Lately I’ve noticed a very interesting phenomenon gracing the online community.  It seems not a week goes by where I don’t see a post or two with a meme that reads “Blessed Be, the male witch” or “A witch is a witch, regardless of gender”.  While I don’t necessarily use the label myself these days, I did back in the day.  Like many who join the pagan path one of my first forays into the occult (especially in the early 90’s) was through Wicca and/or Witchcraft. 

I think what fascinates and worries me is the backslide the community seems to be taking with regards to this.  Not only do I see these memes, but there’s an unfortunate subset of people within the community who now actively dissuade men from using the word to identify themselves.  I recently had an interaction with a woman who straight up refused to call men witches.  She refused to go into details as to why this was, only to say she wasn’t “raised using that term for men”. 

Personally I see this argument as bordering on ridiculous seeing as many of us (especially old farts like me) weren’t raised with a whole bunch of terms we label people with today.  For me, some of the terms I was raised with, that were appropriate in the day, are now considered offensive.   Full disclosure here, I’m honestly not big on identity politics.  I don’t toss pronouns in my bio and I try to avoid, what I call, over-labeling shit.  That said, I also have zero issue with folks who do.  We’re all one big diverse melting pot, and that’s cool with me.  I also don’t use being raised a certain way as an excuse to crap on people.  If a term is considered offensive by members of a culture or ethnicity, I’ll certainly do my best not to use it.

The thing I find so ironic about this whole thing is that the word “witch” was, in no way, a gendered term when I started several decades back.  There were no arguments among the wider community, and there was certainly no need to validate being both male, and a witch.  It simply wasn’t a thing.  It’s like people have forgotten the likes of Gerald Gardner, Raymond Buckland and Scott Cunningham.  All men, all witches, and all are widely considered to be at the forefront of the modern Wicca/Witchcraft revival.  I mean, the first book I’d ever read was big and blue and titled Buckland’s Complete Guide to Witchcraft.  You’d be surprised how many other folks regardless of gender also started out with the book.

Long story short, witch is ABSOLUTELY gender neutral and it has been for nearly a century, if not longer.  I’m not sure why this has become a point of contention in recent years, but we live in interesting times.   If you disagree with this opinion, that’s fine.  Just remember sexism goes both ways in some instances, and like it or not, your refusal to address male witches as such, is indeed sexist.