Magic

“The closer you look, the less you see.”

Alexander Herrmann (1844 – 1896)

Magic is an art form and a hobby that’s close to Angela’s heart. While they perform close-up magic, including at this interview with Get it Girl! on LA TV, Angela’s long-time passion lies with magic history. Specifically, women in magic as featured in LA Weekly. But when most people think of magicians, they usually envisions someone who looks like this fellow here.

Zanzic, a 19th century magician with ALL the illusions

And that image has been stuck in the public psyche ever since. It’s always some guy with a goatee sawing a rabbit in half or pulling a woman out of a hat.

Wait…

While studying at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Angela’s research focused on women and their representation in magic (you can only saw someone in half, dismember them, or light them on fire so many times over the years before people start asking questions) as well as people of color and the representation of race in American magic shows.

Available for free below is the thesis that Angela wrote on women during magic’s Golden Age.

Ever find yourself wondering, “Why is it always a woman who gets sawn in half?” Conjuring the Modern Woman: Women and Their Representation in the Golden Age of Magic examines four contemporary women magicians and magicians’ assistants whose fates are decided or upended by the rigid, patriarchal society they navigated through their professions.