First Vlog!

I have made my first vlog!

"What is Paganism" done entirely in American Sign Language! I am super excited. Here is the translation for the video. I realize now that I made a few mistakes and could have explained some things a little better, but it's great for my first time. I am hoping to make more videos in the future. Well, maybe!

Translation:

Hello! Welcome to the Fat Pagan (Signed "Thick Witch). My name is Kit, meaning baby fox. I have been a pagan for the past 10 years. About two or three years ago, I started studying American Sign Language. I love and cherish the language so much! In fact, I prefer signing.

Recently, I was searching on Youtube for "ASL + Pagan". I found VERY FEW videos, none of which were about the Pagan religion itsel. Now, I would like to discuss it; what's it about and what does it mean?

First, maybe you think that paganism is evil or Devil worship. Maybe your mental images are evil witches, Harry Potter, Charmed, etc. No, these are not part of Paganism.
If not, then what’s paganism?

A label!

Whoa, a label? I just said religion!

Yes! It is a label.

Here is an example.

You know about the Christian religion? Christianity encompasses a variety of different sects; for example, Catholicism, Protestant, Baptist, Methodist, Amish, etc.

Paganism and Christianity are kind of similar. Paganism is just as diverse as Christianity. BUT, all Christian sects have common beliefs: the Bible is true; there is ONE God; Jesus; Jesus himself was sinless and holy; Heaven and Hell; the Final Judgment; and so-on.

Paganism has only one common belief. All Pagan people themselves identify as pagan. That’s it!

Now, some paganism examples are:
• Wicca. Wicca has a long list of different sects but I won't be discussing them. Maybe I will discuss them later, on another video. But, a few examples are: Eclectic, Dianic, Faery, British Traditional
•   Reconstruction/Revivalism (R/R). R/R has many different parts as well, and maybe there will be a video too. Few examples: Egyptian, Greek, Romanian, Irish.
• Gothic, list: Celtic, Deborean, Hereditary, Pictish
• Witchcraft
• Sometimes Heathenry
Et cetera.

Now, Heathenry is included only sometimes. Many religions NOT included in paganism. Examples: Hinduism, Buddhism, Native religions, Shinto, really religions themselves label Pagan NOT. Depending on who you ask, Heathens sometimes call themselves Pagan and sometimes do not.

I think I'm finished. I described a little about what paganism means. I briefly talked about the different beliefs, but didn't really go in depth. Maybe a future video will describe some of the different beliefs individually and really describe in depth.

Any questions? Comments? Go ahead and type them below.

Now for a typical pagan goodbye: merry meet, merry part, merry meet again! Bye!

I'M STILL ALIVE!!!!

For now at least. BAH it has been too long, but I promise a new post sometime tomorrow where I talk about some of the political things I have been thinking about. Hints you ask? Well alright then!

Some talking points:

• Natural rights of the Earth
• Animal rights, specifically "animal feminism"
• Veganism
• The "cultural appropriation" of the phrase "coming out"
• Possibly the US Shutdown, maybe, perhaps. 

So things will get heated tomorrow, but I do have some other news:

I was seriously thinking about adding a vlog to here and discussing some things specifically in American Sign Language. I am hopeful that adding a pagan voice to all the Christian ones will help Deaf people learn more about alternate faiths. Are there any Deaf people out there who would like to give me some talking points? And for the hearing people, there will be subtitles.

Hope to see you tomorrow!

Calypso! Rights belong to the painter.

We are Real

Lately I have been seeing a flurry of body posts by some "high profile" companies and by ordinary people.

By "high profile," I mean my favorite clothing store Lane Bryant. (Would you know it, they happen to be having a sale! I see some awesome boots I want. Yay!) Apparently, Lane Bryant is hooking up with Skorch Magazine to present a "Real is Perfect" campaign.

From Lane Bryant's Facebook page.

Every single one of these women are beautiful, and I think that stepping forward with models like these women are great. However, as several people commented, I have yet to see these women or any other women like those above actually on the Lane Bryant site. Looking at Skorch Magazine, though, not only are BBW strewn across their pages, but a variety of bodies are represented, from thin models to obese models and everything in between.

That's the thing, body varieties.   We aren't going to get anywhere with body images when we go from one extreme to another. Please, by all means, celebrate (NSFW) the fat body! Rejoice in every curve and every roll and every blemish and stretch mark and every thing that is on you but do NOT degrade other body styles. Replacing fat shame with thin shame just creates the same problems we fat people have, but reversed. 

Truth.

More truth.

Recently in my Deaf Culture class, we were talking about the segregation in the Deaf schools. They segregated the crap out of the deaf in the early 1900s. Boys were away from girls, blacks away from whites (usually not even in the same building and not in the best condition either), profoundly deaf away from the hard of hearing. The administration even kept clubs from joining.

Women are segregated like that even today. Generally, we voluntarily keep ourselves surrounded by people with the same body type, same color, same age and education, same religious views and political views, even same family structure. Our segregation keeps us isolated, unable to reach out or think about something different or do something different. In fact, the segregation is so ingrained that we enforce it ourselves. When was the last time you heard someone make a rude comment about another person's clothing? How about another person's beliefs or body shape? Education? It happens often enough that TV makes it a cliche, something that everyone does at some point.

So, Stop It.

When someone says something offensive, tell them to stop it. When someone does something offensive, stop it. When someone starts to enforce the segregation of ourselves, stop it. When you start to enforce it, stop yourself. Just stop it. It does more harm than good. Start a mini revolution. Get some friends that don't think like you or act like you or believe like you or dress like you or look like you and revel in their differences. Entertain a different thought process. You don't necessarily need to accept it, but at least try to understand. You will find some pretty cool things, trust me.

PS. I know the pictures go over. It's like that so you can see it more clearly.