The Conspirituality Report
Glowing Mama Anti-Masker
Toronto Influencer Socially Toilets in Health Food Store
4 min readMar 12, 2021
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As reported in blog.to, the conspirituality movement is ramping up in Toronto over the battleground issue of masks. Stephanie Sibbio, proprietor of Glowing Mama Health and Fitness, filmed herself storming Sweet Potato health food store without the bylaw-required mask, demanding to be sold tampons in person.
This tense incident played out in my hometown, where I’ve worked in the yoga world for more than a decade. Here’s a brief summary of the key conspirituality themes and methods on display here, with some insider notes:
- Entitlement. Sweet Potato is located in The Junction, a highly-gentrified and mostly white district of Toronto, boasting an average house price of 933K. If this is Sibbio’s neighbourhood, she’s either well-off or has access to money. The retail (frontline) worker she confronts, patronizes, and harasses, sounds as though they are Latin American by heritage.
- Alt-right media tactics. The hand-held quick-march muttering selfie is a favoured tool of shitposters out to wreck the libs in public spaces. It’s also highly engaging, as the viewer is being backed into the horizon of the target, pinned in place as a witness.
- “I am a law of one.” Sibbio’s assault on the store relies on a highly motivated interpretation of the current Toronto masking bylaw, as violating her “human rights”. The bylaw does list exemptions, but in this video Sibbio does not appeal to the exemptions. From a phone call with Toronto Public Health, I learned that if a customer were to invoke a medical exemption, the business should attempt to provide delivery or curbside service. Sibbio was offered both, but she had an emergency: she was out of tampons.
- “My body is the most sacred thing in the world”. In the world of women’s alt-health, menstruation is a sacred act. The masking bylaw is interrupting Sibbio’s care for it. She is both powerful but also…
