The Evolution of the Medieval Witch – and Why She’s Usually a Woman

The Evolution of the Medieval Witch – and Why She’s Usually a Woman

By Jennifer Farrell, Lecturer in Medieval History, University of Exeter. First published on The Conversation.

Flying through the skies on a broomstick, the popular image of a witch is as a predominantly female figure – so much so that the costume has become the go-to Halloween outfit for women and girls alike. But where did this gendered stereotype come from? Part of the answer comes from medieval attitudes towards magic, and the particular behaviours attributed to men and women within the “crime” of witchcraft.

Taking one aspect of the witch’s characterisation in popular culture – her association with flight – we can see a transformation in attitudes between the early and later Middle Ages. In the 11th century, Bishop Burchard of Worms said of certain sinful beliefs:

Some wicked women, turning back to Satan and seduced by the illusions and phantasms of demons, believe [that] in the night hours they ride on certain animals with the pagan goddess Diana and a countless multitude of women, and they cross a great span of the world in the stillness of the dead of night.

According to Burchard, these women were actually asleep, but were held captive by the devil, who deceived their minds in dreams. He also believed that none but the very “stupid and dim-witted” could think that these flights had actually taken place.

There Is More Than One Religious View On Abortion -- Here's What Jewish Texts Say

There Is More Than One Religious View On Abortion -- Here's What Jewish Texts Say

By Rachel Mikva, Associate Professor of Jewish Studies, Chicago Theological Seminary. First published on The Conversation.

Alabama’s governor signed a bill this week that criminalizes nearly all abortions, threatening providers with a felony conviction and up to 99 years in prison.

It is one of numerous efforts across the United States to restrict access to abortion and challenge the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion nationwide.

Six states have recently passed legislation that limit abortions to approximately six weeks after the end of a woman’s last period, before many know they are pregnant. Although the laws have not yet taken effect and several have been blocked on constitutional grounds, if enacted they would prohibit most abortions once a doctor can hear rhythmic electrical impulses in the developing fetus.

American Cowgirls, French Fashion, Dale Evans , Patriarchy + Religion's 'Big Gods'

American Cowgirls, French Fashion, Dale Evans , Patriarchy + Religion's 'Big Gods'

Big Gods Came After The Rise of Civilizations, Not Before, Finds Study Using Huge Historical Database

Big Gods Came After The Rise of Civilisations, Not Before, Finds Study Using Huge Historical Database

When you think of religion, you probably think of a god who rewards the good and punishes the wicked. But the idea of morally concerned gods is by no means universal. Social scientists have long known that small-scale traditional societies – the kind missionaries used to dismiss as “pagan” – envisaged a spirit world that cared little about the morality of human behaviour. Their concern was less about whether humans behaved nicely towards one another and more about whether they carried out their obligations to the spirits and displayed suitable deference to them.

Nevertheless, the world religions we know today, and their myriad variants, either demand belief in all-seeing punitive deities or at least postulate some kind of broader mechanism – such as karma – for rewarding the virtuous and punishing the wicked. In recent years, researchers have debated how and why these moralising religions came into being.

Now, thanks to our massive new database of world history, known as Seshat (named after the Egyptian goddess of record keeping), we’re starting to get some answers.

Ireland Votes 2-1 To End Ban On Abortion, Expecting Full Rights To Be Extended To Women Until 12 Weeks

Ireland Votes 2-1 To End Ban On Abortion, Expecting Full Rights To Be Extended To Women Until 12 Weeks

Voters in Ireland decisively decided to repeal one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the world, moderated only slightly after the death in 2012 of Savita Halappanavar who was mandated to die by the Catholic Church, rather than give her medical abortive treatment for the septic miscarriage that was poisoning her body and ultimately killed her. 

The referendum in Ireland was decisive, with two-thirds of voters overturning the ban on abortion. Ireland “is taking the proper steps to separate church and state and to move forward as a more progressive country,” said Conor Flynn, a 22-year-old student.

Until now thousands of Irish women had traveled to England or bought pills illegally to terminate their pregnancies, risking a 14-year jail sentence if discovered in Ireland. The Times  notes, and we confirm, that the willingness to challenge the sanctimonious demands of the Catholic patriarchy have accelerated in recent years, given the endless sex scandals that have dominated Vatican headlines in recent years. Ireland has the additional disgrace of not only their share of pedophile priests, but "thousands of unwed mothers who were placed into servitude in so-called Magdalene laundries or mental asylums as recently as the mid-1990s", writes The New York Times.  

Essentially, the law in Ireland has been so restrictive as to be a personhood law mandating that the legal rights of the mother are the same as those of the zygote or fertilized egg that she is carrying. Pro-life advocates prefer the term 'baby', but most women do not equate a fertilized egg with their own fully-developed selves and their expanded roles as mothers, wives, workers, and leaders. Historically fertilized eggs were not equated this status, not even when monotheism first planted its roots in the western world. 

