Thursday 27 October 2022

Cackle cackle

 So here I sit, rubbing my hands in their tatty fingerless gloves, my cat hissing by the bubbling cauldron, and all the while cackling as my evil plan to transgenderify innocent youth takes shape. Another sweet-faced youngster appears in my crystal ball, his trusting eyes and placid demeanour signalling like a beacon that here is one who will be easy to corrupt, and, with a bound, I am on my broomstick and away to transform him into a girl ... hee hee hee! ha ha ha! cackle cackle - up away into the night where bats flap and owls hoot their complicit glee. And, as midnight chimes a new transgender emerges (...and scurries in high heels to the postbox and back!)

Well, as transphobes would have it, that's what I and all my trans friends do all the time. Because, you know, it's so easy to turn someone trans, you just pressurise them into it and then they're caught in a deliberately set trap of confusion and lies. Oh how wicked the transgender agenda is! 

Being wicked is fun! (Where's my pointy hat gone, though?)

 

But seriously, folks! Gimme a break! This age-old need for nasty people to find a target for their malice has now latched onto the trans community. It won't last and the public is actually more focused on rather more pressing matters, like how to pay the bills, and not get nuked. 

I guess the idea of witches is on my mind as we approach Halloween. There's a village not so far from where I live called Triora (pop. 369) where 'witches' were put on trial in the 1580s accused of having caused a famine. The priest asked his parishioners to denounce any wicked witches who might be bringing down the famine and eventually thirty women (and just one male, a boy) were imprisoned in local barns and cellars. An increasingly farcical series of trials with ever more senior magistrates ensued, especially as women of higher social status started to be implicated, resulting in the women - at least the ones who hadn't died of torture or suicide - being eventually taken to the capital, Genoa, where their fate is uncertain but it's more likely than not that they were quietly released, the local lynch-mob hysteria not being compatible with the rather better managed legal system of the capital and the more enlightened ideas of the High Renaissance. Modern scholarship suggests the food scarcity that brought about the accusations was probably caused by mismanagement of harvests and general meanness on the part of local landowners. Nevertheless, the witch trials have given this village a reputation rather like that which Salem, Massachusetts, got a century later. Triora is gearing up for its annual witch spectacular this weekend. Maybe I should go along and transform a few kids into transgender youth. Hey, it's the modern legend.

Triora today
 

If you are having some party time this Halloweentide, have fun. You're even allowed to crossdress and nobody minds. See, that's the wicked witches at work again!

Sue x


10 comments:

  1. Lol the whole Trans panic thing is so ridiculous, and is exactly the same thing homophobes used back in the day, but sadly it works on a few ideologically minded people who seem very driven to act on the lies and paranoia. It takes over their lives, alienates them from their loved ones, and that only convinces them more that they are in the right... anyway...

    I hope you have a lovely, fun Halloween! x

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    1. Thank you. I quite agree and the ideology and paranoia that drives the family I grew up in is something else! You can't get through to them. Sue xx

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  2. Don't listen to Sue's corrupting spell! I only came here to hear about Italy and she's got me on the turn, dressing up, doubting who I am. It's all her fault and you can prove that because I've been trans-something-or-other since before my teens (the 70s) and we only met in the 2000s. Impossible you might say, but her corrupting transification can reach back through time. 😉

    -ahem-

    Your open paragraphs did make me chuckle, thank you for that. It is - and going back to your point about haters - almost the same nonsense said about LGB people. "If kids hear about gayness, they'll all be doing it." No, that's the backpack dance and TikTok, not sexuality, FFS. 😋

    You may need to Google this, but I seem to recall a research study into modern moral panics and the parallels with the Witch legends. Typically, the 'bad guys' are looking to corrupt younger folk (roleplayers, heavy metal, computer games, horror films, LGBTQ folk, Morris dancers - ignore that last one 😉). Then there's "they're coming for your children" BS, such as the Pizzagate urban myth, politicos harvesting biological materials to stay young, and we're back to witches eating kids legends.

    Humans, they're quite easy to manipulate.... once you use the right magic words 😉

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    1. Thanks, Lynn. A lot of psychologists and biologists are working on the issue of how humans are manipulated by propaganda. Indeed, my regular science mag has a 150-page supplement this month specifically on disinformation, which is the bane of our time as it is disseminated so easily. Once upon a time left-handers were regarded as wilfully perverse; now no-one thinks twice about it. I think it will eventually be the same for trans people - it's just a quirky thing nature does and don't worry about it - but there's a lot of dirt to wade through first. Sue xx

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    2. You do need to watch out for Morris dancers though. Especially the ones with horns and horse skulls. (I still find that image of the Mari Llywd rather scary). Almost as bad as bell-ringers.

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    3. I'm a left hander too. And I rather pride myself on being wilfully perverse.

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    4. OK, Susie, you're in the club! Sue xx

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  3. Lovely photo of you Sue. I love the dress too, especially with the sheer top underneath. Interesting story about the witches of Triora, thanks for sharing it with us.

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    1. Thanks, Lotte. The dress and accessories were wonderful to wear. There's more about them here: https://suerichmond.blogspot.com/2011/10/hell-bunny-dress.html Sue xx

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    2. I had a look at the link and I must say that is indeed a lovely dress. I can see why you had to have it Sue.

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