In Defense of Witches: The Legacy of the Witch Hunts and Why Women Are Still on Trial

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A journalist who, in the early 1970s, became an ardent defender of women’s rights, Gloria Steinem has always offered her critics a good run for their money. First, her beauty and her many lovers give the lie to the old chestnut that feminist protest only masks the bitterness and frustration of plain Janes whom no man has done the honor of rescuing from the shelf. What’s more, the full and dynamic life Steinem has led and leads today, a whirlwind of travels and new vistas, of activism and writing, of love and friendship, seriously complicates the picture for those who believe a woman’s life means nothing without partnership and motherhood. To a journalist who asked why she wasn’t married, Steinem gave the justly celebrated reply: “I can’t mate in captivity.”

Allows us to understand... the witch hunts of the past influenced the representation of women today.” — Le Monde (France)

It always amazed me how many people in America were only aware of the Salem Witch Trials, not the reign of terror that swept Europe for centuries, that claimed the lives of thousands of women. Not only that, they don’t know that witch-hunts still occur today. In Northern Ghana, there are at least six witch camps. In Defense of Witches by Mona Chollet analyzes the treatment of women since the witch-hunts and how they contributed to the shaping of our society today. She looks at 3 main aspects: independent women, childless women, and elderly women. Women are not alone in being persecuted as witches. Men have also fallen victim to accusations but they make up a considerably smaller percentage and most men that were accused were more likely to receive a trial. It shows that the witch trials were deeply rooted in sexism and misogyny. This is an in depth examination of the persecution of witchcraft and its effects on the modern ways in which women encounter discrimination. If you're expecting some sort of poetic journey through the world of witchcraft, you will likely find "In Defense of Witches" a tiresome and perhaps even meandering read. Chollet, unsurprisingly for those who know her work, leans far more heavily into feminism than the fantastic and is absolutely relentless about doing so. Chollet comes out of the gate swinging with her introduction that delves into historical witch-hunts. Offering informative statistics and a general overview on how they came about, fun details like Pope Gregory IX declaring cats the "devil's servants" and executing so many cats along with witches that the rat population grew and spread disease (subsequently blamed on witches), and examining issues such as criminalization of contraception and abortions occurring during the same period as witch-hunts. ‘ Witch-hunters are revealed as both obsessed with and terrified by female sexuality,’ she observes in her discussion of historical documents such as The Malleus Maleficarum. ‘ When for ‘witches’ we read ‘women,’ we gain fuller comprehension of the cruelties inflicted by the church upon this portion of humanity,’ said women’s activist Matilda Joslyn Gage, and while Chollet examines how men, too, were accused and murdered (though in far fewer numbers with significantly higher acquittals and tended to be accused to their intimacy with accused witches), she explains how Gage’s statement is in line with the book to come. Chollet’s introduction also serves as a criticism of the already well-trodden path of witch-hunt history books, pointing out how even those that attempt sensitivity tend to do a fair amount of victim blaming, often even asking why the groups accused of witchcraft ‘ attracted to itself the scapegoating mechanism,’ while also scapegoating any reason except for misogyny and control as to why these hunts occurred.

Chollet nicely argues, though, in support of self-confidence, that “spells” can also be thought of as casting words, as in “spelling” (to which it is etymologically related) and that writers, artists, and all women are indeed able to effect change by speaking up. True. Western women’s lives today could have been much different and better if had it not been for the European witch craze, Mona Chollet tells us in In Defense of Witches: The Legacy of the Witch Hunts and Why Women Are Still on Trial . The trials, which occurred sporadically in many countries over centuries and well into the early modern era, were unpredictable, irrational, and horrific. The persecution wiped out many thousands of innocents and helped entrench a tyranny of repressive misogyny women must still overcome.Catalonia’s left-leaning Parliament recently passed a resolution pardoning the hundreds of women executed as witches between the 15th and 18th centuries. A similar bill is making its way through the Scottish Parliament. Both were inspired by growing outrage about historical — and contemporary — femicide and by a post-MeToo impulse to honor women who were burned, hanged or drowned as heretics. This lead to the author having a positive connotation for witches rather than the negative one that society has formed. While to those familiar with core feminist principles, the recitation of the value of bodily autonomy and independence might seem tedious, recent history has shown that reemphasizing these principles, especially to younger generations, is extremely important. This is something In Defense of Witches does quite well. Mona Chollet makes the case that many of the oppressive systems women face today can be seen reflected in witches, both as pop cultural figures and as historic ones. Not allowing the fun of the imagery to distort history or appropriate other cultural traditions is something to keep in mind, especially since Chollet points out the large number of women of color who were persecuted and how much American witch-hunts were used to target the indigenous. This comes later with the topic of medicine and wellness. ‘ The witch becomes the ‘antimother,’’ Chollet writes, ‘ many of the accused were healers who played the role of midwife—but who also used to help women wishing to prevent or terminate a pregnancy.’ This was during a time women were denied access to medical school and Cholett discusses that part of their eradication was to silence anyone that wasn’t part of the academic cannon. As witchcraft ideas have started to be absorbed or co-opted into wellness communities or other natural health circles, the infiltration of white supremacy in the wellness industry is something that should also be kept in mind too, as well as trying to remember snake oil salesman use the same bad faith marketing as any other big industry so it can sometimes be difficult to parse out what is an effective alternative remedy and what is not.

