Witchcraft and Female Sexuality The power of lust toward women has always been a way to uplift a community while creating a threat to men. Women were thought of as healers only to be persecuted for their natural maternal instinct. The ability to both heal a body and an erection gave women in 1692, a horrible fate ending in death or excommunication from their church. The way of women to have the sensual touch and to fulfill the desires in the darkness of night led many to believe women to hold a certain power over men. The warm mouth of the womb desired by many a man could only divert the temptation and cause of the man or woman to sway to the dark side. The Devil is known to work his evil intent on that of the idiotic woman who hath no thought for herself. …show more content…
Karlsen tells of the Devil’s seduction in Witches & Historians, “But the erotic power witches were thought to wield over possessed females was only rarely explicit during possession; when openly mentioned, it was not the witch but the Devil himself who seduced female bodies and promised to satisfy women’s carnal desires.” (Mappen 121) The sexual appetite of witches was thought to be on the prowl for young girls and the unmarried to sign their name in the Devil’s book. Helping take part in planting the seed of evil on this newfound Garden of Eden the Puritans believed they inhabited.
The underlying factor of possession was known as the witches way of working with the Devil to carry out the necessary diabolism. Possession is a way to recruit younger girls to do the Devil’s work. This can be seen in many cases of accusation involved in the Salem Witch Trials. Older widowed women blamed for possessing the adolescent girls of the village. “Most witches were guilty of seduction only in the minds of their accusers” claims Karlsen (Mappen
Based upon Augustine and Aquinas, Kramer gives a conventional description of the crime of witchcraft: “witches could not themselves harm anyone through magic, but their abilities derived from a contract with a demon, which in turn was empowered by God” (Behringer 720). Although the premise of the contract is not discussed in detail, there is the explicit pact, which may be the literal signing of a contract and specific subjugation to the devil and the implicit pact, which is carried out whenever magic is practiced. By selling ones soul, one comes under the control of the devil, who is consequently under the control of God. Even though still under God’s ultimate control, allegiance to the devil is very much the opposite of allegiance to God.
In the article by Kamensky, once again the role of the woman in Puritan society is put under scrutiny, this time not for disrupting the order of land transfer, but for the patterns of speech, which by virtue of being spoken by a female could indicate a demonic presence. The tone, content, order and style of speech was important in determining a witch from a devout follower of God. Certain verbal traits were ascribed to Satan's followers. Kamensky gives examples of women who spoke as if they knew too much about the Bible. The gender biases of the time led people to assume that they had to be witches since only men could have attained that level of verbal prowess. This meant that women could never defy the all male authority of the church. Another common indicator of witchcraft was speaking out against authority. To defend one's self against the charges of consorting with the devil was seen as a challenge; men were allowed to speak aggressively, women
In the 1600s, a group of Protestant Christians, known as Puritans, migrated to the New World to form a colony completely based on the Bible. Because the Puritans were fundamentalists, they believed everything said in the Bible was a true word of God, and thus, they believed everything in the Bible to be true. This included the Devil and witches. The Devil could possess a human’s body and turn them into a witch. During the 17th Century, witchcraft became a serious offense and lead to 24 deaths. The causes of these many deaths were deep religious beliefs, relations of the church and government, and bored girls striving for attention with the infliction of paranoia.
When the group of girls were acting strange and got accused of being witches, everyone started pointing fingers. There was the paranoia that any person could be a part of a conspiracy that was created by the devil caused false accusations to be spread around. This paranoia was used to make false accusations on many innocent citizens because people were trying not to take the focus away from themselves. There was research that was done on those that were accused and what it showed was that most of the accusations were against middle-age women who had few or no children and were widowed. The accused witches “were of low social position, and because of some domestic conflicts, they were accused of other crimes and were considered abrasive” (Brinkley, 86). by other people around them. Once a person was accused of being under the influence of the devil, which is a big offence, they would start to be treated differently from the rest. It wasn’t the actual presence of Satan that caused this chaos, but the anxiety and fear of him that did.
