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Jex Blackmore

Jex Blackmore
Still from the performance One hundred pounds of rotten fruit while awaiting her second abortion, livestreamed by Blackmore, 2019
Born1986 (age 37–38)
Southfield, Michigan, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of Michigan
Occupation(s)Pro-choice activist, performance artist
OrganizationThe Satanic Temple (2014–2018)
Websitewww.jexblackmore.com

Jex Blackmore (born 1986) is an American pro-choice activist, performance artist, and Satanist. Blackmore was affiliated with the Satanic Temple, a non-theistic organization, between 2014 and 2018, and led its Detroit chapter. Blackmore publicized their[a] three abortions through a detailed blogging project, a film performance, and by taking a medical abortion pill during an interview on local TV.

Early life and education

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Jex Blackmore was born on July 21, 1986 in Southfield, Michigan, United States and is based in Detroit. Their father owned a funeral home and they read books about embalming and disease, which influenced their approach to the human body.[2] Blackmore's mother was a theater director. Blackmore graduated from the University of Michigan, having studied art history.[3][4]

Satanism

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Blackmore was a member of the Satanic Temple (TST) and, in August 2014, founded an active chapter in Detroit.[5] Blackmore led the Detroit chapter, which set up a Satanic display on the grounds of the Michigan State Capitol in December 2014, alongside a conventional Christian nativity scene. Their "Snaketivity" display included an inverted pentagram and cross bearing the phrase "The Greatest Gift is Knowledge", alluding to the fall of man and the Genesis creation narrative of the snake and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.[6][7] In 2015, Blackmore organized the first public unveiling of the TST's statue of Baphomet,[8][9] the "largest public satanic ceremony in history."[5]

In August 2015, Blackmore and other TST activists responded to that year's anti-abortion National Day of Protest with a piece of political theatre: Two women knelt down, with their writsts tied, before an American flag with a depiction of Baphomet superimposed. Other TST members in clerical robes poured milk on the kneeling women, who "started gasping and sputtering as the cascade continued." In the Detroit version, Blackmore held up a sign, "America is not a theocracy. End forced motherhood."[10]

As a TST spokesperson, Blackmore gave voice to a feminist approach to Satanism. Without explicitly naming the Church of Satan, they criticized Satanism as sexist, saying that "modern Satanism has been primarily associated with strength, masculinity and power. Reinforcing chauvinistic conceptions of the abilities of women, with a particular focus on male sexuality, modern Satanism has continued to emphasize traditional gender roles."[11] Blackmore also spoke to the media, on behalf of TST, about its abortion rights lawsuit for a woman in Missouri.[12] During this period, Blackmore designed actions that were not endorsed by the national TST. For example, they protested Texas abortion restrictions with a campaign to send semen in socks to the Governor.[13] Scholars Kristin Marie Bivens and Kirsti Cole analyzed their effort as a grotesque protest, defined as using "the body's fluids to push back against attempts to legislate bodies."[14]

In March 2018, Blackmore left TST after being removed by TST's National Council. The pivotal moment was their "Subversive Autonomous" performance,[15] during which Blackmore made statements deemed incompatible with the group's non-violence policy, as shown in the documentary Hail Satan?[16][17] Blackmore had stated, "We are going to storm press conferences, kidnap an executive, release snakes in the governor's mansion, execute the president."[18][11][19] In a 2020 interview, they criticized TST as corrupt and stated, "The organization badly yearns to be deemed legitimate in the eyes of those in power but they will never achieve this aim, even if their litigious activities are successful. Our work, whatever it is, must come from a place of authenticity."[20] That same year, Blackmore debated five members of the Westboro Baptist Church at a Central Michigan University class on media law. The student audience reportedly preferred Blackmore's Satanism to the Westboro Baptists' views.[21]

Abortion rights

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In 2015, Blackmore wrote a series of detailed blog posts leading up to their abortion on November 26, Thanksgiving.[22] Blackmore called it the Unmother Project and used it as an opportunity to oppose restrictions to abortion in Michigan, their home state.[23] At the time, Blackmore was uninsured and they began their project only 12 days before the abortion.[24]

Future of Baby is Now performed by the Satanic Temple in Detroit, with poster: "No more lives sacrificed to fetal idolatry", April 25, 2016

