This is not an entry about cursing the moon or the Fae or the people allegedly doing so on Tik Tok. I have no original thoughts on that, and from what I can tell the number of witches trying to tell you what to think about the practice vastly outnumber the people actually doing it.
This is about referring to those new to the Craft of the Wise as “Baby Witches.”
As with many terms that refer to people who are new to a practice or position, it’s not exactly complimentary, but its barb is blunted just enough to keep it from being fully derogatory either.
When you call someone a “baby” anything, it sounds vaguely like the title of a children’s cartoon. (Remember the “Baby Muppets?”) While you can argue that babies are loved, the fact is, you are quite literally infantilizing the person. That’s not cute.
Applying the term to a witch carries a few extra issues beyond mere infantilization. First off, there’s a distinct disempowering connotation. I mean, you simply can’t take a “Baby Witch” seriously, can you? It’s like those memes you see of kittens in chain mail — the juxtaposition of something as powerful as a witch against something as helpless as a baby is meant to imply that the end result simply can’t be taken seriously. How much damage can a “Baby Witch” really do, anyway?
