t the stroke of midnight, a hush falls upon the night sky. The sounds of crickets and owls swap places with the humans, creating a symphony of eerie sounds in its place. The final eye flutters shut for the night, and thus begins the mysterious passage of time. It’s 3am. A door creaks open, and a figure appears. The silhouette forebodes the chilling presence of a person with a hunched back, a long crooked nose, wearing a tall pointy hat. A broomstick clutched in one hand, and a vial in the other, the figure steps into the light…
Oh, and in case you were wondering, she’s a witch. I didn’t even need to prescribe a pronoun for this conclusion to be drawn. Ironically, the thousand-year-old English word was masculine in its origin. The witch has historically been a symbol that incites fear. Stories of the witch have been infused into cultures all across the world, they have been embedded into pop culture and sewn into fairytales as the embodiment of evil.
So let’s dial it back to the 1400s for a second, and see what this whole fuss about the witch concept is about.
According to witch historian Silvia Federici, the witch term became official in 1468 when Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer for Witches) was published. This was a medieval guide on how to hunt “witches”. The definition of witches in the context of the author, Heinrich Kramer, a German churchman, was women who were deemed as morally corrupt. This publication complemented the existing spread of public fear that women were practicing black magic in association with the devil. Hence, began the murder of up to 80,000 women thought to be witches in Europe between 1500 and 1660.
The fear of women with power (be it magic or socioeconomic) turned into a fully-fledged witch-hunt, in its very definition. Men in power would hunt down witches, identifying them through a process of elimination. If you were single, widowed, old, an inactive member of the church, if you owed too much land, or even if you were a midwife or a healer, you could be accused of being a witch.
Also, get this. Women caught to be hanging out in all-female groups would also draw suspicion. Fearing that they were plotting against them, men would accuse these groups of being witches as well.
The consequences of just being a woman were dire. Women who were dubbed as witches were put to death via burning, stoning, hanging. This was usually the result of being adjudicated in a sham trial.
In short, allegations of witchcraft were used to police women.
Many have been known to fear the witch. Not because of the powers she harnesses, but because she personifies powerful femininity free from any male ownership. The symbol of the witch manages to both challenge and reflect the patriarchal narratives about female power, making her one of the most prevalent feminist icons of all time.
“Powerful women are all colours, shapes, and sizes - but never monstrously green." - Ariel Gore, author of Hexing the Patriarchy
Activists from all across the globe have been actively working towards building a Witch narrative that is more inclusive and intersectional. This is said to address the racist undertones that are assigned to black magic and white magic. Arguments have also been made to dispel the very notion of there being a good witch and a bad witch, which perpetuates the beauty standards and manner that a woman (even a witch) should adhere to, in order to be deemed good.
So, if you are (either/or/and) :
Single
Attractive
Intelligent
Widowed
Old
Rich
Have a group of girlfriends
Congrats! In the terms of contemporary television and film, one could accuse you of being a witch.
Being a witch, is actually just a fraction of what it means to be a woman. Powerful women come in all different colours, shapes, backgrounds, and orientations. So although you might not resonate with donning a pointy hat, just know that you harness that same strength within you. A power that has been historically feared and punished, a power that is being perpetrated in the media as “evil” or “bad”, but it’s your power.
So what are you going to do with it ?
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