Blackmore led the Detroit TST chapter on abortion rights counter-protests, including The Future of Baby is Now with "'fetish babies' – adults in baby masks, diapers, and BDSM gear."[25] Before their second abortion, Blackmore livestreamed a performance, One hundred pounds of rotten fruit while awaiting her second abortion, in which they were pelted with one hundred pounds of rotten fruit.[26] In a performance art journal, Emergency Index, Blackmore wrote,

As overripe pulp exploded painfully against my skin, I was reminded that my womb shared a resemblance of fruit deemed unnatural and spoiled. Each blow echoed the weight of violence championed by political powers that tell us our lives and dignity matter less than that of a fetus... The bruises that camouflaged my body from this performance remained visible until the day following my abortion, which left none.[27]

Originally titled The Dignity of Every Human Life, the performance responded to the January 18, 2019, March for Life, whose livestream was projected onto Blackstone during their performance.[27] In January 2022, Blackmore took abortion medication on live television, Fox affiliate WJBK in Detroit. Blackmore was in the process of explaining to the host, Charlie Langton, their view of the Food and Drug Administration's position on mailing medical abortion pills, mifepristone. Langton was surprised and an anti-abortion guest was visibly upset.[28] The show was held on the 49th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.[26] In an email to The Washington Post, Blackmore confirmed that this was their third medical abortion and their goal to overcome the "myths, misinformation, and stigma" over abortion pills.[28]

In January 2022, Blackmore led a guerrila information campaign in Detroit to tell women about the availability of medical abortion pills. The campaign centered around a poster designed by Blackmore and information on mail order pills, as an alternative to abortion clinics.[29] While the campaign evoked some positive responses, Blackmore also stated that they were called a murderer and received death threats.[30]

Film and performance art

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Installation of Undue Burden, a 24-hour endurance art performance by Blackmore

In February 2016, with the release of the film The Witch, Blackmore developed three interactive ritual performances in Austin, Hollywood, and New York City, titled the Sabbat cycle. The cycle refers to three phases of Satanism: Awaken, Rebel, and Convoke.[31][32] During the Sabbat performance in Austin, Blackmore preached a "satanic jeremiad" (in the words of scholar Joseph P. Laycock) that warned of a Christian theocracy in America.[32]

That same year, as a counter-demonstration to a Catholic-led anti-abortion protest in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Blackmore wore a crown of thorns and carried a large cross on her shoulder. The performance was titled, "Sanctions of the Cross" (contrasting the Stations of the Cross).[33][34]

In 2019, Blackmore founded the Sex Militant collective and served as their spokesperson. Their two-day premiere, in Chicago, "constructed an immersive space out of durational performances, participatory rituals, sound, and protest art."[35] The collective created events for sex workers, such as a gun training and a striptease fundraiser for a strippers' union.[36] In September 2019, a Sex Militant exhibition aimed to give its Chicago audience a sense of the erotic in state-sponsored violence, using such elements as a spoken word performance, American flags, and "a glowing cross being pulled by performers in fetish play." It drew opposition from a nearby Catholic church.[37]

Blackmore created another abortion rights artwork in 2020, in partnership with Ann Lewis, made of "wood, paint, one thousand metal hangers sent to artists by donation."[26][38] The piece was titled C.R.I.S.I.S. (Constricting reproductive rights is state imposed suffering).[26]

In March 2021, the Ann Arbor Film Festival showed their film, An Undue Burden, described as "an endurance work that follows the experience of a pregnant woman as she awaits her abortion procedure in a hotel room over the course of twenty-four hours."[39][40]

Personal life

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In interviews from 2014 through 2022, Blackmore mentioned their affinity for Black Sabbath, their cat named for a goat in The Witch,[41] and their shift away from Christianity as a teenager.[42] They also enjoy motorcycles.[43][44] They had a blog about radical politics activists, Raw Pussy, before joining the Satanic Temple.[25] Blackmore also expressed concern about threats of violence against their performances.[25][45]

Notes

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  1. ^ Blackmore uses the pronouns they/them.[1]

