Joan of Arc was burnt on a pile of faggots by cowards proclaiming she was a witch. A woman who led an army to victory was murdered in a public spectacle because a few men in power felt threatened by her rising popularity and increasing power. Before she was killed, these cowards had her go through an inhuman virginity test. I often imagine what would have happened if Joan was actually a powerful witch? One thing is for sure, she would not have burnt on that pile of faggots!
In our country witches/hags (‘Daieni’ in Bangali, ‘Dayan’ in Hindi, ‘Mantragatte’ in Telegu and it has a equivalent term in each Indian language!) are paraded naked in the village, tied to a post/tree, beaten/stoned, raped and then killed by hanging, burnt alive or just beaten to death! Witches are primarily women (Not that Men can’t be witches, but they are more respected than the women. No surprises there). In the cities, witches mostly get to keep their life, but that can be worse than death! How do they identify witches? There are time tested pointers. If your mother or dies while giving birth to you, or anyone else in your family or neighbourhood dies at the time of your birth, you are immediately labelled as inauspicious and a witch. They will say, ‘The witch has devoured her mother at birth!’ This identity will not leave you all your life!
And then, if you are outspoken, you are a witch. If you are rebellious, you are a witch. If men find you attractive you are a witch (Of course you have done black magic on them. Or else who will look at you twice?) If you fall in love with a man and the man loves you back, you have trapped him in your dark magic - witch. If you reject the advances of a man, and that man is obsessed with you because he can’t get you, you are playing hard to get - witch. If that man harms himself because of your rejection, you drove him mad - witch. If the man you love becomes your husband, you seduced him - witch. If you have more than one man vying for your attention, you are a shameless - witch. If you are friendly with your husband’s friends, you are a temptress - witch. If your husband becomes ill, gets unlucky or dies, you cursed him - witch. If you are a spinster, you are a frustrated - witch. Anything bad happens to anyone who is related to you, you are a wrathful - witch. If your neighbourhood gets affected by a natural calamity, you are a demonic - witch. If your womb is dry, you are a barren - witch. If your husband is impotent, YOU are a barren - witch. If you are a career woman, you are a greedy and power hungry - witch. If you are lazy, you are a good for nothing - witch... You get the picture. Being a witch has much less to do with superstition and more to do with being born a girl. It also has a lot to do with class and caste related disadvantages!
You see, a woman born in a poor, lower caste household is already considered a curse (Not that the rich care much for women, but they do not have to worry about feeding another mouth or arranging dowry for the daughter when she needs to be married.) and if you are a woman who has a strong mind and an indomitable spirit, you become a threat to many including yourself, just like Joan of Arc. You become a threat to the power of men and other women who thrive in the shade of that power. And that is when you become a witch, because without magical and supernatural superpowers a woman cannot mange to stand with or against men, forget about leading men! We are the weaker sex, remember? So, we need to be witches to challenge authority and it also helps authority to demonize us as witches and deny us our human needs, be it our freedom, choice, consent, sexuality or desires. We are uprooted, torn apart, flung away and yet we survive. Like weed we grow in the decorated ‘Garden of Eden’. Some time posthumously we are made into a goddess like Yellamma, Matangi and Renuka; just how Joan was made a saint 489 years after she was burnt alive as a witch!
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Witch – meaning in slang
· Anyone (mostly women) who practices witchcraft or black magic
· A bitter or hateful woman (Also called Hag)
· A woman who is old, ugly, unattractive and frigid
· A woman who is very attractive to men
· A woman who dominates men
· A synonym for ‘Bitch’
Note: Also applicable to feminine homosexual men and transgender persons
‘Witch’ is a sexist/misogynist/classist/racist slur/insult used for
1.
Woman
of colour (black/brown women and women of aboriginal descent)
2.
Woman
of lower caste/class
3.
Woman
who is credited with usually malignant supernatural powers earned by practicing
black witchcraft often with the aid of a devil
4.
Woman
who is perceived to bring bad luck
5.
Woman
who is confident of her sexuality and sexual allure
6.
Woman
who is ugly and unattractive
7.
Woman
who has outgrown her sexual utility or frigid
8.
Woman
who is a threat to the power of men
Note: Also applicable to feminine homosexual men and transgender persons
It is interesting to note how the word ‘witch’ is used to denigrate both attractive and unattractive women; Attractive or unattractive to whom? Men, of course! So, the worth of women boils down to their utility as sex objects for men. If a woman knows that she is attractive, she becomes difficult to ‘own’. It is also easier to blame ‘black magic’ for getting involved in a sexual encounter with a woman just to satisfy one’s ‘lust’! Hence demonizing her as a ‘witch’ makes these men salvage their own masculinity by passing the blame of their moral 'corruption' on to the ‘black magic’ she employed. On the other hand a woman, who is unattractive to men, remains out of control of men as they do not want to possess/own her. Hence she needs to be marginalized and demonized to be kept under control, lest she finds the lack of control empowering.
The word ‘witch’ is rooted in the history of labelling women, who threaten men’s power, as crazy or evil. Cultures that socially establish women in a disempowered position are more likely to demonize them as “evil” and accuse them “of witchcraft” when they try to empower themselves. According to the latest estimates, 45,000 people were executed for witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Eighty percent of people charged with witchcraft in Early Modern Europe were women. Historians argue the witch hunt was a result of socioeconomic inequalities, envy, as a way to make sense of unexplainable tragedy, or the result of religious and political conflict. Religious misogyny and superstitions to keep women in control are the most common motives for murders in the guise of witch hunts.
‘According to India’s National Crime Records Bureau, more than 2500 people in India have been tortured and killed in these hunts between 2000 to 2016, most of them being women. However, people say that “number is much higher, because most states don’t list witchcraft as a motive of murder”. So there is no concrete number of people that have lost their lives to being accused of a witch. On average, an Indian woman is “killed every other day after being accused of witchcraft, according to government statistics”’ (Source – Link 1 for further reading)
Within the context of men’s control over women, the only power that women were perceived to possess was their sexuality and sexual agency to attract men. It is therefore apparent why feminine beauty is linked with witchcraft.
‘A number of terms that relate to women’s ability to appear desirable have magical connotations. Most obviously, a woman can be “bewitching” in her power to lure men. In addition, the word “glamour”, which we associate with stylish women, originally referred to the occult and a spell that made the viewer see an object or person differently to its actual appearance.’ (Source – Link 2 for further reading)
Women have begun to reclaim the word “witch” and transform the qualities it connotes into positive traits.
Popular misconception which is propagated in our society – A ‘Witch’ is hateful, vengeful, conniving, inauspicious and immoral along with being ‘anti orthodox religion'. Hence, they are utterly harmful and dangerous for everyone around them. They should be hunted down and treated as criminals. A ‘Witch’ needs to be exposed, judged and punished. A ‘Witch’ deserves punishment in the form of physical, verbal and psychological abuse - Domestic violence, torture, rape, public shaming, invasion of privacy, dehumanizing, curtailing support system and taking life - each one a criminal act against humanity.
For further reading:
Links:
1. https://www.arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/index.html?appid=44f8a8cc132b4b76b8aedb8672580edf
2. https://theconversation.com/witches-both-mad-and-bad-a-loaded-word-with-an-ugly-history-52804
3. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1722&context=hon_thesis
4. https://www.thebetterindia.com/175301/witch-hunt-murder-crime-women-india/
5. https://blog.ipleaders.in/witch-hunting-attacks-in-india/
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