Generally speaking, why do you think they mostly considered women to be "witches"?

ppdthrowawai · 2016-04-29T03:07:54+00:00

I took a history course on this very topic in college.

To make a long story short, witchcraft was essentially invented by the church and people in power as means to control others through fear and eliminate political opponents without suspicion. As fear spread, eventually common people started accusing each other and the lynch mob mentality took over.

The idea continued to spread and women started getting associated with it as they used "magic" to seduce men away from their loving wives. It was a convenient excuse. Women blamed other women for stealing their husbands and men blamed being under a spell as an excuse to get away with adultery. Artists of the time painted portraits of women flying off on furniture to go fuck the devil, this is where the idea of the broomstick came from but back then it was any piece of furniture lathered in magic witch juice or some crap. The ideas continued to get warped and fucked up with people believing in giant flying dildos and other weird shit at these orgy parties. It all revolved around sex, women, and the devil.

Edit: If anybody is interested in reading about it

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witches%27_Sabbath

ErrantBadger · 2016-04-29T03:15:50+00:00

In the UK the old widows were just easy targets for example the land holdings in Lancashire, that with the Malleus Maleficarum and James's view just created a perfect land grab storm. At the same time you had Irish Priests accused of witchcraft so the government and English Church took their holdings which changed the landscape of the Irish church and planted English religious custodians in their place and taking the taxes. A few specific early Christians think women are sinister but much of the European witch hunting was political. Lots of men were seen as consorting with witches or being warlocks and killed (including married monks) but the Malleus suggested it went in lineage with women so better to kill the female family (and pets) leaving no owner of the land or farms.

TL;DR Take old family land holdings or remove the troublesome people in churches and replace with your own. Was easier to go for old spinsters and widows than patriarchs.

ThorLives · 2016-04-29T03:41:30+00:00

Maybe it's expected that men use physical power to get their way in the world. Women, lacking physical strength, are assumed to use other means - like witchcraft. I'd bet if you looked at boys and girls in contemporary America, I'd bet that women have more interest in practicing witchcraft than men do (perhaps because they lack physical strength).

It should also be pointed out that it's not just women:

"The victims of witchcraft accusations in African society have usually been the elderly, the disabled, albinos and anyone who was considered different. In recent years due to the impact of rapid urbanisation, economic decline, as well as the HIV/AIDS pandemic, children have become more and more the victims of witchcraft accusations, especially orphans."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witchcraft_accusations_against_children_in_Africa

5th_Law_of_Robotics · 2016-04-29T11:24:10+00:00

Because you didn't need that much of a justification to murder/exile unpopular men.

SmurfESmurferson · 2016-04-29T02:32:23+00:00

Because male witches are warlocks.

DaphneDK · 2016-04-29T04:11:05+00:00

European witches were of both genders – however our perspective enlarge the female proportion since we consider innocent female victims a more heinous crime. The witch hunts were also after the Middle Ages. During the Middle Ages the Catholic church ensured that accusing someone of being a witch was considered against the teaching Christianity - after the Reformation the protestant areas allowed witch hunts. Some early (Catholic) Germanic laws had specific paragraphs against accusing people of being witches.

But there were also a great deal of perverted sexuality in the witch hunts. The many perverted things they were supposed to do at their witch Sabbaths, the carnal lust they had with Satan (who allegedly had a three fork so he could fill out all of their three holes simultaneously – actually it’s because he inherited it from Poseidon), one way to identify a witch was to undress her, shave her completely bare and then meticulously examine every inch of her body for a small mark, methods of torture included tearing off flesh with hot tongs from the breasts and labia (there seem to be no account of cutting off the dick), etc.

Another explanation is that they targeted remnants of older (Celtic and Germanic) religions, which was mainly carried on by older (wise) women. Like in herbal doctors, midwives, etc.

I also tend to think a lot was mainly due to cheap gossip. Women gossip. And they gossip mainly about each other.

Sunhappy_DC · 2016-04-29T01:30:41+00:00

because the pussy can make men do crazy shit. as if they are possessed. in my culture, we call it juju.

in the modern world, we call it manipulation.

betterdeadthanbeta · 2016-04-29T05:41:57+00:00

I think more women actually were witches. Like gallavanting in the moon light, speaking in tongues for attention, pretending to be possessed... Teenage girls often get interested in that sort of mystical hoodoo. Why do you think every girls mag has a horoscope section?

They had it coming basically.

yo_radical_one · 2016-04-29T10:55:33+00:00

Mainly because female power comes from influence and subtlety, which is more ''bewitching'' than the source of male power

Noxin__Nixon · 2016-04-29T03:52:42+00:00

Do you think there is a specific reason why it's usually women who are said to be witches but almost never men?

Because the male version of witch is warlock?

arcticshqip · 2016-04-30T10:25:39+00:00

Fun fact, most people accused of witchcraft in Finland (part of Sweden at the time) were men.

questioningwoman · 2016-04-29T00:07:33+00:00

Because they used it as a way to kill women who were different. They wanted a religious excuse. They would probably consider a woman with epilepsy to be possessed because they weren't exactly the most understanding.

damaskrose · 2016-04-29T00:38:48+00:00

Witches are archetypal symbols of female power, and therefore must be evil (according to Christian patriarchs). Like u/questioningwoman said, it was mostly used as an excuse for getting rid of women they didn't like. Many of the "accusers" were also women - in a time when women's voices weren't given much weight, appealing to people's fears was one way of being taken seriously. Nobody cares that Jenny had sex with your husband, but suddenly she's a mind-controlling witch and people start caring. It was also a way of stamping out pre-Christian religions, by demonizing all the pagan symbols and practices as "satanic" (except for the pre-approved pagan symbols/practices which were incorporated into Christian holidays).

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sen--sen · 2016-04-29T00:19:21+00:00

i haven't researched it, but a lot of it seemed to surround a general lack of understanding (and maybe, then, a fear) about women, their bodies, their minds... it wouldn't surprise me if, not unlike what you said, they were also accused of being witches for the effect that they had on men as well (or simply a desire to control them).

but, again, this isn't based on any serious studying; just a guess based on what i've heard and read here and there.

edit: after doing a little reading, it looks like these accusations could be made from either men or women as an act of vengeance, or an effort by those who had already been accused to secure a nicer fate for themselves.

caringisforsuckers · 2016-04-29T03:04:17+00:00

Just another way to control the population. Men don't really care about you killing another man. You kill a mans potential lay though, you really put the fear of god in him.

Title	Generally speaking, why do you think they mostly considered women to be "witches"?
Author	ThatGreekLady
Upvotes	2
Comments	75
Date	April 28, 2016 11:59 PM UTC (10 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/PurplePillDebate
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/PurplePillDebate/comments/4gwv19/generally_speaking_why_do_you_think_they_mostly/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/PurplePillDebate/generally-speaking-why-do-you-think-they-mostly.274898 https://theredarchive.com/post/274898

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