and author of ten books."]

Whatever Christine O'Donnell may have dabbled in, it wasn't Witchcraft. As someone who is openly and publicly a Witch myself and the only Witch who is a columnist for On Faith, I find myself in a dilemma. On the one hand, I feel a natural urge to respond to this issue--on the other hand, the fact that we're focusing on O'Donnell's bad date instead of the multiple urgent crises that beset us is a measure of just how low the level of political discourse has sunk. I'd really prefer not to contribute to it.

...So let me just say this--had O'Donnell really 'dabbled' in Witchcraft, she might have learned that the Craft, as we call it, or Wicca as some prefer, is a remnant of the pre-Christian indigenous traditions of Europe and the Middle East. Witches do not worship Satan--we consider the Devil to be a purely Christian construct. We see nature as sacred, and human beings as part of nature. Our spirituality does not require belief in things we can't see--but rather an attitude of respect, awe and wonder at the everyday miracles we can see, the great and common mysteries of birth, growth, death and regeneration in the fall of a leaf or the phases of the moon, in the cycles of our lives and the turning of the seasons.

O'Donnell might have learned that Witches see all of life as interconnected, that we are taught to respect other people, to treat one another with compassion, generosity and honor, to protect the earth and to live in balance with nature. We can only imagine how her life, her crusades and her politics might have been shaped by an early encounter with the Goddess, for whom the body is a temple, sexuality is a path of deep and sacred communion, and who tells us "all acts of love and pleasure are my rituals."

Witchcraft deserves the same respect accorded to any other spiritual tradition. And O'Donnell deserves the same respect as any other politician: that we judge them by their record, their abilities and their policies, not by stupid, offhand remarks they made decades ago.

O'Donnell didn't fare much better with actual Satanists, if this piece from CBS News is any indication:

Christine O'Donnell's "Witchcraft" Comments Rebuffed by Satanist

Some Wiccan leaders complained that witches do not believe in Satan. Diane Vera, the founder of a group called "NYC Satanists, Luciferians, Dark Pagans, and LHP Occultists" added today that O'Donnell's anecdote also misrepresents Satanists.

"As far as I am aware, no serious practitioner of any variant of either Wicca or Satanism would have a picnic on one's altar," Vera said in a press release.

Vera also cited a 1997 Washington Post op-ed O'Donnell wrote as head of the Savior's Alliance for Lifting the Truth (SALT). O'Donnell wrote about proselytizing to concert goers in the Washington area.

"Walking through the crowd I also noticed more pentagrams than crosses around the teenage necks," she wrote. "'Satanism is the religion of the '90s, I was told."

Vera responded that O'Donnell "has a tendency to confuse Satanism with not only Wicca but also rock fan culture."

There has been plenty of joking around about O'Donnell's views since her primary win, and much of it has centered around her comments about masturbation, but this witchcraft thing is now running a close second. I'm not saying that's all bad. You need a sense of humor to follow politics, especially these days. But it's also important to remember that a joke about witchcraft may be a joke about someone's religion, so sometimes it's worth taking a second to think about at whose expense you're really joking. At the same time, we need to deal with the fact that thousands of people in Delaware actually voted for Christine O'Donnell, and many more across the country are sending her money, endorsing her, and supporting her in at least some of her extreme views. And that's no laughing matter.