Ascia AKF Talks Modest Fashion, Navigating Islam As A Top Influencer In Global World

Ascia AKF Talks Modest Fashion, Navigating Islam As A Top Influencer In Global World

Ascia Al Faraj,  also known as Ascia AKF, is a leader of the pack of influencers promoting modest fashion with a streetwear edge. Writing for Fashionista, Whitney Bauck talks frankly with Ascia about redefining Muslim fashion, how K-beauty changed her life and what the West doesn't understand about Arab women.

With 2.3 million followers on Instagram, Faraj strikes "the coveted perfect balance between aspirational and relatable" writes Bauck. She is a true global citizen, raised by a Kuwaiti father and American mother. Signing on to her original blog 'The Hybrids', we meet the message 'Let's talk eating disorders', confirming that Faraj is willing to deal with complex topics head-on.

In what is an excellent interview and not a hits-generating puff piece, Bauck and Faraj explore serious questions, including a common one about covering your head as a Muslim woman.  AOC has written about modest fashion, hijabs and burqas for years, and we learned some new facts in their exchange.

How did you start covering your head, and when? I noticed your mom doesn't cover hers.

Religious Groups Tried To Block Rihanna's Senegal GPE Global Education Conference Visit

Religious Groups Tried To Block Rihanna's Senegal GPE Global Education Conference Visit

When 10 current and three former heads of state and more than 100 ministers gathered at the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Financing Conference in Dakar, Senegal, the conference marked the first time an education financing conference has been hosted by a developing country. 

President Macky Sall of the Republic of Senegal and President Emmanuel Macron of the French Republic welcomed the more than 1200 participants including leaders from UNESCO, UNICEF, the World Bank, civil society, philanthropic foundations and the private sector. Rihanna, GPE’s Global Ambassador supported by Global Citizen, also participated.

Thankfully, Senegal's President Sall didn't bow to the generally unreported but very real protests in Senegal, demanding that Rihanna be banned from the event because of her involvement with the 'Illuminati'. 

Snopes writes that activist celebrities like Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Madonna and Katy Perry are common targets of Trump's friends -- the conspiracy theorists -- who argue that these pop culture leaders are either Satanists or part of the Illuminati. This top conspiracy theory about the Illuminati posits that ultra-wealthy celebrities, bankers, billionaires and politicians are all globalists who secretly rule the world, putting their party above countries or religion. 

Hillary Clinton is considered to be among the most dangerous of the Illuminati, as Alexandra Petri wrote for The Washington Post in October 2016, three weeks before the election in: "The hideous, diabolical truth about Hillary Clinton".  

The Illuminati is believed to include many Freemasons. Although the two groups are believed to share many members and common values, they are historically separate.

Israel's Politics -- Not Religious Laws -- Put Women At Back Of Bus During Pence's Visit To Israel

Israel's Politics -- Not Religious Laws -- Put Women At Back Of Bus During Pence's Visit To Israel

Haaretz reports that the "last-minute public relations black eye" was avoidable. "It seemed that the American embassy in Israel, which set up the press arrangements in cooperation with the rabbinical authorities at the Wall had paid little attention to the grumbling of female journalists back in May, when U.S. President Donald Trump and his family visited the wall. During that visit, too, women and men, including journalists, were completely separated, the women restricted behind what is known as a “mechitza” - a barrier separating the sexes, intended to allow each gender to focus on praying undistracted."

When the Trump contingent visited the Western Wall, the group included Orthodox Jews Jared Kushner and Ivanka and the custom of separation was required. However, writes Haaretz, there was no need to separate the women journalists during the Mike Pence visit because the entire site had been cleared for the VIP visitors.  ". . . while Karen and Mike Pence may be religious and used the time at the Wall to pray - there are no strictures on Evangelical Christians requiring them to pray only in the company of their own sex.

It's pure politics, writes Haaretz, citing the ongoing battle between ultra-Orthodox Jews and the Jewish feminist group "Women of the Wall," together with the Reform and Conservative movements, locked in an ongoing battle over policy and procedures at the Western Wall. 

Bollywood's Deepika Padukone Cancels Appearance With Ivanka Trump In India As Hindu Nationalists Put $1.5 Million Bounty On Her Head

Bollywood's Deepika Padukone Cancels Appearance With Ivanka Trump In India As Hindu Nationalists Put $1.5 Million Bounty On Her Head

In India, the highly-anticipated release of the movie 'Padmavati' has been delayed after a politician from India's governing party has offered a bounty of $1.5 million for the heads of Deepika Padukone, Bollywood's highest-earning actress, who plays the 14th century Hindu queen -- and also the movie's director Sanjay Leela Bhansali. 

