Sabrina as a sanction: teenaged witches and the perceived inauthenticity of youth

ABSTRACT

Authenticity has loomed large as a value from the late twentieth century onwards. While an enduring concern in the study of subcultural boundary negotiation, the relations between authenticity as a broader ideal and characterisations of youth have so far been underexplored. Here I draw on interviews with young Pagan Witches (14–19) in Auckland, New Zealand, to detail the stereotype of the ‘Teen Witch’: a sanction or defining Other used by both adult and young members of the religion to delineate authentic membership. While the presumed features of the Teen Witch reflect tensions within Witchcraft in the early twenty-first century, I illustrate how they also rest on broader characterisations of young people, including susceptibility to media influence and affiliation with commodified products. These associations position the teenaged Witch in opposition to pervasive understandings of authenticity, a consonance that may imply a connoted charge of inauthenticity to popular characterisations of young people outside of the religion.

KEYWORDS:

• Authenticity
• religion
• identity
• boundary making
• young people

Acknowledgement

The author would like to thank all anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful contributions towards this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).