--- Chris Doss <lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
> --- Charles Brown <cbrown at michiganlegal.org> wrote:
> > ^^^^^^
> > CB: Well, "feminists" is an exaggeration on my
> part
> > just like "withches" is
> > tongue in cheek.
> >
> > However, why didn't they call them warlocks ?
> Still
> > sounds like an
> > anti-woman mentality, consciousness, some kind of
> > misogynist expression from
> > that historical period.
>
My general point was that the people targeted in the trials were not so targeted for behaving in a "feminist" way (whatever that means in this context). Some of them were eccentrics (one hadn't been to church for a WHOLE YEAR!!! Horror!). One was a beggar. One was an 80-year-old farmer. One was the town's ex-minister. It was a large range of people.
In general I am skeptical of claims that persecution of witches was motivated by fear of women or whatnot as is sometimes advanced in feminist circles. This strikes me as reading current concerns into the past. Were the wotch-hunters motivated by fear of women? Maybe on some deep unconscious level, but I think they were more motivated by fear of the Devil and his works, which to them were very real.* Of course this took place in a generally misogynistic culture climate as well.
But then I'm no expert on this.
*There were professional vampire hunters in Eastern Europe up through the early 19th century. They would go from town to town offering to help the locals with their vampire problem, "find" a vampire in the graveyard, dig it up and stake it/cut off its head/etc. That's why garlic is associated with vampires -- it drowned out the stench of the exhumed "vampire." (The things you learn from the Discovery Channel! ;) )
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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