#castration — Public Fediverse posts

Wicked, Emasculation, and Otherness

Content warning: discussion of castration, sexual violence, and torture.

I thought I knew the story. I’d watched the film, listened to Idina Menzel, and watched Judy Garland throw a bucket of water over the witch. The book, the musical, and the film even share the same title.

And that’s almost where the similarities end. There are the same character names. Elphaba is green. Glinda is ditzy, but much less so than in the musical/film. And the wizard is much less present.

The film is for the family. The book is decidedly grown up!

There’s something almost Pratchett-like in the writing (Terry Pratchett was a British author of spectacular wit, insight, and creativity). Gregory Maguire often comes up with clever observations on society. Elphaba can be seen as any “other” in society: queer or a foreigner.

‘When the times are a crucible, when the air is full of crisis,” she said, “those who are most themselves are the victims. “

Page 290. The speaker is the Princess Nastoya, an elephant changeling.

And there’s the Pratchett-esque humour throughout:

“She’s BLINDING THE GUESTS COMING FOR DINNER!”

“Well, that’s one way to avoid having to dust, I suppose.”

Page 476

And then, suddenly, on page 390, Elphaba’s sister turns out to be the child of the polyamorous union between her father, her mother, and somebody else they’d both loved.

The real surprise about the book came very early on. Page 2 to be exact. A reference to people like me in Oz:

“She was castrated at birth,” replied the Tin Woodman calmly. “She was a hermaphodite, or maybe entirely male.”

“Oh you, you see castration everywhere you look,” says the Lion.

Page 2

Towards the end of the book, there was another reference:

The soldier had been stripped and castrated, and nailed to the windmill. His body rotated in circles until vultures came and tried to peck out his entrails. He still wasn’t even dead.

Page 473

To find one reference to castration in a novel may seem a coincidence, to find two is beginning to feel intentional.

The lion was a perversion of it’s own natural instincts. She could deal with tiktok clockworks, she could handle Animals. It was the scarecrow she feared. Was it a spell? Was it a mask? Was there merely some clever dancer inside? All three of them were emasculated in some way or other, deluded under the work of the girl’s innocence.

Page 474

“Emasculation” it’s the essence of the making of a eunuch. Castration mentioned twice. Is there something more to Gregory Maguire’s personal history that has escaped public attention?

Or is there something in Frank Baum’s original books that Gregory is taking inspiration from?

I feel further investigation is required!

snip snip

https://piefed.social/c/historymemes/p/1832320/snip-snip

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/aug/21/why-shabana-mahmoods-outlook-on-prisons-is-wrong. Not just wrong, but badly, catastrophically wrong, @ChrisMayLA6, @HarriettMB, @junesim63. The answer to #crime is NOT more #prisons, the answer to sexual offending is not #chemical #castration & PAVA spray is not the way to maintain order in juvenile prisons. #Texas is NO example for this country to follow in penal policy.

"A measles outbreak is growing in a rural area of West Texas where vaccination rates are well below the recommended level."

I know Texas is a lawless, bookless kinda place, but parents who refuse to have their children vaccinated should be castrated !!

#VaccinationAwareness #Vaccinated #US #Texas #Measles #Rubeola #Castration

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/07/health/west-texas-measles-outbreak/index.html

Every time you make a decision you confront your symbolic castration

From Josh Cohen’s Not Working loc 855:

Decisions, after all, involve an inevitable moment of negativity; they intrude brutally into the omniscient fantasy that we can be, do or have whatever we want.

From Miss-ing: Psychoanalysis 2.0 by Bruce Fink loc 680-689:

the “bedrock of castration,” which we might characterize as follows in Lacan’s terms:   1) The encounter with the fact that explanations can never be complete, for something is always left unaccounted for and there is always more that could be said 2) There is no such thing as perfect harmony between people, whether of the same or opposite sexes, there always being “a psychological phase-difference” between them (Freud, SE XXII, p. 134), they always being at cross purposes (Lacan, 1998, p. 78) 3) That no one has all the answers, and that no future outcome can be thoroughly predicted in advance—one simply has to choose and make the best of one’s choices 4) That one cannot do or be everything in life—one’s time on earth is limited as is one’s energy and abilities.

Castration means we are not whole, do not have everything we want, cannot be everything we might have wanted to be, cannot do everything we may have wanted to do. We are not omnipotent, omniscient, immortal beings.

This I think is the point at which realist reflexivity meets Lacanian psychoanalysis. The impossible project is rapidly starting to feel tractable, at least on a conceptual level!

#archer #BruceFink #castration #decisionMaking #JoshCohen #psychoanalysis #reflexivity

“Put Them in #Trauma”: Inside a #Key #MAGA #Leader’s #Plans to use #violence to #enforce Trump's #Agenda

Other policies mentioned by Vought dovetail with Trump’s plans, such as embracing a #wartime #footing on the southern #border and rolling back #TransRights. Vought uses even more extreme language, decrying the “#transgender #sewage that’s being pumped into our #schools and #institutions” and referring to #genderaffirmingcare as “#chemical #castration.”

https://www.propublica.org/article/video-donald-trump-russ-vought-center-renewing-america-maga

352 • You wake up disoriented.

#nsfw #castration #femdom #caption #cruelfemdom #castratedslave #castrated #penectomyfemdom #penectomy #femdomcaptions #femdomcaption #violentfemdom #dominatrix #femaledom #femaledomination #femaledominance #surgeryfetish #penisremoval #ballbusting #cbt #cockballtorture #girlpower #castrationfemdom #extremfemdom #tiedupboy #tiedup #tiedupslave #helplessslave #helplessboy #druggedslave #druggedfemdom #druggedfantasy #castrationfantasy #femalesupremacy

> Louisiana is now the first state to allow surgical castration to be used as a punishment for sex crimes

Finally some *good* news out of Louisiana!

https://www.npr.org/2024/07/01/nx-s1-5020686/louisiana-new-surgical-castration-law

#louisiana #sexCrimes #castration #crime #punishment

Several states, including #California , can sentence #ChildSexualAbuse felons with chemical #castration. #SurgicalCastration is an option - for the felon.

#Louisiana is the first state to allow judges to mandate the surgical method. 👉 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ap-us-castration-law-louisiana_n_6675f7eee4b00383ac7d9fd8

An easy way to rid yourself of #microPlastics

#Castration

#DeathNuggets

https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/may/31/men-and-other-mammals-live-longer-if-they-are-castrated-says-researcher

US denies visa to Ugandan MP who called for #homosexual #castration - https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/mar/06/us-denies-visa-to-ugandan-mp-who-called-for-homosexual-castration "Activists welcome sanction on Sarah Achieng Opendi and other legislators against a backdrop of anti-#LGBTQ+ oppression in Africa" #uganda