Witches

The witch hunt was not supernatural hysteria — it was a targeted campaign against women who existed outside patriarchal norms, disproportionately poor, old, or sexually autonomous. This session traced that history through the Malleus Maleficarum and the 45,000 deaths between the 15th and 17th centuries, then looked at how witch hunts continue today across sub-Saharan Africa and Indonesia. We also turned to the contemporary revival of witchcraft — WitchTok, pagan online communities, and where the divine feminine loops back into gender essentialism.

1. Important note to open with
   • We are looking at witch hunts from a very Eurocentric point — we do not go into detail on voodoo, West African practices, or other non-European traditions
   • "We are the daughters of women you did not burn."
2. Personal experience with witchcraft
   • Do you have any personal experience with witchcraft? Do you believe in magic?
   • Do you know someone who practices witchcraft?
3. History of witch hunting
   • Key facts: ~45,000 deaths from 15th to 17th century; 90% of accused were women (in Russia only 32%)
   • Women accused of making men impotent; women also accused other women
   • Heinrich Kraemer — Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches) — pope-sanctioned inquisition in Innsbruck; really started the witch hunts
   • Secular governments were involved, not only churches
   • Shanespeare: misogyny, class, disability, and racism all drove witch hunts — as a way of surveilling and controlling women
   • McCarthyism as a modern "witch hunt" — singling out marginalised groups as scapegoats
   • By the 17th–18th century, arguments against witch hunting gained ground and the practice finally lost power
4. Witch hunts today
   • "Witch hunts due to superstitions, lack of education, and societal issues" — Sub-Saharan Africa, India, Indonesia
   • In Gambia, state-sanctioned witch hunts still occurred in the 2010s
   • Child witch hunts still happen sporadically
   • Were you aware of these things going on?
5. WitchTok and pop culture paganism
   • Masculine and feminine energy online — where esoteric spirituality and gender essentialism meet
   • Love spells: binding people to each other, breaking up couples — manipulative, taking advantage of vulnerable people
   • Twin flames — people genuinely believe they share a soul with someone
   • What is dangerous about this?
   • "I am not a girl, I am a witch" — otherness, empowerment, or pickme culture?
   • Can be very exclusive: central focus on the divine feminine excludes gay men and other groups. Very white as well.