Debunking historical misconceptions used to demonize men: Salem Witch Trials

reddut_gang · 2021-07-12T13:05:53+00:00

I think anyone can see the issue here. You have made an informative post exposing this truth and it has 23 upvotes. Unfortunately, hundreds of millions are still eating up that bullshit and hundreds of millions more will be taught that bullshit.

Historical-March-510 · 2021-07-12T17:06:19+00:00

You are absolutely correct. Also take into consideration that one of the main reasons more women were accused of witchcraft is because the majority of the false accusations were made by other women. So it was women condemning other women. That is exactly how the Salem witch trials began.

Lethal_Ledgend · 2021-07-13T04:44:44+00:00

Yes I believe a teenage girl named Abigail Williams did most of the accusing and lead the group who did the rest. She even famously accused a man named John Proctor whom had previously refused to have an affair with her.

mikesteane · 2021-07-13T05:43:18+00:00

It's pretty much safe to assume that whenever historical (or faraway) oppression of women is reported, it's a very unbalanced picture of circumstances. However, to argue with people about this, it is necessary to have the facts. Thanks for this.

Mens-Advocate · 2021-07-13T07:49:08+00:00

The Salem trials murdered 20 innocent human beings and destroyed the lives of many more in an early instance of “believe the accuser”. But lessons can be drawn.

The fact of 8 or more accusers shows that multiple accusations are not proof of veracity.

Three accusers were female adolescents. Their ability to bring about the deaths of those they disliked shows female power, even young.

Five of the accusers were young female adults or may have been slightly “underage” due to uncertainty or ambiguity of roughly +-2 years in record-keeping. But they were old enough to know they were committing judicial murder.

A common explanation for their behaviour is attention-seeking and sadism, recognised even in today’s schoolgirl cliques.

The whole matter shows a lie the assertion of female powerlessness in history; young females’ histrionics got 20 innocents murdered.

JackieNaper1907 · 2021-07-12T07:59:50+00:00

An excerpt from 'the privileged sex' by Martin Van Creveld reveals more

hroughout history, there have been both male and female witches. In 1484, when Pope Innocent VIII issued his Bull against witchcraft, he explicitly stated that it was being practiced by “many persons of both sexes.” In 1572 the Elector of Saxony ruled that “sorcerers, man or woman, shall be executed with the sword.”[38] Even in England, where the percentage of women among the accused was unusually high, the law always referred to “persons.” Pictures of Sabbaths regularly show the devil attended to by both men and women. One expert, the Puritan minister William Perkins, went so far as to blame Moses for his use of the feminine gender in ordering that “thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”[39] In truth, he said, the Bible “exempeth not the male.” Many other experts agreed with him in this respect

So uncomfortable did contemporaries feel about the “fact” that most witches were female that they time and again questioned why it was so. Even King James I of England felt obliged to reflect on the question.[41] Precisely because witchcraft was considered real and not something society had invented, the reason had to be sought in the nature of women themselves. Most experts agreed that women were more malicious than men. Their nature was weaker and their minds not as clear; as a result, the devil was able to ensnare them “after only a light skirmish.”[42] Female writers who addressed the issue tended to agree with their male comrades.[43] The authors of the most famous handbook on witch-hunting, the Malleus Maleficarum, claimed that the word “feminine” itself derived from “fe-minus,” “less faith.”[44] But this did not prevent them from including 10 pages on male witches

n Italy, clerics were perhaps even more at risk of being accused of witchcraft than women were. In Germany, where it was often a question of forcing a witch to identify her accomplices so as to get at the latter’s property, prominent men were among the accused. The same applied to Sussex.[47] Typically persecution would start at the level of the village or the neighborhood, usually after the suspect had acquired an unpleasant reputation. The breaking point would come when he or she asked for a favor, such as food, lending a hand or a small loan. Upon being rebuffed, not always politely, she might retaliate by uttering a curse or a threat

t is true that there were few women among the intellectual elite that wrote about witchcraft and held the trials. On the other hand, female rulers were as apt to persecute witches as were male ones. In the Netherlands, persecutions peaked during the first half of the 16th century, when the country was governed by three successive female regents acting for Charles V: Margaret of Austria, Mary of Hungary, and Margaret of Parma.

omen participated in witch-hunts at least as much as men did. Most maleficia were directed by women at women.[52] It was mainly women who accused other women of violating normal standards of conduct, insisting that their husbands or other male relatives take action against suspected witches.[53] It was mainly women, bewitched by other women, who suffered from convulsions and fainting fits. It was mainly women, bewitched by other women, who vomited pins, needles and toads and whose statements to that effect might or might not be believed by the responsible male officials.[54] The first Englishwoman tried under the Elizabethan statute, Elizabeth Lowys, was accused mainly by women.[55] The last English witch to stand trial, Jane Wenham, not only was accused by another woman, she herself implicated three other women. All were acquitted. Wenham herself was convicted by the jury, but promptly pardoned by a skeptical judge. Unable to return home, she found refuge on the estate of a male landowner

In describing the witch-hunts, most historians have focused on the period from 1500 to 1650. However, this is misleading. Before 1350, nearly three times as many men as women were tried for witchcraft.[62] In northern France between 1351 and 1400, the number of defendants of both sexes was roughly equal.[63] For Europe as a whole, between 1300 and 1499 the number of accused men is said to have nearly equaled that of accused women.[64] In the Netherlands, “before the persecution of witches was seriously undertaken some authorities had already begun to punish cunning men.”[65] In Finland, too, the older native traditions usually saw witches as men.[66] In the British Isles during the period in question, men comprised 59 percent of those accused. In the Swiss canton of Neuchatel they accounted for 80 percent and in Wallis 78 percent; in Switzerland as a whole, the figure was just under 50 percent.[67] Concentrating on the period from 1500 to 1650 also conceals the fact that subsequently in Germany the stereotype was reversed. Persons accused of witchcraft were no longer mainly old women, but mostly young men

