Aristasia in the Media

"Miss Millard just hated me, and so she said all the nicest things. Later on she keeps talking about my 'silvery laugh'. Isn't that delightful? I don't know if I've a silvery laugh, but I should love to think so. The thing about bongos like Miss Millard is that we are so diametrically opposed we cannot insult one another. If I wrote about her I should say that she was vulgar, brash and unladylike, but she would not be insulted because that is just what she wants to be. When she writes about me she says that I have perfect vowels and a silvery laugh and that I am an "elitist". And that is exactly what I want to be.”
Miss Martindale, Aristasian figurehead, speaking about her interview with a reporter (Rosie Millard) for The Independent.

This page curates what we will, rather facetiously, refer to as “outlander” takes on Aristasia: recent media and journalistic responses. During my time in Aristasia, we described those outside of the movement as “outlanders.” Sometimes, this felt like a cute little joke, referring to the random people (often men avatars dressed in suits and tophats) wandering into our spaces in Second Life.

Aristasia, though, was far more than just Second Life, existed well before it, as did this notion of outsiders as, well… outlanders, and use of terms like “bongo” to refer to them. So, in some ways, this was part of the typical insider-outside doctrines you see in some sketchy groups.

This was particularly true when it was paired with rhetoric about how “deracinated” (and therefore just terrible) the outsiders supposedly were. We see that in (guess who?) Miss Martindale’s above comments, where she insists that the poor reporter who (seems to have) complimented her laugh and voice was actually insulting her. The above snippet was archived from an Aristasian page in the early 2000s, the interview occurred in the 1990s, and is typical of their approach to the press back then.

I here, though, focus on more recent press coverage of Aristasia. Other pages are interspersed with many old news clippings, and I’ve not included those here. In most of the following stories, you will not see any reaction from Aristasia itself about the coverage (no Miss Martindale complaining that her laugh got a compliment, for example) - these were largely written and published after the movement had vanished. Towards the end, there’s a couple that are (slightly) older, and referenced/interfaced with Aristasian communities in Second Life.

The Tentative, Growing List...

UnHerd: Was Aristasia therapy magic, or just kink? Probably the most clickbait-y, worthless take on Aristasia I’ve seen outside of (maybe) 4chan. Borrows from Radio Ulster’s research heavily, but doesn’t seem to understand any of it. Seems to have been written mostly for shock value, and to top it off, the author includes a random image of a (decidedly not-Aristasian) cosplayer at the top. Odd.
The Examiner: The goddess-worshipping women's cult that once lived in Yorkshire's trendiest valley. This, though surprisingly dry given the subject matter and the, errr, paper itself, generally gets the facts correct about the early Aristasian precursor groups of the early 1980s; namely, Rhennes and St. Bride’s School. It leaves a lot of gaps, but what can one expect? This is a huge subject, and very, very niche.
Radio Ulster: The Secrets of St. Bride’s. A podcast. Focusing on the locus of St. Bride’s School for (Adult) Girls, Radio Ulster does an amazing job (at least, compared to some of the other offerings) explaining what (seems to have) actually happened at the school. I believe many of the stories and witnesses, and it helped to change the way I saw that era of the movement entirely. My (major) caveat? This podcast gives precious little attention to the ideology behind what happened, instead choosing to focus on “flickering candles” and other things they (likely) assumed (hah) a contemporary listener would find more salacious. Wouldn’t it have been better to spend an episode (at least) on the connections to Traditionalist schools and the right wing?
From Cult to Game Developer: The Story of St. Brides & The Silver Sisterhood Documentary by RoseTintedSpectrum on YouTube is one that, while rather short, I haven’t actually watched yet - I include it here for the sake of completeness and will summarize once I do give it a watch.
50 Years of Text Gaming - 1992: Silverwolf. The Aristasian precursor group known as St. Bride’s School was well-known for producing various text adventure games, ranging from one about Jack the Ripper to the mysterious Silverwolf described in this article. The article itself focuses more on how supposedly mysterious Aristasians (or at least, the maidens of St. Bride’s) were, and remained, but it seems all quite silly. Still, the look at the gaming aspect is interesting for me, as someone who struggled to even finish a single text adventure game.
Aristasia: Where Women Live in the Past. Filament magazine produced a small three-page piece on Aristasia, focusing heavily on Second Life and virtual interactions therein. This is, in my view, one of the more accurate attempts at depicting that era in particular, perhaps because they actually talked to the Aristasians themselves. The article also features some nice images of the Aristasians in Second Life and the virtual Embassy itself, dancing and spending time together. It does not do more than a halfhearted job of looking into Aristasia's past, though.
Palais Magazine: The Girl Opines Episode One (Part One and Part Two). A woman spent time with the Aristasia milieu in Virtualia (Second Life). Following fundamental disagreements, she left the group and wrote this scathing article about it. The article itself seems to reflect more poorly on her than the group, though, considering she begins by bragging that “I am not a sociopath,” and “I haven’t got Borderline Personality Disorder,” as if she expects a treat for it. Initially, I had no intention of mentioning this, but on further reflection, I think it’s fair that I say it: I was present for some of that. The woman in question had very valid reasons for leaving, but her fondness for slurs and unwillingness to simply leave the group without spewing them didn’t help matters.
The Aristasia Cult is was a livestream on March 23rd, 2024 hosted by Weird Reads with Emily Louise, with the help of independent historian Reid (also going by @seriations). Prompted by Emily Louise’s own dives into Aristasia’s history, Reid shares his research into (early) Aristasian groups and their ties with fascism. Worth a watch, since it addresses (at length) some of the issues that things like the BBC podcast ignored. Their research into Romantia-era ideology especially was useful for the draft I’m writing on that. I do want to note that this livestream ends with the suggestion that Aristasia ultimately became a sort of “anime fascism;” I have to say that wasn’t borne out by my own experiences within the movement in the 2000s. Maybe it changed when they really “cranked the weeaboo level” later on, but I was gone by then.
For completeness sake, I’ll mention that a podcast called Redfem did an episode on Aristasia. Redfem, eh? Must be Marxists, so they’ll focus on dismantling the fascist aspects, right? Right? Nope. They’re TERFs, pushing a (false) narrative about Aristasia having to do with some kind of feminization fetish thing. They purposefully misgender people involved in their Twitter thread about it. I won’t be paying for the podcast itself.
The Aristasia Cult Part II aired on July 5th, 2024, hosted again by Emily Louise and Reid. Both hope to bring greater illumination to Aristasia's problematic aspects and ties to fascism. This particular portion covers only a small part of the Aristasia I knew - the early days of elektraspace. I realize my own work might come across as shimmery and less-focused on those aspects - part of that is a troublesome personal nostalgia, but part of it is also simply my own lack of apparatus for analyzing political material that way. I'm not sure I can really tell what's going on sometimes. This is my own fault for not paying attention when I was younger, but I'd like to remedy it.

I've likely missed many recent articles and media coverage of Aristasia. If you want to share any I didn't, do feel free to send me a note and I'll (likely) add it. I may, ultimately, include links to forum discussions about the movement on here, but I'm vacillating on whether that's really wise or going to court problems. If you yourself are some kind of "media person" or podcaster or whoever who wants to deep dive this or do some kind of feature on Aristasia, I'm open to contact, too, in most cases, but cannot really provide more information than what is already on (or planned for) this site.