60 Comments

I've been to the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in Boscastle - hopefully they never feel the need to be "inclusive" in that fashion... https://museumofwitchcraftandmagic.co.uk

Expand full comment

The heart studded with nails, I’ve never forgotten that!

Expand full comment

A dog’s heart with nine pins in it. Nothing spooky about that! 😱

Expand full comment

That is a great wee museum, was there a few years ago

Expand full comment

I came across it when I was on my bicycle, on the first part of a LEJOG (Land's End to John O'Groats). I was on a bit of a schedule, so couldn't spend long there, but it was a nice surprise. Boscastle is a really neat little village, especially how it's all down in a ravine with a Tudor-era port and all.

Expand full comment

I was there a year or two after the mud slide through the village, you could still see the height of it on the museum wall, it was my daughter who had wanted to go to it while on holiday from teh highlands cown to Cornwall, I just jnew it had a harbour so as a fisherman, I wanted to look at the local fishing boats (Its a fisherman thing lol) but really enjoyed the museum, went up to Tintagle in the afternoon, and was amazed by all these blind people walking up the steep cliffside steps

Expand full comment

Yeah, I want to go back to some of those places (when I'm in less of a hurry or don't have a bike with me) and explore some more. I stayed at a B&B in Tintagel as part of that trip, but didn't get to walk around the ruined castle. What did you think of the boats in Boscastle, then? And what were those blind people doing there? Were they part of some group?

Speaking of Tudor-era stuff, on that same trip I went through Symonds Yat - another nice place for a stop. Ever been there? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symonds_Yat

Expand full comment

Aye there was a group of them, I havemt a clue why they were there unless they were vision impaired but each person had someone telling them what they could see in the most descriptive words possible.

As for the boats, just what I expected from a small Cornish harbour, but I always enjoy seeing them anyway

Not been to Symonds Yat, was based not far from there when at the Army Apprentice College in Chepstow, had the Wye on one side, and the Severn on the other, the camp was just below the old Severn bridge, but will check that out this year as heading down at the end of June to Polperrro again, just love that wee village

Expand full comment

To be honest, I just took a glance at the starting page. Didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. What's wrong with it? Or did I just misunderstand your post as saying: Well, the museum in Scotland is fine, Boscastle is not?

Expand full comment

Hi there! I'm not sure what you're asking. Seems pretty clear (to me, anyway) what I posted. But I'll expound...

The initial post was about the creation of a witchcraft museum in Scotland, and how someone had commented about the need for "inclusivity". Since I had visited a witchcraft museum (not in Scotland, but in Boscastle), and that museum seemed focused on the experience (and persecution) of primarily women as regards the history of witchcraft in Britain, my comment was only that I hope that THAT museum didn't fall prey to pressure to be likewise more "inclusive".

Is that at all confusing?

Expand full comment

It wasn't entirely clear whom "they" referred to in this case, which allowed several interpretations. Hence my question.

Expand full comment

Since "the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in Boscastle" immediately preceded "they", i thought it was clear. In any case, hopefully it's clear now. :-)

Expand full comment

I'm befuddled by the exchange I've just read! It was clear clear clear clear clear. Clearly clear, oh so clear :-)

Expand full comment

*sings* I can see clearly now the rain is gone! ;-)

Expand full comment

Reminds me of men who invade the FGM discussion because it’s not “queer’ and “trans” inclusive. Nothing of women, not even their history or torture, is beyond revisionist “mansplaining”. Witch burning 2.0

Expand full comment

That is wrong. 14 women were killed for being women. And they ask a man to speak about when he was groped whilst wearing a red dress?

Expand full comment

Yes, for sure. It is obscene.

Expand full comment

FGM only happens to young female children and young women, and it's entirely related to their sex. That's just women, so where is the real suffering, the kind that trump's theirs? Male established traditions don't tend to regard penises as things to be damaged, injured or partially removed, that kind of brutality is reserved for women, as opposed to women with penises, regardless of how queer they might be.

Expand full comment

TRIGGER WARNING for men: I've heard of a tribe of bedu who performed a "flaying" circumcision ritual which involved removing the skin of the entire penis and the thighs. I'm also of the opinion that male circumcision, other than for a medical reason, is abuse, but on the whole of course it is a torture and mutilation of females. 😥 What the heck is wrong with humans...

Expand full comment

Thank you for the info, that sounds truly dreadful. As far as circumcision is concerned, I don't see it as abuse for religious reasons, but I'm aware that a lot of people do for obvious reasons. Not that long ago FGM was still being described as 'female circumcision' by people who should know better, misleading others who weren't aware what the procedure can involve. As for what is wrong with Human beings, I'm not sure. Big brains and an intellectual sophistication that doesnt correlate with our more primeval beginnings? Too much testosterone and everything that goes with that?

Expand full comment

I found my book containing details of the flaying circumcision, (Arabian Sands by Wilfred Thesiger) and it's worse than I remembered. Involves also removing all of the skin from an inch below the navel, it's a test of strength and courage for young men about to be married. They are further punished if they show any sign of discomfort.. I'm sorry that it conflicts with your religion Radhwa, it must be so hard as a mother to reconcile your religious belief with the knowledge that a healthy and important part of your son's body is to be removed. Peace.

Expand full comment

Totally with you, terapine, on all forms of circumcision. It doesn't make males kind and gentle to slash off 75 percent of the nerve endings of their penis when they are infants.