Padmavati is a fictional queen in the epic poem 'Padmavat' by 16th-century poet Malik Muhammad Jayasi. The poem was written more than 200 years after the actual invasion and was absolutely impacted by folklore. 

The poem elevated the virtue of Padmavati, who committed sati, in which a widow immolates herself on her husband's funeral pyre in order to protect her honor. Initially sati was practiced after Hindu men were defeated in battle and to avoid being taken by Muslim men. Like so many customs, the act of sati -- or committing suicide by fire with the death of the husband -- came to be seen as an act of devotion. The custom was outlawed by India's British rulers in 1829 following demands by Indian reformers.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi has courted Hindu nationalists as part of his political base -- as has Donald Trump. In the US presidential election, Hindu nationalists were burning images of Hillary Clinton in the streets. 

Two New Accusers Come Out Against Republican Senate Candidate Roy Moore

Two New Accusers Come Out Against Republican Senate Candidate Roy Moore

Tina Johnson

Two more accusers of sexual misconduct came forward tonight against Alabama Republican Senate race candidate Roy Moore. Al.com reports late Wednesday that Tina Johnson alleged that in the fall of 1999 (when Moore was married) she sat in Moore's law office with her mother Mary Katherine Cofield. 

Moore began flirting with her from the moment she walked into Moore's office, alleged Johnson.

"He kept commenting on my looks, telling me how pretty I was, how nice I looked," recalled Johnson. "He was saying that my eyes were beautiful."

It made her uncomfortable. "I was thinking, can we hurry up and get out of here?"

Johnson was in a difficult period of her life, and in the process of signing over custody of her son to her mother. As she left the office, Johnson recalled that Moore grabbed her buttocks.

"He didn't pinch it; he grabbed it," said Johnson. She was so surprised she didn't say anything. She didn't tell her mother.

Four Women Allege A Younger Roy Moore Pursued Sensual/Sexual Relationships With Them As Underage Girls

Four Women Allege A Younger Roy Moore Pursued Sensual/Sexual Relationships With Them As Underage Girls

The Washington Post has placed reporters in Alabama for over a month, speaking to at least 30 people who support the blockbuster allegations made in the paper this afternoon. Roy Moore is the Bible-toting former Alabama judge who was twice removed from the state's supreme court for making legal decision based on the Bible and not the US Constitution. Moore is now the Steve Bannon/Donald Trump-supported, Republican candidate for the US Senate vacated by now Trump administration Attorney General Jeff Sessions, running against Democrat Doug Jones. 

None of the four women contacted the Post reporters directly. While working in Alabama on a profile about Senate candidate Moore, a Post reporter was told that Moore allegedly had sought relationships with teenage girls in the past. The four women say they do not know each other and only chose to go public after extended interviews and conversations with Post reporters.  

The four women making the allegations against Moore were very young in early 1979, when the 32-year-old assistant district attorney introduced himself to 14-year-old Leigh Corfman and her mother. Moore offered to sit with the girl while her mother attended a custody hearing. 

ACLU, National Women's Law Center, State of Massachusetts & More File Lawsuits Against Trump Reversal Of Contraception Insurance Mandate

ACLU, National Women's Law Center, State of Massachusetts & More File Lawsuits Against Trump Reversal Of Contraception Insurance Mandate

Four national activist groups said they would file immediate lawsuits over the Trump administration's new rules allowing employers to drop contraception coverage over religious beliefs and or/moral objections to women using birth control.

The American Civil Liberties Union, the National Women's Law Center, the Center for Reproductive Rights, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, announced the lawsuits against the government on a call with Planned Parenthood and Attorney General of California Xavier Becerra, writes Buzzfeed.

They all plan to challenge the administrations' rules allowing employers with "religious" or "moral" objections to drop birth control coverage in insurance plans, arguing that the decision is a form of gender discrimination and also violates the separation of church and state.

"With these actions, [the Trump administration] is saying to employers, 'If you want to discriminate the administration has your back,'" Fatima Goss Graves, President & CEO, National Women’s Law Center said. "We will see them in court."

Eye: Is Taylor Swift Expressing A Fierce Born-Again Feminism in 'Reputation'? We'll See

Eye: Is Taylor Swift Expressing A Fierce Born-Again Feminism in 'Reputation'? We'll See

As promised, Taylor Swift dropped her 'Look What You Made Me Do' music video, with perfect timing at the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards.  Then she moved it to YouTube, where it has nearly 75 million views. Billboard believes it will be No. 1 on next week's 'Hot 100'.

