{"id":10108,"date":"2016-05-19T00:04:38","date_gmt":"2016-05-19T00:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/?p=10108"},"modified":"2016-05-19T00:12:11","modified_gmt":"2016-05-19T00:12:11","slug":"smashing-the-spirit-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/smashing-the-spirit-level\/","title":{"rendered":"Smashing The Spirit Level"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Poltergeist\"The Guardian<\/em>:<\/a><\/p>\n

When Morgan Maguire was growing up, she struggled to find a role model. As a young Catholic schoolgirl in Hanover, Pennsylvania, she was often teased about her love of history and scary stories, and when it came to one of her most beloved hobbies, there were no women on television or in her life to inspire her.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a story familiar to many young girls, although the male-dominated field she wanted to join is one that\u2019s rarely associated with debates on gender equality and sexism.<\/p>\n

Maguire wanted to be a ghost hunter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been fascinated with the paranormal, God, probably since birth,\u201d said Maguire, 24, who now works in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, which some say is one of the most haunted cities in the US. \u201cWhen I was little, I didn\u2019t have any female ghost hunters to look up to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maguire is now part of a group that claims to be one of the country\u2019s first-ever all-female team of \u201cparanormal investigators\u201d, which means they search for evidence of ghosts and help people respond to spirits haunting their homes. The women are part of a movement of female ghost hunters that they say has grown in recent years, and they\u2019re hoping many more young girls will be encouraged to join after the highly anticipated women-led remake of Ghostbusters hits the big screen\u2026.<\/p>\n

Although Ghostbusters is a comedy, the women of Gettysburg Ghost Gals and similar groups take their work seriously and have no doubts that ghosts and spirits are real \u2013 and that hunters provide a vital service.<\/p>\n

Real-world ghostbusters respond to inquiries from clients concerned about ghosts lurking in their homes. They conduct lengthy investigations to confirm or deny their presence and sometimes help families cleanse their homes of unwelcome intruders.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They do. Really?<\/p>\n

And, of course, female ghost hunters have an edge:<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we get better results because we\u2019re women,\u201d Goode said. \u201cWomen are much more sensitive \u2026 we\u2019re not a dominating force.\u201d Female ghost hunters said they can connect better with frightened families seeking aid \u2013 and they\u2019re more successful at communicating with child spirits.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Child spirits<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll just let this story stand there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Guardian: When Morgan Maguire was growing up, she struggled to find a role model. As a young Catholic schoolgirl in Hanover, Pennsylvania, she was often teased about her love of history and scary stories, and when it came to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[1061,319,250],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10108"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10108"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10111,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10108\/revisions\/10111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}