The Puritans in the 1800’s believed Satan was present and very active. They were always looking for signs. The Puritans also thought that in order to strongly believe in God and Angels, they had to believe just as strongly in Satan and Demons. “Daily superstitions and misfortunes were blamed on the supernatural, creating a perfect environment for mass hysteria” (Salem). The mass hysteria in this situation was rational because the Puritans lived strictly by their religion and culture. Therefore, they were always looking for signs of the
Gender roles were heavily put upon Puritan women, “women were seen as inferior beings that needed to be dominated by a male figure, and those who broke the mold were viewed as dangerous.” When speaking of puritan women and church, women were not allowed to pray with the congregation or lead a prayer. The fact that women were viewed as dangerous should they not conform to their gender roles should really show just how ridiculous their belief system was. One can only imagine that the paranoia of women being witches derived from the belief
The Protestant Reformation’s ideas of seeking salvation through God pressured members to be cautious of the rise of witchcraft. This expectations of society produced the demoralization of religion and how some had used the trials as a form of personal gain. The Puritans had believed that if one rids evil of sin, he or she can be sent to heaven, and have a set path where they would not be destined to hell. Therefore, by confessing to witchcraft, or the alternative of convicting someone else, it was believed that they would be rid of sin. This was only caused by the Puritans immobility of the pressures in
When Eve took that bite of the Forbidden Fruit, she had no idea what she had gotten women-kind into. Whether or not you believe in the story of creation, the perception of women as corrupting and sinful had shaped women's social roles in Western Society for thousands of years. Augustine was one of the first to write about the wickedness of women, and the acceptance of this doctrine is evident in the Letters of Abelard and Heloise through their disdain toward marriage. Along with mass death of the Black Plague, came an opportunity for women to change the ways in which society viewed them. The great number of deaths in Europe often resulted in the situation where no male heirs remained which led to the legal ability of women to inherit
An article called “In Praise of Designer Babies” ( October 10, 2013) was constructed by Paul Waldman, a columnist and senior writer for the magazine “The American Prospect” for which this article was published in. This magazine covers various topics from a liberal and progressive perspective. Within this source, Waldman claims that the future of Designer Babies may not be as unethical as some people make it out to be, and that society may truly want the potential of genetically modifying their kids more than they think. To fully support his argument, Waldman refutes some of the most prominent ethical arguments with his own thinking about genetically modified embryos as well as what he believes society’s true opinion about designer babies are.
Early modern Europe was plagued by a number of woman accused of witchcraft, resulting in thousands being hanged. This is a large piece of history that is usually kept in the dark. Most know of the witch trials that happened in Salem, but even then, it is met with an almost humorous attitude. Is the fact there were hardly any male victims and that the event isn’t taken seriously due to sexism? Or is just a coincidence?
Now imagine being a young girl growing up in a society such as this. You were basically viewed as a temptation and therefore evil, your parents basically owned you, and while you would eventually grow up and move somewhere else that didn’t always solve the problem. You were still a woman and therefore a temptation to men, and an instrument of Satan. These young girls grew up with no say in anything other than who they married. They were told who they were, what they were to do, and how they would act. In short the Puritans stereotyped women as evil.
The Puritans that comprised the colony of Salem, Massachusetts, were extremely religious, attributing biblical meaning to all aspects of their lives and being accustomed to personify the devil (Kocić, 2010). Specifically, church elders strongly believed that their congregation was superlatively righteous and for this reason the devil would try to target it with attacks in all forms, hence it was impressed upon the community to be vigilant against any signs of his presence. Such signs were subject to interpretation, yet they were generally concentrated on negative events which occurred unexplainably in the colony, for instance in the eventuality of a crop failure, stillborn children, or serious disease of an unknown nature. Common perception identified a witch as someone who bonded their body and
Puritans believed in the devil and his role as strong as they believed in God and his role. For many centuries, Puritans had the idea that the weakest individuals in society often committed diabolical acts and sins. Furthermore, Satan selected the most vulnerable individuals to do his bidding, among these individuals, women were often held responsible for many sins, including witchcraft. (Godbeer 12). According to Richard Godbeer, in his book, The Salem Witch Hunt, “it was Eve who first gave away to Satan and seduced Adam.” (Godbeer 12). In 1692, witchcraft became a panic among Puritan society. Even though both men and women were accused of witchcraft, women were seventy-six percent more likely to be accused in Salem than men. (Godbeer 12). Puritan society was a male dominate society and men looked down upon women. The reasons to why women in particular were often accused of being witches, was in regards to certain events that associated with accusations. These events were being of relatively low social status and income, being rich or financially independent and being a midwife or nurse.
Numerous reasons went into why the Declaration of Independence was written, from the tyranny of the British to the aspirations of the Americans. Various causes inspired the composing of the Declaration, however, the main objective of the colonists was the same, the desire to be free from the English rulers. Both the intellectuals in the cities and the toiling farmers in the country wished the same. Northern colonies and southern colonies agreed that the despotic British no longer should regulate the Americas.
The witch-hunt that blazed a trail across Europe (and indeed the world) over the 15th to 18th centuries stripped women of much of the power they had historically held. Not 100% of all accused Witches were female but 75% to 90% of accused witches in Europe were in fact women (Levack, 1987, p.124).