Extract
[...] Today, the figure of the witch is revalued both in popular culture and in feminist struggles. Feminists emphasize the fact that trials, tortures, and executions for witchcraft targeted almost exclusively women: the witch has become a symbol of violence against women, and more broadly of the patriarchal system (document 1). This image is used and claimed by certain feminist groups, such as the Witch Bloc, which defines itself as a group of "feminist, radical, and angry witches". For feminists, witchcraft also represents a symbol of power. [...]
[...] The story The Witch of the Rue Mouffetard by Pierre Gripari, published in 1967 (document features a witch described as 'horribly old and ugly' but who dreams of being a beauty queen, accepting to eat a little girl for that. In a new evolution that evokes the initial descriptions of Apuleius, the witch has become an old and lonely woman, sometimes harmless but resorting to practices related to superstition, sometimes truly dangerous and bloodthirsty. The theme of child devouring is also recurrent, and comes from the imagery developed from the Middle Ages (document 9). [...]
[...] It is essential to note that any woman could be accused of witchcraft. The persecutions initially targeted the poorest and most vulnerable women, but they later affected women from higher social classes, including women from the nobility, such as Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, who was executed by burning in 1536 (document 4). The accusation of witchcraft was therefore a real "sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of all women" according to Éliane Viennoit (document 4). [...]
[...] But paradoxically, feminists have now seized the figure of the witch to make it an instrument and a symbol of liberation, many women proudly claiming their link with witchcraft (III). 1. The Construction of the Witch Figure From Antiquity, single and independent women are a concern, especially if they reach a certain age. In The Golden Ass or The Metamorphoses of Apuleius, written in the 2nd century of our era (document the character of Socrates is taken in by an old woman, 'but still very engaging', who provides him with food and even shares her bed with him. [...]
[...] How can the figure of the witch, first used as a powerful tool of oppression and stigmatization of women, become an instrument of liberation? Over the past few years, with the multiplication of feminist debates, we are witnessing a re-evaluation of the famous witch hunts that swept across Europe from the late 15th century to the mid-17th century. The persecuted witches were, in reality, women like any others, accused of real or supposed deviance in relation to the norms established by men in power. [...]
