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I think this article lacks an actual history of the event as opposed to the meaning people seek at the event today. It's my recollection -- from speaking with

I think this article lacks an actual history of the event as opposed to the meaning people seek at the event today. It's my recollection -- from speaking with some long time san francisco residents -- that the original burning man was really a burning woman, and was an effigy of one of the founder's former girlfriends. If you look at photos of the first burn, the "man" appears more to be a woman in a hands-on-hips scolding posture https://www.presidio.gov/blog-internal/PublishingImages/then-and-now-burning-man-at-baker-beach/1986-burning-man-at-baker-beach.jpg https://www.presidio.gov/blog-internal/PublishingImages/then... . Subsequent burns shifted to a more neutral hands at sides posture. Of course, if you speak to the original burners the somewhat misogynistic roots have been smoothed over to clarify that the man is a more universal symbol. There are some decent articles https://www.trippingly.net/burning-man-musings/2019/2/14/why-did-larry-harvey-burn-the-first-man https://www.trippingly.net/burning-man-musings/2019/2/14/why... that cover the different accounts of the first burn, which is a bit more well researched that "something a SF long time resident told me".

bsksi 5y ago
Hating an ex is a misogynistic act? Surely some women also hate their exes?
- michaelt 5y ago
  Sure - but if I, a stranger, am really looking forward to seeing the burning of an effigy of some dude's ex-girlfriend, that would make me look pretty weird.
  - bsksi 5y ago
    I think we can all sympathise with that sentiment, regardless of our sex :P
  - Zababa 5y ago
    I don't know, burning a symbolic "ex" could be something many people would relate too. Instead of taking out your anger on a real human, you take it out on a symbolic effigy. It's better for everyone involved.
  - boublepop 5y ago
    Why? Billions of teens are dancing along to songs of Taylor Swift figuratively burning her ex-boyfriends. That doesn’t mean they hate men or that they “look pretty weird”.
- agumonkey 5y ago
  depends about the meaning behind the act, overwhelming anger or moving on I guess
gremloni 5y ago
How on earth is that misogynistic? He burnt the effigy for highly personal reasons. It’s not some kind of attack on all women.
- noisem4ker 5y ago
  Make yourself comfortable with the concept of "femicide", if you aren't. It blew up a few years ago and it's here to stay at least for a while.
  - gremloni 5y ago
    Oh really? Where are they doing it, sounds interesting.
conradev 5y ago
If you want to read a pretty good account of the atmosphere and attitude at the time, I highly recommend reading this book, if you can find a copy: http://talesofsfcacophony.com/ http://talesofsfcacophony.com/ It goes into the origins of Burning Man, SantaCon, art cars – the whole deal. Burning Man in its current form started as “Zone Trip #4” or “A Bad Day in Black Rock”, organized by the Cacophony Society, after the burn at Baker beach was stopped by police. If you want to read the original flyer for the event, the Internet Archive actually archived the whole of Rough Draft, which was the central organizing newsletter of the Cacophony Society. Here it is: https://archive.org/details/roughdraftoffici1171vari/page/n97/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/roughdraftoffici1171vari/page/n9...
- jes5199 5y ago
  it’s a little more complicated than that, because “burning the man” and “zone trip” were separate events that merged into one giant thing
- fuzzfactor 5y ago
  Not everyone pinpoints the reason Houston is the art car capital of the world. Simple really, you just need to start early. Quite a bit earlier than the museum goes back to. Don't ask me how I know, not the subject of this thread.
fuzzfactor 5y ago
>Why Do They Burn a Man? Well back in the mid-1970's, over a period of a few years they ended up completing a fairly good human likeness built from slabs of scrap logs having different diameters & shapes, almost like it was 3D printed. This would have been considered a small hippie community in the mountains with a handful of permanent residents and often another half dozen to dozen guests, visitors, and temporary residents from time to time. Lots more of these loosely connected groups were found in California (crowded "progressive" place). Compared to the Southeast (rural "not-so-progressive" place) where their multi-state "network" ended up with the moniker Rainbow family. Without Facebook, cellphone, or even landline a traveler could have a thousand real friends & acquaintances and without Airbnb enjoy overnight or limited-stay accomodation, as some artists, musicians & craftspeople acted to contribute whatever they could that was appreciated by hippies when they were there. But these were less and less often the actual hippies of the 1960's since it was already the 1970's. LSD had been illegal for a number of years by then. Less than 10 years after Woodstock the Greatful Dead was drawing bigger crowds than ever even though they never got significant mainstream airplay on the radio. They had toured Europe in 1973, and US tours had by then built up more tonnage and number of 18-wheelers than any other road show. Hendrix, Santana and The Who were also Woodstock headliners and they were on the radio more than ever even though Hendrix didn't make it into the '70's alive. Who & Santana were selling out stadiums everywhere too no different than Zeppelin & the Stones, Pink Floyd was now well recognized and these are all some of the most legendary concerts too. Zappa was way out of the mainstream. But only the Dead was like Woodstock came to town when they got there. It could be almost like a temporary community joining forces with the local enthusiasts to gather on the night of the concert. Anyway, out in Cali my buddy had helped cut some of the wood for the artists and it turned out over 10 feet tall. Such painstaking work after such a long time by so many contributors and it had arose right there at the front of the property, symbolic of the community. Interestingly it greatly resembled the headless man still there as surplus art at Walnut & Sterrett in Houston, where the historical warehouse district was formerly inhabited by lots more artists seeking low rents decades ago. Only not headless, and when they decided to burn it there was quite a bit of consternation because so many hours had been spent building it by so many different people. It had been an icon for quite some time, some returnng to add touches year after year. There was discussion about art being temporary, man being temporary, community being temporary, things like that. A contributor or two might have even been on mushrooms. I may still have a photo he gave me, it was an impressive statue. But it was all dried out by then and they took it down to a beach where a small group of their like-minded friends could gather safely and up in flames it went. Once again mushrooms might have been involved, perhaps by more than just one or two participants. Who knows, maybe a renewal of some kind. In the spring there again appeared ambition to build a replacement man in the front of the residence, which had been planned by some even before the first one was burnt. It was going to be a different kind of man this time, intended to be burnt itself before the year was out, so it was built with more dried out wood to begin with. It was such a hoot the first time, it got more popular every year and they got kicked off the beach.

