Abstract
George Romero’s feminist masterwork, Season of the Witch (1973), tells the story of one woman’s journey from patriarchal enslavement to personal liberation through neo-pagan witchcraft. Unbound from her husband and daughter, released from cultural expectations of “proper” womanhood, she joins a coven of witches. Naked and unafraid, she stands before her sisters and undergoes a binding ritual that ultimately sets her free. In the twenty-first century, witchcraft continues to serve as a conduit for female empowerment and liberation, although its dark cape has been extended to include non-binary and gender-fluid folx who identify as woman. Post-modern witchcraft is Queer in every sense, rejecting body norms and all other imaginary boundaries inscribed by mainstream culture. As part of their ritual practices, many covens engage in BDSM Sex Magic, which provides pleasure and pain in addition to spiritual awakening and true liberation. This chapter examines the practices of one coven of women in Brooklyn, NY, who practice Shibari Rope Binding in both private and public performances. Their narratives reveal a complex world in which identity, gender, kink and social justice are tightly woven together and adorned with artistic knots of pleasure and pain.
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Gardenour Walter, B.S. (2022). Wicked Knots: Kinbaku, Witchcraft, and Kinky Liberation. In: Clifford-Napoleone, A.R. (eds) Binding and Unbinding Kink. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06485-2_12
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