Embracing Masculine Magic

Recently I went on a rampage regarding the presentation of a card trick by a woman who decided that the best way to keep the attention of her audience was to be dressed like a hooker and to reveal the card by pulling down her top and showing her breast where a duplicate of the card had been stashed.

In the process of the ensuing discussion the point was once again raised that women in magic have a really tough time and that magic has a lot of very heavy handed masculine themes along with having appropriated very important feminine themes.

I'm not here to tell anyone that this isn't the case. Quite the contrary, but I'm also not going to give anyone a lecture about what it means to be a woman in magic. For starters I am not gender equipped to really know.

But a thought did get raised which I feel deserves some consideration.

With the trend towards recognizing the real differences between what women in magic are doing and what men are doing, there has been plenty of focus on women rediscovering the things that are decidedly feminine about magic.

Yet there seems to be no thought whatsoever regarding what is masculine in magic. The assumption is that magic has, all along, been masculine in nature but I think that assumption must be questioned.

Men doing magic have for sometime hijacked feminine themes such as production and restoration. It is clear, when looking at the entire repertoire of magic, that many effects are very feminine in nature and yet it is men who have been doing them.

This got me to thinking that the reason magic seems so unnatural is the fact that performers are crossing over gender lines in a particular way.

Now in the past I have argued that effects are not gender based, but rather routines are. I still stand by that. I do not believe that specific effects are either masculine or feminine, which may seem in contradiction to the premise of this essay, but bear with me and I think you will see that this isn't the case.

I am going to use one of the classic effects as my example and see what kinds of conclusions can be drawn from it. My choice for this is the "Sawing" illusion.

Now right off the bat we can already see that this might very well be a definitely masculine piece. After all, it is all about what a man is forcing his female assistant to endure. Or is it?

Historically the piece was originally performed by a man who was sawing another man in half. Admittedly this didn't last long, but it did start out that way. So from that alone we can safely assume that at least the conscious attempt was not intended to be one of masculine authority asserting itself over that which is feminine.

But then why the change? It happened almost immediately. So much so that almost no one ever remembers that it didn't start out that way!

Yet when the change did occur there was an immediate reaction which had to be significant enough to let this mode of presentation continue. The audience responded to it much more strongly. Why?

Could it be that on a certain level they understood that destroying this woman was somehow wrong? A violation of the natural order of things? Perhaps.

But let us look further into this effect.

It isn't complete until the victim is restored. Healed. If the premise holds true, then this effect holds a balance of both masculine and feminine themes as healing is very definitely associated with a feminine perspective in our culture.

It took Richiardi Jr. to bring this effect into a vastly unbalanced state by doing the illusion without restoring his victim; his own daughter. The audience sat horrified and left hanging in limbo waiting for what they knew should happen but never did! And without that healing restoration at the end, he produced real horror in his audience. Which was his goal!

So what does this really tell us?

I think it points to a true idea about magic. That truly good magic is balanced between destructive and creative perspectives. Or masculine and feminine ones.

There is almost a kind of Yin Yang approach to every effect. A card is lost and then found. A rope is cut and then restored. It may very well be possible to see every effect as having a destructive beginning and a restorative ending. Or at the very least a large balance of them.

In recent years women have been reclaiming their role in magic. For this I am grateful. I even do my small part by teaching a female student in the art. In this headlong rush of women re-entering this world there has been a lot to learn both for the female magician and the male.

I am a child of the era of Women's Lib to a certain extent. I was raised by my mother operating as a single parent for many years and there are many behaviors and standards that I hold to which I can directly attribute to being raised by a strong female figure. I am also very aware that I am not alone in this. I have observed many of the same standards among male peers who grew up in similar circumstances as mine. We know a little something about "feminism" from an honest male perspective.

But one thing that troubled me over the years is "radical feminism." Growing up I did have the opportunity to observe many women for whom the words "all men are scum" was a kind of constant mantra. So much so that even some of the girls I dated in my high school years would make the same comment and follow it up immediately with "but you're different" when they realized that I was still standing there.

As you might imagine this generated a certain amount of confusion on my part as well as a certain amount of discomfort and even out right dislike. I told off any number of them for being so short sighted that they would mouth such a slogan without spending any real time thinking about it's source or why they were saying it in the first place.

From points similar to this have grown "masculinism" movements similar to "feminism." Men celebrating their "masculinity." Now before you go off thinking I'm talking about various sorts of hunting and fire related events I want to point out that I'm thinking more of an intellectual appreciation of what it means to be a man in these times. Those "wilderness man" type retreats have their place I'm sure, but it's never been one I've felt a need to embrace.

So what does all this have to do with magic?

Well, I've begun to wonder if men have lost their way in magic as much as women have. Do men really embrace the seemingly destructive urges of magic? Do we really need to set things on fire or cut them up in order to appreciate the masculine side of the art?

Is it possible that we've somehow given up a noble aspect in favor of a more basic one?

There was a time when a true look at what it was to be a man meant something closer to what we think of as "gentleman." A real man, a gentleman, was someone who embodied nobility, dignity, grace, intelligence, chivalry, courtesy and honor.

Gentlemen engaged each other with dignity and grace. Their power was measured not by the things they could destroy but by the things they had control over, starting most importantly with themselves.

It is true that the things we can destroy we have control over, but at what price? We seem to have given up displaying our power over something in a different less obvious manner in favor of simply saying "see I control this thing because I destroy it *and* bring it back!"

So perhaps the question we masculine magicians need to ask ourselves is "what is it to be a real man?" Take magic out of the question for a while and consider just what a "real man" is.

Do we really think that a "real man" is one with destructive tendencies? One who thinks nothing of shoving a woman around and being rude to the people who are paying attention to him? Does a "real man" need to be pushing people around at all?

I might offer an answer of "no" to these questions. Generally we don't think of this as being a "real man." We think of this as being a jerk. Or worse.

Or perhaps a "real man" is someone who treats everyone with kindness and dignity? Is a "real man" someone who is secure enough in themselves as a person first and a man second that they need not always be the one in charge? Does a "real man" not only recognize his essential masculinity but also recognize and respect it in other men?

Consider the issue of magic again as part of the equation.

Would you really think that a female magician sawing a man in half would work? Would you consider it a "novelty?" If so, why? Answer that and then consider your answer and what it might actually mean.

I think it is entirely possible that we have lost our way. Women have certainly become over encumbered by images of beauty and restrictions of expected behavior over the years. They have needed to break out and I think that they are achieving that break out.

However, along the way I think we have over looked the possibility that men have become over encumbered by a set of expectations which can be just as debilitating. Men have to be strong and rational because that is what we are told to be by the same kinds of societal sources that women have been receiving their mixed messages from.

And whatever direction society goes, so to does art.

So now I encourage you to reconsider what you see as masculine and feminine, not just in your magic, but in your everyday surroundings. I think you will begin to see that many of the things expected of all of us are artificial at best.

Okay, does this mean that we should all give up our "Sawing" illusions, or our "Sword Through Neck" or whatever else which seems excessively violent, and therefore may be in danger of being excessively "masculine?" No, I don't think so.

But I do think that we need to reconsider our attitudes and expectations when it comes to these kinds of effects and what kind of impression they have on audiences.

Where this will take us, I do not know. What I do know is that by thinking about it we can not help but be taken somewhere.

This is merely a first step.