I am evil homer trial#
I am evil homer series#

LetвЂ™s start with the classic: the evil, aged crone. The stereotypical image of the witch вЂ“ green skin, pointed hat, warts, black cat вЂ“ has become entrenched, but beneath that surface lies a dazzling variety a rich diversity of women who have frightened, possessed and inspired us over the centuries.Д«ones of contention вЂ¦ montages of Hillary Clinton as a witch have flooded social media

I am evil homer series#

Yet, despite all the attempts to stamp out witches, they are as strongly with us as ever, from Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch in the Avengers movies, to the recent film The Love Witch, to the television series American Horror Story, to non-fiction books such as Stacy SchiffвЂ™s The Witches: Salem, 1692. Punishing witches accomplishes two things: it ends the threat and makes others afraid to follow in the unruly womanвЂ™s footsteps. She can curse you, blight your crops, ignore you, refuse you, correct you. With her spells, a witch can transform you into a pig, or defeat you in battle. Witches are often called unnatural because of their ability to threaten men. A whore transgresses norms of female sexuality a witch transgresses norms of female power. Both are time-honoured tools for policing women, meant to shame them into socially prescribed behaviour. A witch transgresses norms of female power вЂ“ punishing her makes others afraid to follow in an unruly womanвЂ™s footstepsДЄ better parallel to вЂњwitchвЂќ is the word вЂњwhoreвЂќ. Further, the words used to describe men with magical powers вЂ“ warlock, magus, sorcerer, wizard вЂ“ donвЂ™t carry the same stigma. Sure, men have also been accused of witchcraft, but they are by far the minority. When we say witch, we almost exclusively mean woman. Their histories, she intimated, run hand in hand. As a thought experiment, she suggested that for вЂњwitchesвЂќ we should read instead вЂњwomenвЂќ.

She was, instead, likely to be a woman вЂњof superior knowledgeвЂќ. She didnвЂ™t fly on a broomstick naked in the dark, or consort with demons. It was simply entrenched social misogyny, the goal of which was to repress the intellect of women. The persecution of witches, she said, had nothing to do with fighting evil or resisting the devil. In the late 19th century, the suffragette Matilda Joslyn Gage asserted something revolutionary.

I am evil homer trial#

Given that the last witch trial in the US was more than 100 hundred years ago, what are we to make of this? Her opponents named her The Wicked Witch of the Left, claimed they had sources testifying that she smelled of sulphur, and took particular delight in depictions of her being melted. D uring the 2016 US presidential election, American social media was flooded with images of Hillary Clinton wearing a black hat and riding a broom, or else cackling with green skin.