Watch Ep V on Youtube


In the previous post, we talked about charlatans. I was intending to share a relevant anecdote but this episode is special and I'm going to postpone that.

Today, I'm thinking about women.

Yeah. Women. The lack of women in magic, and also the larger context of female representation in other fields. Even in medical school, I think the gender ratio has increased from women being a minority in the past to the ratio being about fifty-fifty right now. I do not have specific statistics apart from heresay from tutors.

I've seen an informal survey on why this is so and the responses ranged from the usual nature vs nurture; about why women (in general) might be psychologically less suited to magic, to the fact that magic being male dominated, every aspect of it is geared towards men and thus women might feel out of place.

I believe that is actually what happens in many fields . People once said that that science was unsuitable for women because, perhaps they thought differently. Over time as more women entered the field both men and women got over those biases. Same with education. I forsee that the same might happen with magic.

I find "sex appeal" being thrown around a bit when it comes to women in the performing arts. Women (and men) are definitely free to garnish their performances with sex appeal as they feel fit. As a performer with lots to learn, I would, however, want to look beyond the sex appeal. In the context of Singapore, I am happy to say that the handful of women I have seen performing magic have been extremely skilled in their technique.

Getting back to the video, is Adeline going to be the next Magic Babe Ning? No, I think she has a different style. Could Adeline be the next big thing in magic? That's a resounding "hell yeah!"




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