NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/alt/pagan/12939

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-17 | 3.6 KB

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From: [e-mail] (Bill Eichman)
Newsgroups: alt.pagan
Subject: Re: Scummy behavior of pagan males
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 16 Nov 92 20:27:03 GMT
References: <[e-mail]>
Organization: The Heart of Gold BBS, Lemont PA
Lines: 66

[e-mail] (Stephen R. Figgins) writes:

> A Heartland Pagan Fesitval's posters consistently picture naked busty
> women and half-clothed men.  Why this standard?  Heartland also had
> problems last year with the behavior of several drunken men, including
> the sexual harassment of one participant.  In previous years the
> Skyclad area of the festival consisted half of skyclad participants
> and half of male gawkers who would set out chairs and stare at the
> women who passed by.

Drunkenness at the festivals is getting to be a pain in the ass, isn't
it? Seems so to me, anyway.

Five years ago, at a festival like Starwood, the Long Dancer's could go
on all night, working the fire and invoking. The people left around the
fire after 2-3 am were utterly serious/joyous, turned on, kind and in
touch. To finish the long dance with that type of group is a thrill that
I cannot adequately voice.

For the past few years, the crowd of drinking males gathered to watch the
dancing girls has been so thick that the Long Dancer's have been forced
away from the fire. My friends, who've been doing the Long Dance together
for the last ten years, now avoid the fire ring, hoping the tourists will
leave before dawn. At least we can still drum and sing together.

Perhaps this is just a natural byproduct of paganisms growing numbers,
popularity, and the rapidly growing segment of new, untrained, unread,
inexperienced pagans.

The drinking men look so sad and desperate and lonely. You'd think they'd
never seen a tit before. When i think of them I'm reminded of the
tremendous sexual pain and longing that men sometimes feel in this
tortured society of ours.

Well, maybe some will argue that sexual pain and longing is a natural and
good thing, and that joy in watching bodies is healthy paganism. Maybe
so, maybe so-- all I know is that it was a different scene, five years
ago.

> I can think of plenty more, these just leapt to mind as examples of
> men's scummy behavior both within and without our community.  I would
> be interested in hearing others examples of men's scummy behavior
> within the pagan community.   Or am I the only one who notices this
> stuff?  It has been said that men within the pagan community were
> different than men outside the community in their relations to women.
> I have said this is not very true.  What do others think?

I think it's fascinating to watch people's ego's being triggered off by
your choice of words.

I think I've seen nearly as many female jerks as male jerks at the
festivals-- though the females are more subtle, less grossly violent and
directly abusive. But there's a lot of women 'playing the game' of war
between the sexes, and a lot of men with torn hearts and egos. Is a
broken heart worse or better than a stared-at-tit?

Just because there's a lot sex pain among both males and females doesn't
mean, however, that the males have carte'blanche to act like crude
idiots. I despise this "80's War between the Sexes" abusive male behavior
as much as you do. I've seen a _huge_ amount of it among so called pagan
men.

I don't know if this means men are scum. I think it means our community
has a tremendous problem with denial and sex pain.

Later, Bill