Male politicians need to stop using the phrase “Witch Hunt”
Witch Hunts revolved around misogynistic laws, designed to kill women. The phrase should not be used to describe authoritative men being exposed.
The term “Witch Hunt” has seen a resurgence lately. Trump, Roy Moore, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Eric Greitens being some of the politicians that delegitimise investigations, using the loaded term.
However, “Witch Hunt” is much more than just an excuse. When a wealthy, powerful man identifies himself as a target of a witch hunt, he is overlooking the corrupt history of witch-hunting — one which allowed authoritative males to use their power to harm and kill an overwhelming number of women.
The history of witch-hunting
In 1487 Henrich Kramer, a powerful churchman and inquisitor, published Malleus Maleficarum. This book has been credited with being the catalyst for witch trials.
Even at the time, Malleus Maleficarum and Kramer himself was aggressively misogynistic. He described women as “a natural temptation” and “a desirable calamity”. Interestingly, Kramer had the pope in his pocket, for this reason, his words were easily passed off as law.
All in all, Kramer effectively increased the power the church had on society, too. So, it was adopted by many powerful men, who wanted to keep their power and authority in society.
The rules which Kramer published, were designed to punish as many women as possible. The unmarried, non-gender conforming, and unconventional women became the biggest target, and so marriage and femininity became an even bigger tool used, by the church, to control women.
Once accused, courts perversely focused on the naked body of witches, looking for “a witches mark” and “a devil’s mark”. Total “inspections” of a woman’s nude body were performed, including looking inside her private parts.
In short, the witch hunts and trials led to women being tortured, humiliated, and killed. While the number of executions has been dramatically played down, it’s estimated that over 50,000 people were executed in Europe alone, at least 40,000 of which were women.
Interestingly, in the eyes of the Church, both men and women could be witches. So, why did these absurd witch hunts predominately target women? It’s simple. Kramer simply decided that women were witches in Malleus Maleficarum. This shows the overwhelming power that men had, and continue to have over a woman’s life.
It is abundantly clear, when reading his work, that he had an aggressive contempt for women. His book was essentially an instruction manual on how men could legally torture and kill as many women as possible.
Even in a time period of extreme misogyny, Kramer was known for being overwhelmingly sexist. This is made clear with a paragraph in his book; “Why is it that women are chiefly addicted to evil superstitions?”. Kramer used his power and influence to allow the church to reign even more power than they already had, on women. In turn, it made it acceptable to reduce women’s (already minimal) social standing and kill them in mass.
Systematically, he also stressed that women were the weaker gender. By calling them the “fairer sex”, and stating that women need to be controlled to protect the human race. He even related this back to Eve’s role in the fall of man.
He played into harmful stereotypes, to push as much harm as possible. “They have slippery tongues and are unable to conceal from fellow women,” suggesting that women would “gossip” with each other and spread the message of witchcraft. The only solution, in the eyes of these influential men, were to execute all of them.
Still to this day, witch hunts take place in areas such as India, Papa New Guinea, and Sub-Sahara Africa. Superstition and harmful stereotypes about spirituality and femininity still normalise abuse against women and murder.
In the context, that real witch hunts were created by powerful men, with the backing of the church, to justify the killing of innocent women. Why has this term been flipped? Why are male politicians using this phrase, to condemn social media for calling out wrongdoings?
Modern-day “witch-hunting?”
President Trump used this strategy to gaslight his critics. In fact, he has tweeted “WITCH HUNT!” over 120 times. The reality is, witch-hunting is woman-hunting. In areas like Russia, almost 100% of all those accused of witchcraft were women. Clerical and secular authorities were exclusively male, too.
Witch hunts were used to wipe-out women who weren’t conforming to rigid gender roles. These laws were used to uphold the patriarchy — something we can still draw similarities to this day.
Actually, witch hunting and witch trials can draw heavy similarities to the law enforcement process today. Planting evidence, perverse investigations, torture, and white, male dominance in courtrooms.
Male politicians cannot legitimately use this term. Especially considering if they were alive during the actual witch trials, they wouldn’t have been affected. It’s even fair to suggest they would have played a big part in upholding the laws and the executions.
No, you are not being “witch-hunted”, you are being called out for your sexism, racism, and abusive past. When women have collectively struggled to recover from these harmful stereotypes and oppressions, which often led to their death. You can’t just take the term, and use it to manipulate society.
The real victims of witch-hunting are still predominately women. Especially those still being murdered, for allegedly practising sorcery. This is where our disgust in witch-hunting should lie.
Choose a better phrase. Like, racist-hunt, sexist-hunt, or abuser-hunt. Leave witches out of this.