How patriarchal witch-hunts weaponized gendered language to suppress women’s autonomy and dissent globally
Original framing: “Why is it misogynistic to call a woman a ‘witch’?” — The Conversation - Global
The European witch-hunts (15th–18th centuries) were state-church collaborations that targeted 80% women, often widows or healers, to seize property and suppress dissent. Parallels exist in the Salem trials (1692) and the Malleus Maleficarum (1486), which codified misogyny as theology. Colonial witch-hunts in Africa and India mirrored these patterns, using accusations to justify land grabs and labor exploitation.
The term 'witch' is not merely a misogynistic insult but a historical weapon of patriarchal control, deployed to suppress women’s autonomy, economic independence, and dissent.
From European witch-hunts to colonial land grabs in Africa and Asia, accusations of witchcraft were state-sanctioned tools to consolidate power, erase indigenous knowledge, and enforce gender hierarchies. Modern feminist movements are reclaiming the term, but systemic solutions require addressing its roots in colonialism, capitalism, and patriarchal structures. This demands decolonizing education, legal reforms, economic empowerment, and digital accountability—centering the voices of those most affected by witchcraft accusations today. The trickster’s inversion of 'witch' from insult to empowerment offers a model for disrupting solemn narratives, while indigenous and cross-cultural perspectives reveal the term’s contested legacy as both oppressive and liberatory.