A fellow Pagan Priestess brought to my attention the following label:
Yes, folks…there’s a woman being burned at the stake here.
This label can be found on bottles of Witches Wit beer, brewed by The Lost Abbey Beers, under the auspices of Port Brewing Company in Southern California.
Needless to say, I am totally disgusted by it.
First of all, it’s an insult to me as an ordained Pagan minister and long-time practicing witch. If you want to capitalize on the beer’s name in order to sell more brews, at least use a more tasteful image. Hex, I could accept a picture of the stereotypical wart-nosed, green-skinned ugly old hag over this.
But to show a buxom woman standing helplessly as the flames engulf her… while a group of onlookers (presumably male monks) surround her gawking at the sight is simply degrading.
With all due respect, Lost Abbey – are you implying that you condone such heinous acts?
“But it’s history!” you cry.
Yes…it’s history. Yes, we should not forget that the Inquisition happened, any more than we should forget that the Holocaust happened. These were dark periods in our history, and the victims of such should be honored and remembered.
Not used to sell beer.
Such a label makes a mockery of this event, and serves as a painful reminder of a time when thousands of innocent people – both male and female – were falsely accused of witchcraft and lost their lives. Most were charged with various “wrongful acts” brought about by revengeful neighbors, greedy officials, and power-hungry church representatives.
They didn’t deserve to die then, and they don’t deserve to be “memorialized” in this fashion now.
But more than this… such a label is an insult to women.
As my friend stated in a Facebook comment
This continues, my friends, because women aren’t perceived as dangerous or threatening. One hare-brained preacher in a tiny Florida church threatens to burn a Koran and all Hel breaks loose. Throw rocks at a Jewish soldier at risk of your life and property. Women, however, are not dangerous. They can do this because we won’t bomb the brewery or kidnap the hipster designer or kill random beer-drinkers in pubs. We are weak and ineffectual. They can do what they like because we offer no threat whatsoever…
Newsflash, folks – we may be the “fairer sex”…but we are not the weaker sex.
And yet so many women continue to be degraded, demoralized, and devalued. They are forced to endure such acts as rape, sexual abuse, domestic violence, and gender discrimination.
Sometimes these acts are downright blatant, at other times they are more insidious… and the perpetuators get away with it because nobody speaks up and does anything.
It’s time we speak up. If you agree that this label is tasteless and offensive, then contact the Lost Abbey brewing company and share your thoughts.
This sculpture shows the sign for "connect"...and that is what Deaf Pagan Crossroads is all about - making connections. Connections between Deafhood and Paganism, connections between the Deaf Community and the Hearing Community, connections between myself as the writer and you as the reader. I hope you will take the time to read my various posts, some of which are listed below. Welcome to the Crossroads, and I hope you make some connections here!
It’s not just an insult to women. As a male witch, I am offended too! For the ladies of the Craft are my concern and always shall be. ‘Tis my nature, as in the aspect of the Lord as warrior/protector.
BB
Fyre
Excellent point, Fyre. You don’t have to be a woman to be insulted. You don’t even have to be a Pagan. You just have to be a caring individual who believes in equality and humanity – as I know you do.
Whether you’re a warrior, a protector, a lover, or just a concerned friend… if this label offends you, let it be known.
And let the ladies in your life know how much you love them.
Osh
and reall if so bad why the big logo on this web page?
I just went to their site (thanks for the link!) and wrote how horrified I am by their label.
I hope THOUSANDS of others do the same, vowing to NEVER buy any of their products as I did.
Thanks, GreenLady! I hope others follow your example!
btw.. I contacted the brewery and let them know how much I think this sucks. And if they don’t get my beer-drinking biz… they are REALLY missing out! ROFLMPAO
(rolling on floor, laughing my pagan arse off)
I know how you like your beer, darling…
Could you please forward me the e-mail address to contact them too? Don’t things like this go through some kind of counsel or authority to make sure it’s a legal way to advertise??
btw Osh… I have a new version of the “bubble meditation” working. lol Soon, yes very soon!… There shall be mead!
