Witches as the original feminists ...

[Ceruleah]

Witches as the original feminists ...

I read a looong time ago in an article that witches were the original feminists and that you can find allusions to this in common fairy tales.

Any clue what this opinion was based upon?

 

[taiarain]

I'd have to see the article to hazard an opinion about how the hypothesis was derived. My guess would be that the author(s) based it on those who were the target of witch hunts/killings, ie, the midwives, the healers, single women, etc, those who may have had power independent of or indifference toward the patriarchal system.

Taia

 

[karenlyn]

I also think that this is sort of common sense. There haven't always been femenists, but the closest that women have come in the past is the type of women who are powerful and independant.

 

[palefrost]

Interesting. It always bothered me how the fairy tales used old hags to represent witches as nasty figures.

 

[Slashmire]

Well the similarities seem to be quite there and frequent, like eating babies, and riding on brooms

 

[TinyStar]

I think this is because, as someone else said, most of the women called 'witches' were the women who had more influence on the community as a whole and often women in positions of great importance at the time, such as midwives and etc.
Also they were women that were no under the thumb or rule of a man in general and made their own decisions - which in turn made them frightening for the man who wanted to keep control of his wife.

 

[fiannawolf]

I suppose it all depends on what exactly you mean by "witch". Are we talking those who have black cats and consort with demons and devils for their powers? Are we talking ancient pagan female preists? Or was we talking Wiccan type perspectives? Once we clear this up I feel I can give you a pretty good answer.

 

[palefrost]

I suppose it all depends on what exactly you mean by "witch". Are we talking those who have black cats and consort with demons and devils for their powers? Are we talking ancient pagan female preists? Or was we talking Wiccan type perspectives? Once we clear this up I feel I can give you a pretty good answer.

Has the stereotype been created off the pagan female? I mean wasn't that how the burnings of witches portrayed years ago. that they were all practicing devil worship? I think they all got lumped into one thing. Basically anything different then being a christian was considered demonic and evil.

 

[fiannawolf]

yes, however the pagan female or "original witch" was by no means the first femenist at all. that is a wiccan misconception about Celtic and other indo-european culture

 

[htmlmaster]

Nice idea, but you're probably wrong. Witches and... warlocks pretty much came about around the same time, but witch burnings became more popular than warlock burnings, so withces are better remembered. I doubt there's anything feminist about it.

 

[LyricB]

I had heard this theory before too, but I always assumed it was supposed to be a sort of comical idea. I didn't think there was actually supposed to be any merit to it.

 

[palefrost]

Yeah the way i heard it was "witches" was a blanket statement used for people who were not Christians. I dont think they really held feminist views other then not believing in Jesus.

 

[Melos]

I would venture a guess that 'witches' were considered (by some) to be feminists because they are ante-Christians, and people love to go on and on about how Christians are decidedly non-feminist.
The European witch burnings were anti-pagan. The Salem witch trials, etc. were simply some nasty people getting rid of people they didn't like by using other's fears against them.

 

[jason]

Nice idea, but you're probably wrong. Witches and... warlocks pretty much came about around the same time, but witch burnings became more popular than warlock burnings, so withces are better remembered. I doubt there's anything feminist about it.

It Christan terms, A warlock is a male witch. Often times in history and mythology a male witch was called a wizard, sorcerer or simply magician.

It American witch hunts, males were put on trial the same as females. I remember one case where a man was put on the ground with a board on top of his chest. Rocks were added until they crushed his chest and he couldn't breath. They did this to try and get a confession out of him. A lot of it was political reasons. If you wanted someones land and they wouldn't sell it you could try them as a witch. I'm not sure if the earlier European was the same or not. I haven't read much on it. Although I did read an interesting article tying in the burning of witches and their cat familiars to the increase of rats, which helped spread the plague. But I'm getting way off topic.