Be afraid, be very afraid, the witches are returning! to paraphrase a 1970s feminist slogan. Mona Chollet maintains that, in spite of the repugnant image – a misogynistic representation inherited from the trials and burning at the stake during the great witch hunts of the Renaissance – witches can, nevertheless, serve as an example of positive power for the women of today. A power freed from every kind of domination.
This book explores three witch hunting archetypes and examines what remains of them today in our prejudices and representations: independent women – widows and single women were particular targets; childless women – the era of witch hunting marked the end of tolerance for those who claimed to be in control of their fertility; and old women – became and have since remained an object of horror.
Mona Chollet is a journalist at the Monde diplomatique. She is the author of Beauté fatale. Les nouveaux visages d’une aliénation féminine (Fatal beauty. The new faces of feminine alienation) and Chez soi. Une odyssée de l’espace domestique (At home. A domestic space Odyssey) (Zones, 2012 et 2015).