Clutching the short straw

The term glamourbomb (sometimes written as two words, i.e. “glamour bomb”) was coined in the late 1990s. A glamour bomb is a prank or act of mischief aimed at challenging or altering perceptions — in particular, expanding the target’s view of reality.

For centuries the word “glamour” denoted a magic spell cast on somebody to make them believe that something or somebody was attractive, an illusion cast by gypsies and witches. The Oxford English Dictionary cites a 1721 glossary of poetry: “When devils, wizards or jugglers deceive the sight, they are said to cast glamour o’er the eyes of the spectator.”

Today, glamour usually denotes the impression of attraction or fascination that a particularly luxurious or elegant appearance creates, an impression which is better than the reality. Here, too, is an essential quality of glamour: it is an escape, an illusion, an ideal, a dream. Glamour is not quite real.

The people who engage in glamourbombing are quite varied — many are practitioners of various forms of magic or neopaganism, particularly of those traditions with an appreciation for chaos and the Trickster archetype, such as discordians and chaos magicians.

In mythology, and in the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a god, goddess, spirit, man, woman, or anthropomorphic animal who plays tricks or otherwise disobeys normal rules and conventional behavior. A very sexual archetype, the Trickster figure frequently exhibits gender and form variability, changing gender roles, engaging in same-sex practices and playing havoc with the hyper-rational personality and community.

The Trickster is an example of a Jungian archetype. Its nature recalls its differentiation from the fool: the trickster is not playing. Not just any rogue or anti-hero can properly be termed a trickster. The true trickster’s trickery calls into question fundamental assumptions about the way the world is organized, and reveals the possibility of transforming them.

Unlike the fool, the trickster aims to change the rules of the “real” world; he/she is in fact the perfect vehicle to undermine the “terminal creeds” that rigidify into overdetermination or stereotype.

In Tarot symbolism, the Trickster archetype is represented by the figure of the Magician.

(Text stitched together from wikipedia articles, The New York Times and several other sources which I am unable to recall right now. Paiting by Jack Vettriano.)