References

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  1. ^ Blackmore, Jex. "About Jex Blackmore". Archived from the original on March 16, 2022. Retrieved May 2, 2024.
  2. ^ van der Kolk, Nick (December 7, 2022). "Fruit of Knowledge: Jex Blackmore – Satanist (Transcript)". Love + Radio. Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  3. ^ Hogan, Jon (May 10, 2019). "A Documentary on the Birth and Growth of the Satanic Temple". Hyperallergic. Retrieved October 8, 2024.
  4. ^ Robinson, Elissa (compiler) (October 2, 2014). "Our top 5 most-read stories in September". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved October 14, 2024.
  5. ^ a b "Why Detroit Has the Largest Satanist Temple Chapter in the US: Detroit just hosted the largest public satanist ceremony with 600 people". ABC News. July 27, 2015. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
  6. ^ Klug, Fritz (December 21, 2014). "'Snaketivity' display set up at Michigan Capitol draws supporters, opponents". MLive Media Group. Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  7. ^ Staff Writer. "Beliefs of all must be respected in rotunda displays". The State Journal-Register. Retrieved October 14, 2024.
  8. ^ Rothman, Lily (July 27, 2015). "The Evolution of Modern Satanism in the United States". TIME. Retrieved October 8, 2024.
  9. ^ Daniels, Serena Maria (July 26, 2015). "Satanic Temple holds public sculpture unveiling in Detroit". Reuters. Retrieved October 14, 2024.
  10. ^ Beusman, Callie (August 25, 2015). "Satanists Ambush Anti-Planned Parenthood Protests with Theatrical Milk Bath". Vice. Retrieved June 21, 2024. Blackmore is shown holding the sign in "Sacred Milkboarding". Jex Blackmore. Retrieved June 21, 2024.
  11. ^ a b White, Manon Hedenborg; Gregorius, Fredrik (2019). "The Satanic Temple: Secularist Activism and Occulture in the American Political Landscape". International Journal for the Study of New Religions. 10 (1): 89–110. doi:10.1558/ijsnr.38954. ISSN 2041-952X.
  12. ^ Siemaszko, Corky (January 22, 2018). "Satanic Temple challenges Missouri's abortion law on religious grounds". NBC News. Retrieved April 4, 2024.
  13. ^ Beusman, Callie (December 2, 2016). "'Cum Rags for Congress': Satanists Protest Texas Abortion Law with Semen Socks". Vice Media. Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  14. ^ Bivens, Kristin Marie; Cole, Kirsti (2018). "The grotesque protest in social media as embodied, political rhetoric". Journal of Communication Inquiry. 42 (1): 5–25. doi:10.1177/0196859917735650. ISSN 1552-4612.
  15. ^ Alston, Adam (2021). "'Burn the Witch': Decadence and the Occult in Contemporary Feminist Performance". Theatre Research International. 46 (3): 285–302. doi:10.1017/S0307883321000274. ISSN 0307-8833.
  16. ^ Lane, Penny (director) (January 25, 2019). Hail Satan? (documentary film). United States: Sedgwick, Gabriel (producer), Magnolia Pictures (distribution). Event occurs at 1:18:30. Retrieved October 14, 2024. ...satisfying to be fired for being too extreme.
  17. ^ Laycock, Joseph (December 21, 2018). "What the Hail: Satanists Got Busy in 2018". Religion Dispatches. Retrieved October 14, 2024.
  18. ^ Burton, Tara Isabella (May 29, 2019). "Getting in on – and Tossed out of – the Satanist Temple Joke". Word & Way. Retrieved March 29, 2024.
  19. ^ Blackmore, Jex (February 10, 2018). "Subversive Autonomous Satanic Ritual". Jex Blackmore (See 02:40–02:50 of embedded video for quotation.). Retrieved March 29, 2024.
  20. ^ Nesler, Tyler (November 2, 2020). "Jex Blackmore". Interlocutor Magazine. Retrieved March 29, 2024.
  21. ^ Frick, Melissa (April 25, 2018). "Westboro Baptist Church members debate Satanists in CMU classroom discussion". Oakland Press. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
