I am so very tired of people trying to cripple potent women by throwing around the “W” word; no, I’m not talking about “Woman” or “Welfare,” I’m talking about “Witchcraft.” What century do we live in? I half expect to see villagers outside my home with torches every time I write a saucy piece.  Excuse me for a moment, I have to get the door.

Sadly, the witch stigma is not merely a relic of the past; it has been used against Hillary Clinton, among others, in so many different ways that it is beginning to border on the creative.  That powerful women in politics continue to be referred to as witches reveals that, far from being an historically localized phenomenon, the witch-hunt is still alive and well today. 

One reason that females have been conflated with evil  is because they engender life, which is, of course, the flip side of death. In the case of midwives and mothers, for example, the reverence for those who can produce life is often confused with the fear that they can take it away. Yet the “W” word is most frequently used to circumscribe the power of a woman who seems to have just a little bit too much of it.

 The witch-hunt is yet another socially sanctioned persecution.  For centuries, societies have resolved their psychosocial dilemmas through the sacrificial female, often in the guise of the witch. Historically, the women accused of witchcraft have been singled out as a result of their powerful or nonconformist natures. They are usually figures, such as healers and spiritual or sociopolitical leaders, on whom the community is deeply dependent.  The sacrifice of the witch serves the dual purpose of eliminating women who threaten carefully regulated, patriarchal societies, and symbolically exorcizing those societies of their psychic demons.

 The crimes that people dream up often reveal more about the accusers than they do about the accused. The hatred and hysteria of those pointing the fingers is often far more sinister than any of their accusations.  I hope that people stop dropping the witch bomb, but until then, give me back my broomstick so that I can hit you with it.