They didn't Hang Witches, they Hanged Women

One thing that I haven’t fully addressed in a blog yet, is the misogynistic associations with witchcraft. The Salem witch trials were an outburst of religious paranoia, yes, but also an attack on women who were seen as failures by the community. Take for example some of the women who were accused of witchcraft: Sarah Good, a curmudgeonly beggar reliant on charity; Sarah Osborne, a woman who didn’t frequent church; or Sarah Wildes, who was previously accused of adultery. Likewise, Tituba was marked for her race. Class, race, and religious in-adherence were all reasons to target someone. One could argue that the accusations were rarely about actual magical practices, but about reinforcing a rigid religious power structure where men held dominion. While it might not have been a meditated ploy for control, subconscious biases based on social norms and expectations meant that women bore the brunt of these accusations. In Salem, nearly three times more women were hanged for witchcraft than men. Unfortunately this class has often felt like a study in the history of misogyny, where women, especially marginalized women, were scapegoated for accidents, and spectral evidence was sufficient proof of their “misdeeds”.

These patriarchal ideas were rooted in texts like the Malleus Maleficarum, which was the second best selling book for two centuries. This is full of hateful misogynistic rhetoric that permeated society and associated women by nature with wickedness. Lines like “all wickedness is but little to the wickedness of a woman” and “since they are both feebler in mind and body, it’s not surprising that they should come more under the spell of witchcraft” all blame women for utmost wickedness and show how deeply entrenched these ideas were. There is no subtlety or mild sexist overtones there, Kramer was explicit about the wickedness of women.

But this thing that gets me the most is that we are still fighting this fight today. Women are still judged and punished for exhibiting traits that are perfectly acceptable by men. For example, if a man raises his voice, he’s perceived as a strong boss, while if a woman raises her voice, she’s perceived as bossy. If a man sleeps with multiple women, he gets social praise for being a player or a stud, while if a woman sleeps with multiple men, she’s a slut. Widespread modern female issues like victim-blaming, sexual harassment, and the lack of representation in leadership roles are echoes of the same patriarchal forces that fueled witch hunts. The label “witch” has simply been rebranded as “bitch”.

I came across this art piece the other day by Lindsey Cherek Waller called “Rage”, and it resonated with how I feel about modern attacks on womens’ rights. The memory of the women who were targeted in Salem serves as a reminder of the fight we still have ahead of us for equality and for justice. Historical misogyny informs modern struggles, and after this class I am left with more passion to challenge entrenched systems of inequality.