I remember this happening when I was a teen, and there are still many women I know into it.

My mother was a self proclaimed witch since the 80's/90's, and told me as a child fairies were real, and constantly told me I "had psychic powers." She read my cards and all that. It fucked me up wholly, and pushed me to science and fact. It's not for me, and I don't understand the fascination. But, if it makes other women happy, it's really harmless.

I'll say it: adult witches are hot

because being in a coven with amazing women is preferable than being near high school boys.

Theory - mass media creates the narrative that witches in the US are Devil worshippers, often with a pretty manly depiction of the Devil, thereby trying to enforce that they “derive their power from their relationship to a man”.

Being a witch is not a gender specific thing. There's plenty of women and men that don't relate to dumb shit like Christianity, Judaism or Islam, yet they'd like to see something happen beyond what they know to control.

Leave these people the fuck alone. I'm legit starting to consider setting fire to churches in the midwest. Stop tempting me.

The undead are safer to be around than a man.

Is this just girls?

Am boy, had a witchy phase

I didn't so much "go through an occult phase", I just believed every supernatural tale I heard for the first 10+ years of my life and feared the consequences of not being prepared for them all to happen to me, went through an obnoxious joyless atheist phase in high school in part due to my disappointment at realizing none of it's real, then came back around to it as an adult because it's fun

side question: why is the "DO" emphasized in the first post? when I try reading it like this it sounds so awkward and unnatural. shouldn't the emphasis be on "why"?

Or, maybe because it's just cool. Might be a super controversial thing to say, but it's pretty much proven that boys and girls tend to gravitate towards certain elements.

So boys go through a phase where they are crazy about dinosaurs. Girls it's witchcraft.

This isn't a universal constant, however, as neither of my sisters have been into witchcraft, and I know one woman who's really into dinosaurs.