Witchsy.com, indie online retailer (punning its name off the quirky and quaint shop Etsy.com) is definitely not Amazon, or Ebay, and not even Etsy. It’s an online store for weird and dark houseware, clothing, and more. Scrolling through Witchsy, after awhile, can be honestly unsettling. But like, in a very cool and hip sense. The site was made after the founders found out that Etsy doesn’t allow the selling of merchandise related to or involved in witchcraft.
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But beyond the boob pool floaties, meat blankets and keychains imploring you to “goest and f*cketh thyself”, is a super feminist backstory to how the website got designed.
The two millenial lady cofounders of Witchsy, Kate Dwyer and Penelope Gazin, found early in the process of starting witchsy that the dude-bro programmers and graphic designers they were hiring to model their website were less than helpful. They describe situations in which projects were put off for days, emails went completely ignored, and techbros addressed them as “girls” in their consultations.
Kate, who was in charge of email correspondence, finally got fed up, so she and Penelope configured a plan: create a fake dude co-founder named Keith Mann. In an interview with NPS, Kate said, “I gave him the last name Mann, just to make sure, like, they really GOT it, you know?”
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Keith was even given a sweet back story. He’s a bit of a bro, played football in college, and has a lovely wife. Him and his wife hit that sweet five year anniversary and are very excited to have kids soon. Kate describes Keith as being “just a really good guy.” She’s also said that while Keith doesn’t really understand the girls he works with, he’s “happy to help until they find husbands.” (Anyone else want to be BFFs with Kate and Penelope at this point?)
Once Keith was in charge of all email correspondence, Kate and Penelope said there was a total change in attitudes. The techies they were working with were suddenly more than helpful, responded immediately, and addressed Mr. Mann with absolute respect. Kate has said “it was very clear no one took us seriously and everybody thought we were just idiots.” Jokes on them, because this Her Campus writer just accidentally bought $30 worth of hats and pencils, somehow, because like, this site is the perfect mix of cute and weird and the founders are badass.
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Cheers to Kate, Penelope, and all the patriarchy-hacking ladies everywhere.
P.S. Keith left his position at Witchsy to devote his time to his newborn child, and hopefully Kate and Penelope have fired the programmers they were previously working with as well.