Broken sex

Was this body made to taste things?

„I was made to taste a Vanilla Latte“, my witch giggles into the sunrise one morning.
„I was made to taste this raspberry banana cupcake“, I respond.

Bodies can sense so many things.
Some on the outside, like the summer rain in a stormy night.
Some on the inside, as the result of things touching the soul.

Bodies can feel pain. Bodies can feel pain too much for a mind to comprehend.
And most importantly, we tend to think we live in a world that announced the goal to not have bodies exposed to this kind of pain anymore.

So was my body made to keep its integrity and feel whole then?

My witch is impressed. „That sounds like a cool idea about being alive!“
It sure does.
„But I don‘t know“, I explain to her. „I always feel as if a lot of people expect this body to feel more pain than my mind wants to take.“
As I have described more detailed in my recent discussion on my uterus, Layla and I share the wish to not be determined by this part of our body, and the argument for that is, you could have, guessed a very historical one.

So, looking back historically, reducing a human being to this part of their body leads into the gloomy beginning of the legendary witch hunts in Europe.
When reading Malleus Maleficarum, the most and best described effects of witchcraft concern procreation. As soon as there is the slightest dysfunction around sex, a witch has to be found. They mess with the business of life and therefor cause a miscarriage, cause erectile dysfunction, and even steal babies to cook them and eat them!

To understand this myth, the collective memory of the time this book was written in has to be understood. It was written in the 15th century. The generation still alive had mostly not witnessed the black death shocking Europe themselves, and certainly no one who had survived the famines earlier in the 14th century was still around, but this century happened in the shadow of these memories. Life appeared fragile, and the end of the world seemed possible, if not already taking place!
The consequences of this disaster were not just dark memories of great losses. The losses were visible. The losses in population caused the economic system to reshape. It caused workforce to be weakened and whole areas to struggle sustaining themselves.

Viewing it under this perspective, it is not a big surprise that the issue of giving birth suddenly became so much more sensitive. The survival of the world was in questions.

…And so, the whole responsibility was placed onto this one organ only half of a population is equipped with? Sounds crazy, right?

But this is one core feature of the witching myth.
A witch is not functioning with all of her body and soul for this one goal.
A witch is a body that exists without producing what is asked by the world.
A body that just exists, and lives and feels.

And why does this matter?
Because, we live in a time in which the right of a body to just exist and live and feel is still being fought for and still in question. The struggles to get an abortion, and to save yourself from a traumatic body experience you are not ready for yet, and the voices denying transsexual people their identity and physical integrity are just some of these terrifying examples.
Not being forced to take pain your mind is not ready to comprehend is a basic human right.
Being granted your identity and physical form to be able to live is a basic human right.
All of these examples are voices and actions against a body that just is, exists and senses and feels without functioning and producing in the expecting way.
A witch is a broken sex, which is freed from any expectations.

And anyone today defining people‘s identity and duty by their existing or non-existing uterus is using argumentation from a time when a body that just exists and senses and feels without reproducing was burned.

Remember that the next time someone keeps you from being you and enjoying yourself!
“Your wealthy uncle with a mustache complaining about your purple hair, your mother asking to finally get grandchildren”, my witch giggles, ” they all do follow this old believe of making use of your body for a greater goal, and they have no right to so.”

But we within our bodies have the right to be, and exist, and sense and feel!

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Behringer, W., Jerouschek, G., Kramer, H, und Tschacher, W. (2000). Der Hexenhammer. Dtv: München.
Decker, F. (2003). Die Päste und die Hexen. Primus: Darmstadt.
Federici, S. (2004). Caliban and the witch. Women, the body and primitive accumulation. Automedia: NY.