Gender Essentialism in the Pagan Community

broomclosetedalix:

irishkitchenwitch:

irishkitchenwitch:

I’ve been a pretty happy member of the pagan community even
if I mostly use the term polytheist to describe myself. I’m solitary (in
religious practice and personality) but I’ve been lucky enough to meet some
other pagans and talk with them online.

I was probably first drawn to paganism in my late teens
because of the positive female aspects to the faith and practise in most
circles. As a feminist and someone who had had bad experiences with men in my
life, it definitely added to the appeal.

But as I got older I started to see problems facing
transgender and non-binary pagans. The rhetoric and ritual of so much paganism was
so rooted is essentialist understandings of gender. In seeking to
anthropomorphise balance and duality in creation many pagans gave in the same
narrow-thinking as that of establishment religions.

Nature is full of fluidity and change. Any naturalistic
religion should be the same. Many people who come to paganism have had negative
experiences in other faith groups and maybe society as a whole. A lot of pagans
like to think that they are much more open-minded and accepting than, for
example Christians, but that is not always the case.

Bringing this back again as I see a series of posts making different PLANTS masculine or feminine (like the whole species not through pollination)

Herbal gender essentialism is some of the weirdest. 

as a nonbinary witch, posts like these are great!!

you don’t have to be a girl, a boy, or anything specifics to be a witch. If you think you’re a witch, you are. 

That’s my opinion.