Becoming Dangerous: Witchy Femmes, Queer Conjurers, and Magical Rebels

The difference between the witch and the layperson is that witches already know they are powerful. The layperson may only suspect.Edgy and often deeply personal, the twenty-one essays collected here come from a wide variety of writers. Some identify as witches, others identify as writers, musicians, game developers, or artists. What they have in common is that they’ve created personal rituals to summon their own power in a world that would prefer them powerless. Here, they share the rituals they use to resist self-doubt, grief, and depression in the face of sexism, slut shaming, racism, patriarchy, and other systems of oppression.CONTENTS Introduction Notes from the Editors Content WarningUnfuckable—Cara EllisonTrash-Magic: Signs & Rituals for the Unwanted—Maranda ElizabethUncensoring My Ugliness—Laura MandanasFemme as in Fuck You: Fucking with the Patriarchy One Lipstick Application at a Time—Catherine HernandezBefore I Was a Woman, I Was a Witch—Avery EdisonUndressing My Heart—Gabriela HerstikGarden—Marguerite BennettReddit, Retin-A, and Resistance: An Alchemist’s Guide to Skincare—Sam MaggsThe Future is Coming for You—Deb ChachraMy Witch’s Sabbath of Short Skirts, Long Kisses, and BDSM—Mey RudeBuzzcut Season—Larissa PhamThe Harpy—Meredith YayanosFingertips—merrittRed Glitter—Sophie Saint ThomasTouching Pennies, Painting Nails—Sim BajwaRitual in Darkness—Kim BoekbinderGayuma—Sara DavidPushing Beauty Up Through the Cracks—Katelan FoisyRitualising My Humanity—J. A. MichelineSimulating Control—Nora KhanI Am, Myself, a Body of Water—Leigh AlexanderContributors Acknowledgements