Fluffy bunny

"Fluffy Bunny" may refer to:

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Fluffy bunny (Wicca)

The term "Fluffy Bunny" is used as a derogatory slur within the contemporary Pagan religion of Wicca to refer to practitioners whose adherence to the faith is perceived as being superficial and dominated by consumerist values. In doing so, it contrasts the speakers' perception that their own practice of Wicca is authentic with that of the inauthentic "fluffy bunny". The usage of the term has been examined by a number of academics operating in the field of Pagan studies.

Definitions

Angela Coco and Ian Woodward studied a 2002 discussion thread in which Wiccan participants debated what it meant to be a "fluffy bunny". They concluded that the participants associated a number of traits with those they labelled as "fluffy bunnies": "pragmatic, profiteering, dabbling, modern, superficial, peripheral to community, playful, and using multimedia to further practical and capitalist values." For many of those contributing to the thread, the term "fluffy bunny" was "linked to the person who is uninformed, immature, and lacking in their understanding of the forces of nature and consequently dangerous because they may misuse magic." They added that on this thread, a minority of participants defended the legitimacy of "fluffy bunnies" to practice Wicca as they saw fit, highlighting that not all practitioners have the same level of experience and involvement in the religion. They also noted that various practitioners expressed the opinion or hope that no-one would think that they themselves were "fluffy bunnies". Ultimately, they thought that the term "fluffy bunny" was a trope used "to invoke a generally felt collective consciousness of an "authentic pagan" identity".

Etymology of Wicca

In Modern English, the term Wicca (/ˈwɪkə/) refers to Wicca, the religion of contemporary Pagan Witchcraft. It is used within the Pagan community under competing definitions. One refers to the entirety of the Pagan Witchcraft movement, while the other refers explicitly to traditions included in what is now called British Traditional Wicca.

Although pronounced differently, Wicca is related to the Old English word wicca, which referred to sorcerers in Anglo-Saxon England. In the early 1950s, English Wiccan Gerald Gardner, founder of the Gardnerian tradition, referred to the Pagan Witchcraft community as the Wica. He claimed to have learned the term during his initiation into the New Forest coven in 1939. By the late 1950s, Gardner's rival Charles Cardell, founder of his own tradition, had begun referring to the religion's followers as Wiccens, and possibly used Wicca in reference to the religion itself.

The inclusive use of the term Wicca—referring to the entirety of Pagan Witchcraft religion—has been traced to Britain in the early 1960s, when it was used by various groups and publicised through use in adverts, magazines, and other literary sources. It was later adopted by figures like Alex Sanders and Gavin and Yvonne Frost, who took it to the United States. There, practitioners of British Traditional Wicca adopted it exclusively for themselves as a means to differentiate their practices from those of other Pagan Witches. This exclusive meaning was countered by its popularisation as a generic term by prolific authors such as Raymond Buckland, Scott Cunningham and Silver RavenWolf. As it entered popular culture, it gained an increasingly eclectic character in its usage. During the 1990s, some attempted to distance themselves from it by utilising the term Traditional Witchcraft.