Jerezmo · 2021-07-14T22:53:23+00:00

At first I thought this post sounded like you were going to go in the route of “men were accused too!” 🤦, but damn this is enlightening. I’ve always heard people talk about the trials like they’re about men hating women and abusing their male power, and I believed it. I wish more people knew the plain facts that it was a bunch of girls lol 💁‍♂️

BornAgainSpecial · 2021-07-12T15:56:35+00:00

Feminists say we live in a rape culture. But really we live in a fake rape culture. The only rape culture is in male prisons. If you were a feminist, you might say Salem Massachusetts was a witch culture. But really it was an anti-witch culture. Witch accusations were weaponized. Witch hunts. Now we have rape hunts. Rape accusations are weaponized. Anti-rape culture. We go after rape more than murder, and with less evidence.

Correct_Equipment_98 · 2021-07-13T13:14:52+00:00

isnt witch for women and wizard for men they are the same thing but with diffrent genders

Greg_W_Allan · 2021-07-16T07:48:33+00:00

https://web.archive.org/web/20170519102540/http://www.gendercide.org/case_witchhunts.html

specialdialingwand1 · 2021-07-13T20:43:59+00:00

That the Salem Witch Trials is used as evidence of anything should be an indication of just how reaching an ideology feminism actually is. It's complete bullshit.

atheist4thecause · 2021-07-14T18:16:51+00:00

It's actually amazing how big of a deal the Salem Witch Trials are made out to be when so few people actually died.

Acceptable_Branch_81 · 2021-07-13T13:20:00+00:00

That’s not at all what most people think of, men oppressing women regarding the Salem Trials. I’m from Beverly which borders Salem. We were taught Puritan men and women committed this atrocity. Not sure where your from but clearly this is a purposely twisted take on history to pander to weak minded people

SalemWitchWiles · 2021-07-13T02:34:50+00:00

Hello, professional Salem historian here.

Just a few things:

Firstly we can see by looking at all of the evidence that every single man that was accused in Salem and 1692 it was because they were defending a woman.

Secondly, the main cause of the Salem witch trials was the religious fanaticism of the Puritans which included the concept that women were not allowed to own land. The Church of England differed in its interpretation of the Bible and was essentially forcing them to allow women to own land.

And most importantly, you are completely ignoring the fact, as most people do, that the Puritans were literally an extremist religious sect akin to something like the Taliban of Christianity. The men were fanatics who believed in a literal devil and the women were subservient, not allowed to read, and beaten on a daily basis.

Would you defend the Taliban and say that they treat women well? Of course not. Your entire interpretation Lacks historical context.

marigoldmilk · 2021-07-16T05:19:16+00:00

Yeah but you just made the point that “witch” which was a bad thing is associated with mostly women so what does that say about etymology of the whole word in the first place lol. But yes the Salem Witch trials is actually mainly known for McCarthyism and collective paranoia. Never associated as men kidnapping and killing women.

ghosttownsound · 2021-07-16T07:36:21+00:00

The Salem witch trials were just a ploy by the funeral industry to make women afraid of cremation. Really quite sad, it is a more cost effective way to deal with the remains.

MeowNeowBeenz · 2021-07-17T00:22:26+00:00

This seems like a reach.

My history teachers never taught it that way. We were taught that men and women were both falsely persecuted during the days of Salem and that most of the accusers were women.

Panderjit_SinghVV · 2021-07-12T03:46:09+00:00

Witchery was a very serious crime at the time. There are plenty of women around today who are witches so why not back then? Don’t do the crime if you cant do the time (even if you have a vagina).

Being a witch is just like being a Catholic, or a Muslim. It only means a person believes in a given religion not that that religion is factually correct.

Yippiekayaks · 2021-08-02T21:21:11+00:00

Dude. Any informed and educated person knows it was a group of teenagers accusing many women. If you’re talking about Salem, only one man was excited- Giles Corey. He also accused his wife of being a witch so there’s that. A lot of accusations stem from mass hysteria and while it was teenagers causing it- let’s also men as head of Puritan households had sway. There’s evidence Putnam put his daughter up to accusing Rebecca Nurse because their families had land disputes. Parrish had his own reasons for wanting Abigail to continue, he was already in a tough position of a hostile community. And there’s the disposition of Ingersoll and Churchill two teenagers who said they couldn’t retract their testimony because the magistrates threatened them with dungeon, imprisonment. I’m all for acknowledging the role men and women played in this senseless nonsense but let’s not make this it was all women issue when there were powerful men in charge that also had a hand. The whole thing was disagreeable.

QueVainita · 2021-07-15T00:58:18+00:00

The videos on reddit of women getting their ass whooped by men is awful…. I know this is iff topic, but really as far as competition women only live due to our good graces. What do you expect when you square up against a man?

Title	Debunking historical misconceptions used to demonize men: Salem Witch Trials
Author	Prestigious-Glass976
Upvotes	175
Comments	93
Date	July 11, 2021 7:32 PM UTC (5 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/oiazan/debunking_historical_misconceptions_used_to/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/debunking-historical-misconceptions-used-to.824458 https://theredarchive.com/post/824458

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