Witchcraft Sexism

Females in the 1692-1693 were one of the largest groups accused of being part of the Salem Witch Trials. According to Washington State University, “As events unfolded, 185 people were accused at Salem, 141 women and 44 men. Of that number, 52 women and 7 men were tried; 26 women and 5 men were convicted; and 14 women and 5 men were executed, the last group on September 22, 1692.”(Campbell 1) this statistic shows that women were more likely to have been accused of being a Witch. Women were thought to be much lesser than men and weren't

Witchcraft is the use of magical powers. Witchcraft is often regarded as “black” magic. The article called “The Salem Witch Trials: 1692-1693” states that “[s]ince the early fifteenth century, so-called witch panics had periodically swept across Europe, causing witch hunts, accusations, trials and executions” (“Salem” 1). Although some children and males were accused, the greater part of the arraigned individuals were female (“Salem” 1). A debatable amount of around forty thousand individuals were implicated and executed as witches between fourteen hundred and seventeen hundred and fifty (“Salem” 1). Although the causes of the witchcraft hysteria are debatable, there are three widespread and favored explanations for the hysteria within

Witchcraft wasn't new to the world, it had been occurring in Europe for hundreds of years. From the 14th-16th century, 40,000- 50,000 individuals in Europe were executed for the suspicion of witchcraft. Religion was very pertinent to the people of this era. Anything that was written in the bible or created by the church was law, it says in Exodus 22:18, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." By the year of 1231, Pope Gregory IX declared that it was legal to expose and punish any belief different from Roman Catholic doctrine. Pope Innocent the VIII deemed witchcraft a heresy, with the punishment being death. Everyone followed this decree as witchcraft was wrongful in the eyes of the church. ("Search")

For thousands of years, Christian societies throughout Europe deemed witchcraft as a critical threat and imagined it as summoning evil powers. Witches were seen by the Christian community as “a conspiracy organized under the leadership of the devil.” There are quite a few references to witchcraft and sorcery in the Bible, the two most famous being Exodus 22:18 and Deuteronomy 18:9-14. These two verses have been used over the past centuries to solidify Christian belief that witchcraft is

The notion of witchcraft has been around long before the witch trials in Early Modern Europe. Different cultures have different images and stereotypes on what a witch is and what “magical” abilities he or she may possess. Many people however, did not look at these “magical” men and women as bad until the Holy Roman Empire began to look negatively on those people who were different, and opposed the norm set by the elites. Driven by fear, those living under the control of the Holy Roman Empire would began to blame other people for diabolical actions, or malicious activities. Women and some men, were tortured and tested in cruel ways in attempt of finding evidence or gaining a confession that the accused was a witch. Laws about how which were persecuted

Witchcraft has origins within the bible, where it states that they "shall surely be put to death."5 Those Christians involved in the witch-hunt "believed that God had an enemy called the Devil, who was very powerful. They believed that witches made a pact or agreement with the Devil and agreed to worship and serve him."4 The practices that

While there were majority women being accused of being a witch, there were also men. There was a total of 110 women and 24 men (134 total) accused of being witches. The accusers were majority single women around 16-20 years of age. (Doc 5) Society treated these women poorly. During an examination of an accused witch, Bridget Bishop, two teenagers manipulated the people. As an example, if Bridgit would shake her head, the two teen would do likewise as if they were put under

The persecution of people practicing witchcraft in the 16th century began in England in 1589. However, the country's concern with witchcraft had been growing throughout the century, largely in response to the current social, economic and religious conditions in the country. Although people accused of practicing witchcraft had been

Witch hunts blazed across Europe over the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries not just killing innumerable innocent people, but stripping women of much of the power they had once held, and changing society's perceptions of women all together. The economic hardships, religious rivalries, and troubled politics of the time made accusing your neighbors of witchcraft convenient. Where there was war and poverty, or merely bad luck, peasants would assume witchcraft and rush to blame an old, defenseless woman in trials which involved unbelievable cruelty and horrible sadism. As religion and the Catholic Church began to complement and perpetuate the increasing hysteria, European society as a whole could do nothing but

The idea of witchcraft existed long before the 16th century, but only after the 16th century, the perception of witchcraft changed into an opposing view. Before the 16th century, people usually accepted women making their own medicines and administering it to cure disease or illness, but when the middle ages began and when millions of people fell into the hands of the plague (Black Death), witches started receiving negative suspicion for the activities. Citizens began accusing people with related features to a witch, good or bad, of treachery and acting upon the will of Satan. This, they connected to the Black Death as their doing.

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).

The use of witchcraft and magic became a taboo in early modern Europe. Most individuals living in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries believed that these witches could connect with a different realm to influence the world they found themselves in, the natural world. There was no way of pointing out a witch and so these arbitrary guidelines made by looking at stereotypes that outcasts had, led them early modern Europe into the witch hunts, where unfair trials meant the lives of innocent individuals were lost. Through the documents found in The Trial of Tempel Anneke, the use of witchcraft and other forms of sorcery were sought after to aid in time of need, but the actual practice of witchcraft and use magic were frowned upon by Christians who linked this practice to Satan and would culminate with the witch’s death after an unfair trial.

On the surface of the American television series Charmed is the story of three ideal sisters with ideal lives. Piper, Phoebe and Prue Halliwell are wives with children and careers, and all three of them are witches—the charmed ones—whose powers with magic are stronger when they work together. Feminist theory is inscribed in the narrative world of these three sisters. As female leads, they are portrayed as “transcending the typical media boundaries of females.” (The Artifice). Piper, Phoebe and Prue all challenge the various stereotypes previously attached to the portrayal of women in narratives.

One of the most evident causes of the Salem Witch Trials was the patriarchal society of the late 17th century. Women were expected to act as complete subordinates to men, and those whose challenged that expectation were feared. Witches were usually women who lived alone or women who did not fit the physical mold of perfection. Women were typically seen as weak, and it was thought that they needed men to take care of them. Women who lived alone challenged that authority and therefore took power away from

There are documented examples of persecution of witchcraft going as far back as Classical Antiquity and the Old Testament. For example, in Ancient Rome black magic was treated as a capital offence by the Law of the Twelve Tables . The early legal codes of most European nations contain laws directed against witchcraft. For instance, the oldest document of Frankish legislation, the Salic Law, punishes those who practice magic with various fines, especially when it could be proven that the accused launched a deadly curse. All throughout history, there have always been cases of conjures, cunning, sorcerers and witches. Normally these individuals were women, who were believed to have supernatural powers over human beings and nature. Thus, some people