Ganja Bruja available now

My cannabis life zine, Ganja Bruja #1, is now online for preview. 

You can also buy a physical copy at microcosm.pub/ganjabruja if that's your thing.

CannaBabe Tips

Confession // Coming out as a Manic Pixie Stoner Babe

In the past year, I've been sort of building an identity online as @manicpixiestonerbabe -- cannabis lover and boss-babe-style professional presenting my experience as a new stoner babe in the women's, feminist, and publishing communities of Portland.

What’s A Stoner Babe?

Anyone uses cannabis as a tool for self empowerment and care, as a tool for positive change in their bodies, lives, families, and communities. I first encountered the term stoner babe at work, during development for the Stoner Babe Coloring Book.I was instantly in love.There are many different kinds, but my basic definition is any person who feels empowered (physically, emotionally, sexually, etc.) by their cannabis consumption. Though I refer most often to women as stoner babes (thanks, patriarchy), it really isn’t a gendered term -- any person that feels like a babe (by any definition you choose) and uses cannabis as a tool of self-empowerment can easily claim this label for themselves; no vagina required.
The only thing not allowed is dicks -- not having one; being one. Racist, sexist, bigoted, or otherwise hateful dicks need not apply.

~excerpted from my zine, Ganja Bruja

and Manic Pixie?

Okay, so, I am almost but not really ashamed that I spent a long time as a devoted “manic pixie dream girl” trainee.

If you don’t know what that is, it’s fun to google; but the base is that a “MPDG” is a commonly used character trope used in media, involving a “wild & free” young woman who has little to no actual character or personality beyond her written quirks, and contributes little to the actual plot, action, or ending beyond their effects on the (male) lead.

Manic Pixie Dream Girls are eccentric and whimsical, with some deep sadness that the young, sensitive romantic hero has to solve, or a fatal illness he has to ultimately experience & grow from (blegh).

These women often aren't given the chance to have real-life wants, needs, personalities, and flaws, and instead are generally focused on as simply a whimsical counterpart to the lead, to be romantically and/or unhealthily interested in.

Some easily recognizable examples are Sam in “Garden State”, Marla in “Fight Club”, Dharma in “Dharma & Greg”, Claire in “Elizabethtown”, and anyone Zoey Deschanel has ever played, like ever. You could also include Alaska from John Green’s Looking for Alaska, or Ramona in the Scott Pilgrim comic series (though that plays with & questions the mpdg dynamic at the same time).

As an adult, it’s taken a long ass time to sift through my own patterns, experiences, and personality quirks and weed out the ones I’d picked up for the sake of aesthetics or charm. After all this reflection and memory-laning, I'd like to think I'll be a better person for it all. Either way, I'm owning it.

Going back to the original purpose of this blog, I'm fascinated by the way I actually kind of see this change in FLB's work too! From the semi-manic-pixie-ish Weetzie in the very very beginning and the whimsical, sensory similar tales, to the young women seeking growth and change in themselves and figuring their shit out (Hanged Man to Elementals & more) to coming to terms with the truths of themselves and their wants, needs, experiences, and stark realities (Beyond the Pale Motel), and working from there.