  22. ^ Andrusko, Dave (December 8, 2015). "Satanic Temple director blogs her abortion, step-by-step, over two weeks – National Right to Life". NRL News. Retrieved October 14, 2024.
  23. ^ Ohlheiser, Abby (October 26, 2021). "Why the Satanic Temple's spokeswoman is blogging her abortion". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved October 14, 2024.
  24. ^ Moore, Lane (December 8, 2015). "This Woman Blogged Every Step of Her Abortion: Here's the step-by-step guide to how one uninsured woman obtained an abortion". Cosmopolitan. Retrieved October 8, 2024.
  25. ^ a b c Utz, Charlie (October 31, 2018). "Meet Satanist activist and performance artist, Jex Blackmore". Dazed. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
  26. ^ a b c d Flores, Ramona; Baker, Carrie N. (February 1, 2022). "Jex Blackmore Swallows Abortion Pill on Fox News: "It's Literally This Easy"". Ms. Retrieved April 4, 2024.
  27. ^ a b Blackmore, Jex (2020). "The Dignity of Every Human Life". Emergency Index: An Annual Document of Performance Practice. 9 (2019): 18–19. Retrieved October 8, 2024.
  28. ^ a b Mark, Julian (January 26, 2022). "An activist claimed she was taking an abortion pill on live TV: 'This is going to end a pregnancy'". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 29, 2024.
  29. ^ DeVito, Lee (January 22, 2022). "Detroit activists launch guerrilla campaign for mail-order abortion pills on 'Roe v. Wade' anniversary". Detroit Metro Times. Retrieved June 21, 2024.
  30. ^ Wright, Andrew (February 25, 2022). "'Abortion Pills Forever': An interview with artist and activist Jex Blackmore". People's World. Retrieved October 14, 2024.
  31. ^ Lang, Brent (February 21, 2016). "How 'The Witch' Scored the Satanic Temple's Endorsement". Variety. Retrieved March 29, 2024.
  32. ^ a b Laycock, Joseph P (April 19, 2016). "Can a Burgeoning Satanic Movement Effect Political Change?". The New Republic. Retrieved April 5, 2024.
  33. ^ Allen, Samantha (March 25, 2016). "Michigan Satanists Defend Planned Parenthood on Good Friday". The Daily Beast. Retrieved October 10, 2024.
  34. ^ Markus, Bethania Palma (March 25, 2016). "Detroit Satanists don crown of thorns on Good Friday to protest anti-abortion laws - Raw Story". www.rawstory.com. Retrieved October 14, 2024.
  35. ^ Gruenberg, Tess (April 2, 2020). "Sex Militant". Good Trouble. Retrieved June 21, 2024.
  36. ^ Gavin, Francesca (November 2021). "Sex Militant". CURA. Cura 37. Retrieved June 21, 2024.
  37. ^ Lane, S. Nicole (December 17, 2019). "Six visual art shows that made 2019 bearable". Reader: Chicago's alternative nonprofit newsroom. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
  38. ^ "C.R.I.S.I.S." Jex Blackmore. Retrieved June 21, 2024.
  39. ^ "In the Screen!". Ann Arbor Film Festival. Retrieved March 29, 2024.
  40. ^ Dioquino, Cori; Reyes, Kristen (April 21, 2021). "Ann Arbor Film Festival went virtual second year in a row". Film Fest Magazine. Retrieved October 8, 2024.
  41. ^ Nastasi, Alison (February 13, 2018). "What Satanist Jex Blackmore Eats for Breakfast". My Recipes. Archived from the original on May 5, 2018. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
  42. ^ Orbea, Eduardo (July 29, 2015). "Confesiones de una mujer satanista: Jex Blackmore es la directora del Templo Satánico en Detroit". Telemundo. Retrieved March 29, 2024.
  43. ^ Howell, Peter (May 2, 2019). "Hail Satan? shows devilish fun with pranks, giving way to repetition and rules". Toronto Star. Retrieved October 10, 2024.
  44. ^ Wachter, Meg; Brown, Jessae (May 15, 2019). "Satanic Feminism & Body Autonomy: an Interview with Jex Blackmore". Got a Girl Crush. Retrieved October 10, 2024.
  45. ^ "Sex Militant" (PDF). Lumpen. 28 (2). Chicago, IL: 22. Winter 2020. Retrieved March 30, 2024.