In Defence of Witches: Why women are still on trial

Product Information

Ongoing Covid restrictions, reduced air and freight capacity, high volumes and winter weather conditions are all impacting transportation and local delivery across the globe. Rich with popular culture, literary references and media insights, In Defence of Witches is a vital addition to the cultural conversation around women, witches and the misogyny that has shaped the world they live in. Centuries after the infamous witch hunts that swept through Europe and America, witches continue to hold a unique fascination for as fairy tale villains, practitioners of pagan religion, as well as feminist icons. Witches are both the ultimate victim and the stubborn, elusive rebel. But who were the women who were accused and often killed for witchcraft? What types of women have centuries of terror censored, eliminated, and repressed? What remains of the witch hunts? A stubborn misogyny, which still tints the way our societies look at single women, childless women, aging women, or quite simply, free women . . . Today more than ever, witches tell us about our world and lead the way.’– Télérama Taking three archetypes from historic witch hunts – independent women, women who avoid having children and women who embrace ageing – Chollet examines how women today have the same charges levelled against them. She calls for justice in healthcare, challenging the gender imbalance in science and questioning why female bodies åre still controlled by men.

In Defence of Witches by Mona Chollet: book review by Dani In Defence of Witches by Mona Chollet: book review by Dani

m'a donné envie de vieillir avec sérénité, d'avoir un jour peut être des enfants parce que je le veux vraiment, de changer le monde et de me révolter contre les injustices faites aux femmes. Et puis de lire tout plein d'autres livres (la bibliographie est riche et intéressante). Celebrated feminist writer Mona Chollet explores three types of women who were accused of witchcraft and persecuted: the independent woman, since widows and celibates were particularly targeted; the childless woman, since the time of the hunts marked the end of tolerance for those who claimed to control their fertility; and the elderly woman, who has always been an object of at best, pity, and at worst, horror. Examining modern society, Chollet concludes that these women continue to be harrassed and oppressed. Rather than being a brief moment in history, the persecution of witches is an example of society’s seemingly eternal misogyny, while women today are direct descendants to those who were hunted down and killed for their thoughts and actions. Rehabilitates the figure of the witch, this dangerously independent, educated and strong woman.” — Slate This is not to say Chollet’s book is of no interest. It starts off well, with a look at early artistic representations of witches, and goes on to link the witch-hunts with antisemitism. Chollet suggests both persecutions were a product of society’s need to find a scapegoat for its ills, pointing out that terms such as “sabbath” and “synagogue” were also used in reference to witches, while both groups were depicted with hooked noses.

This is also an aspect of homophobia, as queer or trans women do not fit into the patriarchial mold. For instance, for that for all the browbeating to become a mother for straight women, queer women are often denied access to adoption in many countries or by certain adoption agencies. I was thrilled to find Chollet quoted Jeanette Winterson, an absolute favorite, on how being queer and not tied down by children or traditional marriage was freedom that helped her career. In the book Toil and Trouble: A Women’s History of the Occult, the authors point out that witchcraft is often used in media as a queer metaphor. The show Bewitched for example, about which actress Elizabeth Montgomery says she was proud of the queer undertones, admitting it was present and alway ' about repression in general.' Montgomery would go on to be a prominent voice advocating for the queer community. Mona Chollet's In Defense of Witches is a “brilliant, well-documented” celebration ( Le Monde) by an acclaimed French feminist of the witch as a symbol of female rebellion and independence in the face of misogyny and persecution.

In Defence of Witches by Mona Chollet, Sophie R Lewis

Chollet takes this structure and traces a direct pipeline between the mass-murder of women during the European witch trials and the reasons why women today are still being scrutinised for personal choices, albeit in subtler, yet more insidious ways. If you enjoyed Caroline Criado Pérez’s Invisible Women (and by “enjoyed” I mean, if your definition of a jolly good time is reading infuriating facts that reveal how inherently misogynistic society is), then In Defence of Witches is a book for you.