And as an embodiment of female power and resistance to male domination, what better figure than the witch? Since Chollet’s childhood, the word “has had a magnetic hold on me,” she writes. “Something about it fizzes with energy. The word speaks of a knowledge that lies close to the ground, a vital power, an accumulated force of experience that official sources disdain or repress.” Centuries after the infamous witch hunts that swept through Europe and America, witches continue to hold a unique fascination for many: as fairy tale villains, practitioners of pagan religion, as well as feminist icons. Witches are both the ultimate victim and the stubborn, elusive rebel. But who were the women who were accused and often killed for witchcraft? What types of women have centuries of terror censored, eliminated, and repressed? In Defense of Witches by Mona Chollet is an excellent nonfictional account of the history and evolution of the labeling of women through time and the subsequent treatment of the associated victims. Truly fascinating!I expected the parallels between the reprisals against witchcraft and the restraints against women to stretch through the entire book. Instead, most of the pertinent and thoughtful connections exist in the introduction, and the rest of the book contains only minor notes about witchcraft. For example, in the chapter on women’s aging, the book mentions that gray hair was often associated with witches. And then the text moves on. Informative and thought-provoking, 'In Defense of Witches' argues that the embers from those burned at the stake continue to light fires in modern day society where women are still under threat from those afraid of her power. I was personally most interested in the ways that the witch hunts we widely think of as a thing of the past have simply morphed into more subtle, and in some ways more sinister, forms of control and punishment. Looking at the information as laid out for the reader, I have a much better understanding and appreciation for the various ways women can and do re-appropriate not only words but indeed their own sexuality and make them work to their benefit and happiness rather than as means of controlling them.

Here are a few of the “villainous” things women are doing: “loving myself”, “existing unapologetically”, ”self-dates”, “drinking water and exercising”, and “treating others how they treat me”. Whilst it’s great to see women reclaim the villains of old, should we consider it radical for women to simply exist? Should we consider it radical for women to take care of their physical and mental health? Women have been so far removed from both rights and respect that to speak out and exist as individuals, they must first don the guise of a witch. This false renaissance of witches and villains may seem empowering, but it hides a deeper message - that women who put themselves first are villains in today's society, just as they were in the 1500s. The self-label of “villain” shows how deeply ingrained in society and women this notion truly is. It is not just having abortions which makes a woman a witch-like figure - simply existing can sometimes be enough to be labelled a villain. Some of the women labelled witches or villains The women who were murdered in Salem in 1692 were not performing witchcraft. They were not brewing potions in cauldrons, or if they were, they were not doing so because they were calling upon the Devil to manifest ill for their neighbors. They were just doing laundry. While some of them had some manner of outsider status or may have be seen as rebels, many were simply going about the work of everyday life, like Rebecca Nurse, a 71-year-old woman who was particularly known for her piety and good nature yet was executed as a witch. The most likely thing that was going to get you accused of witchcraft was simply being a woman; you didn’t even have to be a rebel, intentionally or accidentally.Mona Cholet's original in French deep dives into the witch trials of Europe and also delves into the impact of it in our current day including the representation of witches in media. The ultimate conclusion, if you will, is that these witch hunts from the past continue in the present and are far from some romanticized period in our history. Indeed, they deserve to not be romanticized but to be permanently placed in the past along with all the other cultural and institutionalized forms of misogyny. Women have always been hunted down and killed for their thoughts and actions, though the methods have changed and the justifications varied. Mona Chollet is a Franco-Swiss writer and journalist. She is the chief editor for Le Monde diplomatique and has also written for Charlie Hebdo. She lives in Paris, France.