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- THE DEVIL WEARS NADA: FEAR OF WOMEN, AN INVENTED CONSPIRACY AND THE INSIDIOUS LEGACY OF THE EUROPEAN WITCH TRIALS
THE DEVIL WEARS NADA: FEAR OF WOMEN, AN INVENTED CONSPIRACY AND THE INSIDIOUS LEGACY OF THE EUROPEAN WITCH TRIALS
Online talk presented by Romany Reagan, followed by a Q&A with the audience.
The European witch trials have provided rich soil for historians. The tumultuous economic, political, religious, and cultural changing dynamics over the course of the 400-year span of terror and hate have led to a complex field of analysis, rife with disagreement and conflicting perspectives. But there is a pattern that emerges through the study of these trials—the stark demographic shifts of the accused. We can track the evolution of these fears by the evolution of their victims: from male learned sorcerers (1300s), to mostly female (supposed) devil-worshipping witches (1400s), to the full-scale woman-hunt of the Essex Assizes (1500s and 1600s).
The repercussions of this Early Modern picture of women as weak, dangerous, sexually out of control, and evil had insidious and long-term effects beyond the trials. Long after the last witch was hanged and society claimed to have moved on from a belief in a satanic conspiracy of witches, the legacy of the European witch trials remained in the cultural psyche through a belief in female inferiority and unsuitability for learned fields, particularly that of medicine. This talk offers a deep dive into the long-timeline European Witch Trials (1300s-1700s), the various cultural shifts that led to this shocking massacre of women, and what price subsequent generations have paid in the feminist fight for equality.
A zoom link will be sent prior to the talk to the email address provided when booking. Video replay will be available after the event for all ticket holders to watch back.