PDF / EPUB File Name: In_Defence_of_Witches_-_Mona_Chollet.pdf, In_Defence_of_Witches_-_Mona_Chollet.epub But this is a minor point in a very interesting take on contemporary feminist politics. In Defence of Witches asks us to really consider how today’s society treats women who are no longer young, fertile or conventionally beautiful, which is to say, judged to be no longer of use. Sarah Gilmartin We are experiencing delays with deliveries to many countries, but in most cases local services have now resumed. For more details, please consult the latest information provided by Royal Mail's International Incident Bulletin. A source of terror, a misogynistic image of woman inherited from the trials and the pyres of the great early modern witch hunts – in In Defence of Witches the witch is recast as a powerful role model to women today: an emblem of power, free to exist beyond the narrow limits society imposes on women. This book has single-handedly done more to quell my anxiety regarding the pressure of motherhood than therapy ever has, bless Mona Chollet.

In Defence of Witches – Pages of Hackney In Defence of Witches – Pages of Hackney

MyHome.ie (Opens in new window) • Top 1000 • The Gloss (Opens in new window) • Recruit Ireland (Opens in new window) • Irish Times Training (Opens in new window) Celebrated feminist writer Mona Chollet explores three types of women who were accused of witchcraft and the independent woman, since widows and celibates were particularly targeted; the childless woman, since the time of the hunts marked the end of tolerance for those who claimed to control their fertility; and the elderly woman, who has always been an object of at best, pity, and at worst, horror. Examining modern society, Chollet concludes that these women continue to be harrassed and oppressed. Rather than being a brief moment in history, the persecution of witches is an example of society’s seemingly eternal misogyny, while women today are direct descendants to those who were hunted down and killed for their thoughts and actions. TW: abortion, abuse, adult/minor relationship, antisemitism, body shaming, child death, domestic abuse, forced institutionalization, homophobia, lesbophobia, medical content, medical trauma, miscarriage, misogyny, physical abuse, pregnancy, racism, rape, religious bigotry, r slur (used in technical form), sexism, sexual abuse, sexual assault, torture, violence.A smart feminist treatise reclaiming the witch and her radical way of life as a path forward for women…. Chollet’s informed and passionate treatment will appeal to readers looking for more substance amid the witch trend that’s otherwise been largely commodified and often scrubbed of its feminist origins.”—Jenna Jay, Booklist When I run over Lancashire’s Pendle Hill, I think of witches. It is hard not to, when nearby Barley village has a statue of a woman hanged for being a witch, although she has no hooked nose or familiar, just a bonnet and her hands in chains. The Pendle Witches were ten women and girls, and two men. They were beggars and old women and young women, healers and labourers, poor women mostly. The Pendle Witch trial shows the truth of witch-hunts: that they were about land and power and malice, but also, always, about the inescapable misogyny with which women are still assaulted. A further problem stems from Chollet's decision to structure her book around what she claims as three "archetypes" from the witch-hunts. There is one chapter on independent women, one on women who choose not to have children and one on women “who reject the idea that to age is a terrible thing”. Chollet's contention is that, several centuries on, these same types of women are having the same charges levelled against them.

In Defense of Witches: The Legacy of the Witch Hunts and Why

Chollet’s discussion about the “childless woman” falls perfectly into this category of female power and is unfortunately just as relevant as it was 500 years ago. Women who disrupted the patriarchal structure by forgoing married life or children were viewed with contempt, labelled as witches, and excluded from society. The vehement condemnation of the childless woman seems to be more about the women who dared to take control of their own lives than anything else.Chollet comes out of the gate swinging with her introduction that delves into historical witch-hunts. Offering informative statistics and a general overview on how they came about, fun details like Pope Gregory IX declaring cats the "devil's servants" and executing so many cats along with witches that the rat population grew and spread disease (subsequently blamed on witches), and examining issues such as criminalization of contraception and abortions occurring during the same period as witch-hunts. ‘ Witch-hunters are revealed as both obsessed with and terrified by female sexuality,’ she observes in her discussion of historical documents such as The Malleus Maleficarum. ‘ When for ‘witches’ we read ‘women,’ we gain fuller comprehension of the cruelties inflicted by the church upon this portion of humanity,’ said women’s activist Matilda Joslyn Gage, and while Chollet examines how men, too, were accused and murdered (though in far fewer numbers with significantly higher acquittals and tended to be accused to their intimacy with accused witches), she explains how Gage’s statement is in line with the book to come. Chollet’s introduction also serves as a criticism of the already well-trodden path of witch-hunt history books, pointing out how even those that attempt sensitivity tend to do a fair amount of victim blaming, often even asking why the groups accused of witchcraft ‘ attracted to itself the scapegoating mechanism,’ while also scapegoating any reason except for misogyny and control as to why these hunts occurred.