Witch hunt

Kristen Korvette
October 29, 2015

The Early Modern Witch Trial occupies a uniquely evocative place in popular understanding, a contested space where facts are routinely fit to serve agendas. We spoke to Gordon Napier, author of the new book Maleficium: Witchcraft and Witch Hunting In the West (out now from Amberley), to greater contextualise some of the most common interpretations of 17th Century witch terror.
The Feminist Interpretation of Witch Hunts


“For the targets of attack in the witchcraze were not women defined by assimilation into the patriarchal family. Rather, the witchcraze focused predominantly upon women who had rejected marriage (Spinsters) and women who had survived it (widows). The witch-hunters sought to purify their society (The Mystical Body) of these “indigestible” elements – women whose physical, intellectual, economic, moral, and spiritual independence and activity profoundly threatened the male monopoly in every sphere.”
– Mary Daly, Gyn/Ecology (1987)

A theory first laid out during first-wave feminism and honed by the 1970s second-wave, feminist readers of witch terror portray it as a largely gendered assault in which the patriarchy used accusations of maleficium (harmful magic) to oppress women who stood out in some way or who intruded on exclusively male domains. Though this has largely fallen out of favour as more nuanced histories of the period emerged, it remains in currency particularly with radical feminists.


The Early Modern Witch Trial occupies a uniquely evocative place in popular understanding, a contested space where facts are routinely fit to serve agendas. We spoke to Gordon Napier, author of the new book Maleficium: Witchcraft and Witch Hunting In the West (out now from Amberley), to greater contextualise some of the most common interpretations of 17th Century witch terror.
The Feminist Interpretation of Witch Hunts

“For the targets of attack in the witchcraze were not women defined by assimilation into the patriarchal family. Rather, the witchcraze focused predominantly upon women who had rejected marriage (Spinsters) and women who had survived it (widows). The witch-hunters sought to purify their society (The Mystical Body) of these “indigestible” elements – women whose physical, intellectual, economic, moral, and spiritual independence and activity profoundly threatened the male monopoly in every sphere.”
– Mary Daly, Gyn/Ecology (1987)

A theory first laid out during first-wave feminism and honed by the 1970s second-wave, feminist readers of witch terror portray it as a largely gendered assault in which the patriarchy used accusations of maleficium (harmful magic) to oppress women who stood out in some way or who intruded on exclusively male domains. Though this has largely fallen out of favour as more nuanced histories of the period emerged, it remains in currency particularly with radical feminists.


Granted, contemporary television and film still employ dangerous clichés about femininity to sell a less political and more palatable version of the witch, but the rise of feminism in popular culture has made these choices less viable. From The Witches Of Eastwick and Buffy The Vampire Slayer to Penny Dreadful and American Horror Story: Coven, depictions of the witch have simultaneously opened old wounds of female oppression, and helped raise awareness about the egregious wrongs women have endured throughout history—many of which continue to this day.

Accusations of witchcraft were once used to police female behavior (and still are in a staggering number of countries around the world), but now more than ever, witches have become symbols of women rising up against the odds. As long as reproductive rights, wage equality, sexual freedom and sexual assault remain major issues in feminist struggle, the witch will remain an archetypal expression of our frustrations and of our strides for power beyond patriarchy.