Welcome to another edition of the Fred & Dan Blog! Our mission with Fred&Dan Productions and this blog has always been to make people think in ways they’ve never done before - to spark creativity and facilitate conversation in unconventional ways. A place where you can open up your email and have a bit of creativity to take with you into your day! 

Who doesn’t like to believe that a little magic lives in all of us? 

The leaves are changing, the foggy crisp air is rolling in, and the sun is setting sooner. It’s that time of the year that feels a little extra magical. That time when we all brew our favorite fall tea, light up our pumpkin scented candles, and watch a 90’s Halloween Disney channel movie for nostalgia…oh no? That’s just a Fred&Dan thing? Well anyways, ‘tis the season friends.

We’re so excited to be dropping our second edition Zine SUBLIMINAL on Halloween this year. Not only are we some spooky bitches over here at Fred&Dan, but we feel like the subliminal messaging all around us is the real spooky business. More than that, we’re beyond stoked to be partnered with a non-profit that is fighting for women’s reproductive health - Access Reproductive Justice. This amazing organization brings access and education to women all over the United States, a fight that has been going on for centuries. 

That’s something not a lot of people know. Some of the first women’s healthcare providers went by another name - Witches.

In the 1400s as the medical field transformed into a more bureaucratic system starting at universities, a campaign aimed at systematically discrediting the healing arts, primarily practiced by women, led to one of the first waves of the witch hunts. Specifically targeting peasant women, these healers who’s knowledge was passed down from generation to generation, were snuffed out.

As Caitlin Wiesner wrote in a piece titled, Warts and All: Learn The Fascinating History of Witchcraft and Reproductive Health, 

“Lacking formal medical training, they learned from their mothers, sisters, and female neighbors the medicinal properties of herbs. Relying upon trial-and-error experimentation, they learned how to apply freely growing plants such as belladonna, ergot, pennyroyal, tansy, rue, and cotton-root to treat diseases, ease the pain of labor, and control women’s fertility. As Ehrenreich and English said of the “witch-healer’s methods,” “her magic was the science of her time.”  Through their “magic,” “wise women” served their communities as midwives, nurses, pharmacists, and abortionists. Their essential knowledge and skills granted them stature at a time when women held very little formal power.”

Those who stood up and claimed their power publicly were put on trial and murdered. 

Standing up for what you believe in is never easy, the subliminal messaging and propaganda that bombards us on a regular basis can make it even harder to know what is true and right. 

A witch hunt that started 700 years ago still plagues our world today. Women still have to fight to feel like they belong in the medical field, and women still have to fight to have access to safe reproductive health care. 

Try as they might to villainize a healer – a witch –  as evil, we know we can agree with one thing: there is nothing scarier than a woman on a mission. So let them fear the Witch, she surely is a fearsome thing, a force to be reckoned with, the most powerful sorceress.

We can’t wait for you to see the incredible artwork from our amazing collection of artists. In various different forms, they each explore the effect and presence of subliminal messaging. All of the proceeds will be going to benefit Access RJ and all the women they help. We really want to be able to donate $500 and need to sell about five more zines to make that happen. So spread the word far and wide, because there’s a little witch in all of us.