VBB Blog 261: Rissa Miller — From Persecution to Empowerment: Rewriting the Witches Narrative! 

Rissa Miller is a fearless advocate for the term 'witch,' and she has faced her fair share of prejudice. Recognizing the longstanding stereotypes and misconceptions surrounding witches, Rissa delves into how the label has been reckless, insensitive, and deadly to women. She questions what qualifies a woman as a witch, and whether engaging in divination work, practicing reiki, or even collecting crystals classifies someone as a witch. Rissa notes that the perception of a witch has undoubtedly evolved, from the days when the Catholic Church condemned wild women for communing with the devil to present-day pop-culture perceptions where witches are beautiful and powerful women like Melisandre from "Game of Thrones, Wanda Maximoff as Marvel's Scarlet Witch, and Netflix teenage witch, Sabrina. While some still hold onto outdated beliefs, Rissa believes society must catch up with the evolving understanding of what it means when women are okay with being called witches.