Safe As Kittens: July 2015

1990s Teen Witches

The 1990s spawned an interest in teen witchcraft. Not that teenagers were actually boiling up bits of frog to create love positions (well, some may have) but TV and movie producers along with publishers had tapped a lucrative market to capture the interest of newly empowered teenage girls with an interest in wicca, pagan beliefs and witchcraft and who had money to spend.

So where exactly did this interest spring from?

Paganism can trace its roots back to at least the 4th century CE. Contemporary Paganism started in the 19th century and Wicca in the mid 20th century. Modern Paganism subsequently developed in the 1970's and into the early 1990's and is "a synthesis of historical inspiration and present-day creativity" (Wiki).

Feeding into the interest in modern Paganism was the Goddess Movement where the focus is female rather than male dominated.

These beliefs were given a much wider audience with the development of the internet in the 1990's providing access to information and contacts to those who had an interest in 'witchcraft' and were seeking to know more.

Something else happened in the early 1990's - Third-wave feminism. Third-wave feminism expanded on second-wave feminism and incorporated institutional gains and also changes in western societies mind-sets with regards to sexual equality. From this came 'Girl Power', first coined by the band Bikini Kill (part of the Riot grrrl movement) and subsequently taken up by the Spice Girls.

So in the early to mid '90's we have two powerful forces coming together; contemporary Paganism and Third-wave feminism. Add to this a potential audience of teenage girls (and some boys) with disposable cash and the medium of the internet to spread the word.
The time is now right to make some money.

Spell books and 'potions' hit shops early on. They were relatively inexpensive and a new teen witch could be up and running in no time. But the real money was to be made in movies and TV.

First on the scene was Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the movie) in 1992. This was a comedy horror about a cheerleader who discovers she is destined to be a vampire slayer.

Another 4 years passed until The Craft was released in May 1996. It's the story of 4 teenage witches living in LA; one of whom takes things a bit too far and goes bat-shit crazy. Worldwide this film grossed $55.6m.

In September of the same year Sabrina, the Teenage Witch hit US TV screens. It was the story of a 16 year old girl developing her magical powers. The series ran for 7 seasons and finished in 2003. Games, a live action movie and an animated series followed.

The series is based on the 1962 comic book:

From 1997 until 2003 the pre-eminent supernatural teen drama was Joss Whedons Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the series). Buffy Summers (played by Sarah Michelle Gellar) was one of a long line of Slayers chosen to battle vampires along with her circle of friends known as the Scooby Gang, most notable of which was Willow Rosenberg (played by Alyson Hannigan) who played a powerful witch.

Overlapping in time with Buffy was Charmed which ran from 1998 to 2006. The story followed 3 sisters (The Charmed Ones) who protected the innocent from evil beings.

Predating all of these, however, was the 1989 film Teen Witch which had elements of both The Craft and Sabrina which followed.

Sorry if I've missed any - if you know of any more leave a comment in the box below.

Prior to writing this post I really had no idea where the teen witch phenomenom had sprung from. I expect there are plenty of other influences as well that academics will be better informed about than me.

There's more information here:
http://www.teenwitch.com

You may also be interested in The New Generation Witches: Teenage Witchcraft in Contemporary Culture (Ashgate New Religions) by Hannah E. Johnston & Peg Aloi.
Unfortunately I wasn't able to consult it for this post as it costs about $90 and that was a bit too much to justify for one little blog post!

And finally here's the scene from The Craft that prompted me to research and write this post:

Catch You Later!

Friday 31 July 2015

We are the weirdos, mister