Expand full comment

Where have you found this "intellectual sophistication"? It is not something I have run across.

Expand full comment

You may not have encountered it, and I'm not sure if I have either, but I think it exists, and it certainly does in relative terms. Having increasingly complex societies with more and more needs, or desires which are thought about as needs and in some instances, given the status of rights. The number of ways people can be in conflict with one another and oppress and harm one another is endless and convoluted, but the origins of this are very rudimentary.

Expand full comment

I believe human beings were far more intelligent in the past -- for one thing, our brains have been shrinking for 10,000 years during the rise of "civilization." If we were as stupid as we are now -- largely due to so-called civilization and grotesque population numbers -- we never would have survived for tens of thousands of years. Pre-conquest peoples tend to be highly skilled, very aware and knowledgeable about their environments, and extremely sensitive to suffering within their group. One way we can now understand this is how dogs get very upset when their humans are upset; they always want to comfort and soothe human unhappiness. This also holds true for human societies in which people are not alienated from one another.

As for why people oppress and harm one another, I think we needn't look further than our population. If, say, one percent of a society is antisocial, sociopathic if you will, a small society puts this person outside the group and doesn't let them return. But when your society is 100 million or more, you're now talking about one million sociopaths. In my society sociopaths are admired, elected to high office, and allowed to run rampant with few controls.

Expand full comment

38 idiots liked this tweet. Do they think there were green-haired non-binary witches in the 17th Century, or blokes with a fetish for black pointy hats and couldrons?!

Expand full comment

Maybe it wasn't a broom handle sticking out the front of their dress after all

Expand full comment

Lol 🤣

Expand full comment

Read the rest of thread where they congratulate themselves before the grown-ups chip in. Sorry but the museum world with its right-on inclusive mantra has drunk the kool-aid. The diversity and inclusion people have captured certain departments and you can’t challenge it

Expand full comment

Jesus I just read it. Apparently many of "those" accused of witchcraft were queer. This takes the transing of the dead to another level. Must EVERYTHING revolve around these self-obsessed fools?!

Expand full comment

I don't think this museum will prove so easy to push around:

https://eastendwomensmuseum.org/about

Expand full comment

Looks fabulous. I had heard about this a few years ago (wasn’t there an awful developer who was going to turn the original charter into a Jack the Ripper visitor attraction? The local community and feminists went rightly bonkers. Now it’s getting developed as a proper museum with proper governance. Must look into it as founds fab.

In parallel I was really surprised and disappointed to see the Vagina Museum, of all places !, come out with self ID bull

Expand full comment

Indeed, museums and libraries, even the supposedly female-centred ones like, I dunno, The Vagina Museum (ffs) here they are on Twitter in July, 21.

@vagina_museum

I think there are three important things to consider when trying to be more inclusive:

1) Make sure you're not encouraging shame

2) Remember it's not just cisgender women who menstruate

3) Being inclusive means considering other people's circumstances

Expand full comment

I tweeted today about the state sanctioned inhumane adoption process for babies born to unwed mothers in UK & Ireland up to 1970's because the stigma of being a single mother was socially intolerable A woke bro piped up " why were the single fathers not allowed to look after the babies?" I can see why the trans lobby don't want to encourage debate. Unparalleled levels of ignorance combined with idiocy.

Expand full comment

My older half brother was adopted for precisely this reason. If only my mother had thought to ask the father to look after him, then everything would have been dandy.

Expand full comment

Wonder if he knows what a Scold's Bridle is.

Expand full comment

I can picture him wearing a rusty old chastity belt!

Expand full comment

And probably getting turned on by it.

Expand full comment

I detect an evil smirk Catherine 😊

Expand full comment

A witch's cackle even 😊

Expand full comment

What about it being wheelchair accessible, having facilities for those with reduced vision or hearing, maybe quiet times to suit those on the autistic spectrum?

These are real issues that places should consider.

Fekin R-Sole

Expand full comment

What a terrific riposte

Expand full comment

They wonder why we fight?

They, the women-deniers have nothing to lose, but that shows how short sighted they are. Eventually, everyone loses.

Expand full comment

Woman is not made to be defeated, any attempt would be self-defeating.

(With a little help from Hemingway I've got quite deep.)

Expand full comment

Absurd!

Expand full comment

I think they are all insane. And don't get me started on '1000%' - more meaningless drivel. Utter cretins.

Expand full comment

1000% !!! This whole message is so stupid I'm almost wondering whether it's satire. It's so hard to tell these days.

Expand full comment

I haven't been to museum since Year 10 at school in 1994.

I'm assuming all museums have been captured in 2022 so the oddball may well get his wish 😐

Expand full comment

I love the fact that he thinks men were identifying as women at a time when women were being burnt/hanged/drowned in large numbers. Nope, weirdly they waited until we were actually making headway on equality before all that started. And why didn't queer witches just identify as men or even just non-witches? It's almost as if...

Expand full comment

Male entitlement has no bounds

Expand full comment

But oppression is exactly what they want! Historical obviously. All that victimhood!!!! 🤩

Expand full comment

Surprised they're not ( yet) trying to claim that all those women who were burnt ,hanged or drowned in the witch hunts were mtf trans !! After all ,they've hijacked everything that belongs to women ,even our body parts !!

Expand full comment

“Theatre Spoonie”. OFGS.

Expand full comment