bsksi 5y ago

Hating an ex is a misogynistic act? Surely some women also hate their exes?

michaelt 5y ago
Sure - but if I, a stranger, am really looking forward to seeing the burning of an effigy of some dude's ex-girlfriend, that would make me look pretty weird.
- bsksi 5y ago
  I think we can all sympathise with that sentiment, regardless of our sex :P
- Zababa 5y ago
  I don't know, burning a symbolic "ex" could be something many people would relate too. Instead of taking out your anger on a real human, you take it out on a symbolic effigy. It's better for everyone involved.
- boublepop 5y ago
  Why? Billions of teens are dancing along to songs of Taylor Swift figuratively burning her ex-boyfriends. That doesn’t mean they hate men or that they “look pretty weird”.
agumonkey 5y ago
depends about the meaning behind the act, overwhelming anger or moving on I guess

gremloni 5y ago

How on earth is that misogynistic? He burnt the effigy for highly personal reasons. It’s not some kind of attack on all women.

noisem4ker 5y ago
Make yourself comfortable with the concept of "femicide", if you aren't. It blew up a few years ago and it's here to stay at least for a while.
- gremloni 5y ago
  Oh really? Where are they doing it, sounds interesting.

conradev 5y ago

If you want to read a pretty good account of the atmosphere and attitude at the time, I highly recommend reading this book, if you can find a copy: http://talesofsfcacophony.com/ http://talesofsfcacophony.com/ It goes into the origins of Burning Man, SantaCon, art cars – the whole deal. Burning Man in its current form started as “Zone Trip #4” or “A Bad Day in Black Rock”, organized by the Cacophony Society, after the burn at Baker beach was stopped by police. If you want to read the original flyer for the event, the Internet Archive actually archived the whole of Rough Draft, which was the central organizing newsletter of the Cacophony Society. Here it is: https://archive.org/details/roughdraftoffici1171vari/page/n97/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/roughdraftoffici1171vari/page/n9...

jes5199 5y ago
it’s a little more complicated than that, because “burning the man” and “zone trip” were separate events that merged into one giant thing
fuzzfactor 5y ago
Not everyone pinpoints the reason Houston is the art car capital of the world. Simple really, you just need to start early. Quite a bit earlier than the museum goes back to. Don't ask me how I know, not the subject of this thread.

fuzzfactor 5y ago

>Why Do They Burn a Man? Well back in the mid-1970's, over a period of a few years they ended up completing a fairly good human likeness built from slabs of scrap logs having different diameters & shapes, almost like it was 3D printed. This would have been considered a small hippie community in the mountains with a handful of permanent residents and often another half dozen to dozen guests, visitors, and temporary residents from time to time. Lots more of these loosely connected groups were found in California (crowded "progressive" place). Compared to the Southeast (rural "not-so-progressive" place) where their multi-state "network" ended up with the moniker Rainbow family. Without Facebook, cellphone, or even landline a traveler could have a thousand real friends & acquaintances and without Airbnb enjoy overnight or limited-stay accomodation, as some artists, musicians & craftspeople acted to contribute whatever they could that was appreciated by hippies when they were there. But these were less and less often the actual hippies of the 1960's since it was already the 1970's. LSD had been illegal for a number of years by then. Less than 10 years after Woodstock the Greatful Dead was drawing bigger crowds than ever even though they never got significant mainstream airplay on the radio. They had toured Europe in 1973, and US tours had by then built up more tonnage and number of 18-wheelers than any other road show. Hendrix, Santana and The Who were also Woodstock headliners and they were on the radio more than ever even though Hendrix didn't make it into the '70's alive. Who & Santana were selling out stadiums everywhere too no different than Zeppelin & the Stones, Pink Floyd was now well recognized and these are all some of the most legendary concerts too. Zappa was way out of the mainstream. But only the Dead was like Woodstock came to town when they got there. It could be almost like a temporary community joining forces with the local enthusiasts to gather on the night of the concert. Anyway, out in Cali my buddy had helped cut some of the wood for the artists and it turned out over 10 feet tall. Such painstaking work after such a long time by so many contributors and it had arose right there at the front of the property, symbolic of the community. Interestingly it greatly resembled the headless man still there as surplus art at Walnut & Sterrett in Houston, where the historical warehouse district was formerly inhabited by lots more artists seeking low rents decades ago. Only not headless, and when they decided to burn it there was quite a bit of consternation because so many hours had been spent building it by so many different people. It had been an icon for quite some time, some returnng to add touches year after year. There was discussion about art being temporary, man being temporary, community being temporary, things like that. A contributor or two might have even been on mushrooms. I may still have a photo he gave me, it was an impressive statue. But it was all dried out by then and they took it down to a beach where a small group of their like-minded friends could gather safely and up in flames it went. Once again mushrooms might have been involved, perhaps by more than just one or two participants. Who knows, maybe a renewal of some kind. In the spring there again appeared ambition to build a replacement man in the front of the residence, which had been planned by some even before the first one was burnt. It was going to be a different kind of man this time, intended to be burnt itself before the year was out, so it was built with more dried out wood to begin with. It was such a hoot the first time, it got more popular every year and they got kicked off the beach.