{"id":7308,"date":"2015-07-05T17:26:13","date_gmt":"2015-07-05T23:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7308"},"modified":"2015-07-05T17:40:48","modified_gmt":"2015-07-05T23:40:48","slug":"renn-faire-disneyland-for-rednecks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7308","title":{"rendered":"Renn Faire: “Disneyland for Rednecks”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"abandoned-renaissance-fair-26133\"

An abandoned Rennaisance Faire site near Fredericksburg, Virginia (Roadtrippers.com).<\/p><\/div>\n

“Wiccan, as well as satanic, symbolism was in nearly every gift shop.”
\n\u2014 from a Yelp.com review of the Georgia Rennaisance Faire, quoted in Well Met<\/em> (237).<\/p>\n

Rachel Lee Rubin’s Well Met: Renaissance Faires and the American Counterculture<\/a> <\/em>is, obviously, not about contemporary Paganism, but the two topics cross paths occasionally, as the quote above shows. Reading made me think once again that most studies of Paganism in the United States, at least, tend to shy away from class issues, although gender issues are plowed through in all directions.<\/p>\n

Yes, the “redneck Disneyland” description comes from someone in the book. And there is this quote from a participant about Renn Faire visitors as a whole: “The ones who hate their [mundane] jobs wear really great costumes.” When you think of a song like “Take This Job and Shove It<\/a>,” what social group comes to mind?<\/p>\n

Rubin traces the Renn Faire phenomenon from one created in the mid-1960s outside Los Angeles as a fundraiser for the left-leaning Pacific Radio network<\/a>. So that was “countercultural” in the 1960s sense. But it is not the 1960s anymore. Who goes to Renn Faires? The (mostly) white lower-middle and working class, I would say.<\/p>\n

Somewhat like the Renn Faires, the Pagan movement in America was mostly birthed by leftish intellectual bohemians (but not totally). Decades later, should the movement still be described that way? I don’t think so. But who is researching this question?<\/p>\n

And apparently the “crackpot religion” of Wicca is one of those currently countercultural things to have found a home on the Renn Faire circuit, along with homosexuality and polyamory (216).<\/p>\n

As H-Net’s reviewer wrote,<\/a><\/p>\n

At least two questions drive the narrative and analysis of Well Met<\/em>. One concerns the potential centrality of the Renaissance faire to our understanding of the counterculture in the 1960s and 1970s. Is the faire essential to the story of hippie explorations into communalism, antimodernism, and craft revival, as well as rock and folk music revivals? Rubin gives a resounding, and rather persuasive, yes. Another question that the author specifically poses in her introduction is, \u201cTo what concrete personal, political, and cultural uses can a group of Americans put a past that, for the most part, is not<\/em> their own?\u201d (p. 3). Answers to that question have evolved over the faire\u2019s history.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There is (who knew? not me) a chapter devoted to a subgenre of romance novels set at Renaissance Faires, of which I can say only that that is not as strange as romance novels set in Amish communities, which is another subgenre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Wiccan, as well as satanic, symbolism was in nearly every gift shop.” \u2014 from a Yelp.com review of the Georgia Rennaisance Faire, quoted in Well Met (237). Rachel Lee Rubin’s Well Met: Renaissance Faires and the American Counterculture is, obviously, not about contemporary Paganism, but the two topics cross paths occasionally, as the quote above […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,26,6],"class_list":["post-7308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-american-religion","tag-culture","tag-wicca"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1TS","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13245,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13245","url_meta":{"origin":7308,"position":0},"title":"A New Survey on Pagans’ Political Attitudes","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 1, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"This survey, \"Pagan and Heathen Political and Sociall Metrics,\"\u00a0 comes recommended by several scholars whom I know. It is for respondents in the United States and Canada only. This survey is a means of gathering information about beliefs, behaviors, and demographics from Heathens and Pagans in the United States and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1121,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1121","url_meta":{"origin":7308,"position":1},"title":"Handbook of Contemporary Paganism in Print","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"My contributor copy of the new Handbook of Contemporary Paganism from Brill arrived. (You can tell from the price that it is intended primarily for the institutional market.) Here is the table of contents:\"The Modern Magical Revival,\" Nevill Drury\"The Influence of Aleister Crowley on Gerald Gardner and the Early Witchcraft\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3913,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3913","url_meta":{"origin":7308,"position":2},"title":"One Week Left for AAR Paper Proposals","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 6, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The deadline for proposals for the 2012 American Academy of Religion annual meeting is Tuesday, March 13. Here are the suggested topics for the Contemporary Pagan Studies Group: For a possible cosponsored session with the Indigenous Religious Traditions Group, we invite papers on the intersection of contemporary indigenous traditions and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":682,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=682","url_meta":{"origin":7308,"position":3},"title":"In my hot, sweaty handsYesterday\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 28, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"In my hot, sweaty handsYesterday I had my first email from someone who was reading Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America. That was great, but where were my copies? I fired off a plaintive email to my editor.Today I came to the university, and there\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6893,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6893","url_meta":{"origin":7308,"position":4},"title":"Animal Sacrifice and ‘Hard’ Polytheism","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"There was some discussion last week at the American Academy of Religion annual meeting as to whether the Contemporary Pagan Studies Group should sponsor or co-sponsor a session devoted to issues surrounding animal sacrifice. Some voices in the Pagan world suggest that you are not really a \"hard\" polytheist (truly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Hinduism\"","block_context":{"text":"Hinduism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=hinduism"},"img":{"alt_text":"imrs.php","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/imrs.php_-300x204.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":285,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=285","url_meta":{"origin":7308,"position":5},"title":"Pomegranate updates I spent a\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 17, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Pomegranate updates I spent a few minutes yesterday on updating the old Pomegranate Web site. SInce all the activity is at Equinox Publishing's new site, the old one exists mainly to sell back issues. 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