MEAD!!!
We don’t need no stinking wit-less beer…
We gots our MEAD!
Thanks for heads up- I send them email stating how disappointing and offensive it is even if you say it’s history, you wouldn’t put the Jewish Holocaust on your labe!!l- please reissue the labels differently. hope this small email helps.
Every email helps, marybird. Thanks for speaking up!
[…] Story: Outrage is spreading across the Internet over The Lost Abbey brewery’s decision to feature a woman being burned at the stake for their […]
Only ones that should be offended are dead and black magic users maybe have beer relax and not make issue out of nothing.
Ocean, I saw a post about this beer label on a scholars list I’m on, went searching for more info, and found your excellent comments on this “wit-less beer.” Here’s what I just wrote them:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I am a cultural mythologist with a PhD in Religious Studies from UC Santa Barbara. When I can afford them, I love unique, “mythic,” magical wines, beers, meads, ales. The ingredients in your beers sound fascinating. But the lack of taste, to say nothing of simple common sense, in the disturbing label on your Witches Wit beer has completely turned me off. So, despite my initial interest, I won’t be driving to Bacchus, a specialty shop on Oakland Drive in nearby Kalamazoo, to see if they carry, or could order, any of your brews.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks, Kathleen! I appreciate your taking the time to write to them, and letting me know. I’m happy to have you joining the cause!
Welcome to the Crossroads, and please feel free to drop by again!
Osh
[…] recently put up a post here at the Crossroads expressing my disgust at the beer label being used by The Lost Abbey to promote their Witches Wit […]
My family, who lives in town, has stopped in to complain and to offer alternative suggestions. I’d really appreciate it if you could let me know of images you think would work. I’m sure they want to keep the name of the beer (Wit is a kind of beer) and would need a medieval looking image, since this is their whole brand appeal.
I found this through the Covenant of the Goddess on facebook. I am horrified that someone would actually think this was a good idea. I mean, it doesn’t even have anything to do with the beer’s name. If it was called “Witch’s Stake” or something, I could at least see that connection (though I wouldn’t be less horrified) between the name and label. But this is disgusting. I wrote them as well. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Blessed Be.
Regarding Cynthia’s request for images that could work, the Santa Cruz Sentinel’s comments page has several sensible ideas from readers. See this link:
http://www.topix.net/forum/source/santa-cruz-sentinel/T66EC5FTIMJJRG22E
greets,
as stated, one doesn’t need to be a woman, nor a pagan (me), to be offended by that extremely tasteless label. it’s too bad the brewery looks like they make some decent beer which, as i told them, i will never drink.
cosmic blessings~
Not to be a killjoy here, but the Inquisition was primarily Christian against Christian or Christian against Jew. The few women/men accused of being witches were almost certainly *not* pagans, but non-powerful people who had property wanted by powerful people. And those trials were carried out by secular authorities and protested by the Church.
MEANIE.
Seriously though folks, can we please get over ourselves? What’s next, bombarding the comedy places over any inquisition jokes.
Insert
monty python here
With all due respect…
You do realize that the name of this blog is DEAF Pagan Crossroads, correct?
You do realize that you’ve put up a video here that is NOT captioned for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, correct?
So are you going to tell me that I should “get over myself” when I say that this was terribly insensitive of you to not consider that the owner of the blog might be terribly offended by the fact that you didn’t take her accessibility needs into consideration before you posted this video?
Let us all think about Equal Communication Access – especially when we consider that this is, after all…
A Deaf Blog.
[…] discussion among Pagans. To get the other side’s view, I would encourage you to read this blog post as well as this one which includes correspondence between the brewery and a member of the Pagan […]
[…] discussion among Pagans. To get the other side’s view, I would encourage you to read this blog post as well as this one which includes correspondence between the brewery and a member of the Pagan […]
Don’t buy the beer and don’t be one of “those people” who is offended by art. Just move along and I promise the drawing won’t tie you to a stake and burn you.