Swift's most ardent fans all believe that 'Reputation' is deeper than originally thought. Buzzfeed lists all the 'hidden meanings' fans are finding in the songs. We don't care about that, but #20 gets our attention.

20. But other people have a different theory -- that each song will be about a different, 'fake' Taylor' created by the media. 

Note that fans feel no complicity in creating this 'fake Taylor'. Fan complicity in creating stars that meet their own needs is never part of their adoration stories. Kim Kardashian understands this reality way better than old-school Taylor Swift. But Swift is perhaps now whip smart on the whole conversation. 

22. The scene where Taylor's standing above a tower of her past selves, all scrabbling to climb up, is full of meaning, too.

Some fans associate these scenes with Taylor Swift's proverbial climb to the top, only to take a fall. Others see it as an emergence of Swift's true self. 

23. And, finally, people have also noticed that this shot resembles a crucifixion. 

This visual brought the new Taylor Swift into strong focus for me. She is defiant, rising again as a Smart Sensuality woman in charge of her own agenda. Fans will never see this as any statement about them and not only the media, Kim and Kanye, and the adoring 'girl' who shared the stage before the entire world, as Kanye West grabbed her trophy, saying it belonged to Beyonce.

Bearing Witness

Handmaids News: Handmaids Trump Style | Emma Watson Drops 'The Handmaid Tale' Around Paris | Weak Men Like Trump Fear Menstruation

Handmaids News: Handmaids Trump Style | Emma Watson Drops 'The Handmaid Tale' Around Paris | Weak Men Like Trump Fear Menstruation

Many American high schools have also banned the book from its libraries, claiming the content is too sexually graphic. The American Library Association ranked it No. 88 on its list of most frequently challenged books from 2000 to 2009. The association maintains the list to keep track of books that are subject of attempted bans or censorship.

Israeli Cabinet Bows To Ultra-Orthodox Demands, Nixing Western Wall Mixed Gender Plan

POLICE ESCORT ANAT HOFFMAN HOLDING A TORAH SCROLL FROM THE WESTERN WALL, ON JULY 12

Israeli Cabinet Bows To Ultra-Orthodox Demands, Nixing Western Wall Mixed Gender Plan

Sunday’s decision to cancel the new Western Wall arrangement has drawn denunciations from liberal Jews in Israel and the United States. It also appeared to threaten Netanyahu’s fragile coalition, with Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman — head of a faction that represents secular Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union — vowing to fight back.  

“It actually causes terrible harm to Jewish unity and to the alliance between the State of Israel and Diaspora Jewry,” Israeli media quoted him as saying. 

“It’s a terrible day for women in Israel when the prime minister sacrifices their rights while kowtowing to a handful of religious extremists, who want to enforce their religious customs while intentionally violating the rights of the majority of the Jewish world,” said Anat Hoffman, chair of Women of the Wall.  

Renee Rabinowitz Wins Case Over Ultra-Orthodox Demand That She Be Moved On El Al

Renee Rabinowitz Wins Case Over Ultra-Orthodox Demand That She Be Moved On El Al

The most obvious erosion of women's rights in Israel centers around issues of religion and gender in public spaces. Now 83-year-old Renee Rabinowitz has won a critical court ruling, suing the strictly Orthodox male passenger who demanded that she be moved from her El Al aisle business-class seat when he boarded Flight 028 bound for Tel Aviv from Newark in December 2015. Strictly Orthodox Jewish men believe they are contaminated and tempted in the close proximity of women who are not their wives. 

Ms. Rabinowitz, who lived through traumatic days of the Nazis in Europe, moved reluctantly. But she landed in Israel determined to take action. This week a Jerusalem court ruled that gender segregation and the movement of passengers to accommodate gender discrimination was illegal on El Al. 

Barbara Jatta Appointed First Female Director of Vatican Museums

Pope Francis' Tuesday announcement that art historian Barbara Jatta will become the new director of the Vatican Museums, marking the first time that a woman will lead one of the most important art institutions worldwide. Previously, Jatta worked at the Vatican Library, overseeing its collection of prints.

A Rome native, Jatta has worked for the Vatican since 1996 and will now become one of its most powerful administrators. While Pope Francis wants to increase the roles for women in the Catholic Church, he remains firm that the most important Vatican posts are reserved for cardinals and bishops, who are universally male. 

The Vatican Museums represent 54 galleries acrross seven kilometers, receiving six million visitors in 2015. Regularly listed among the top 10 visited museums in the world, the Vatican museums represent one of the Holy See's biggest income sources. Estimates are about $311 million in gross revenues and $41 million in profits are driven by Barbara Jatta's new assignment.

Melinda Gates Assumes Primary Role In Defending Women's Health & Reproductive Rights Worldwide

Melinda Gates Assumes Primary Role In Defending Women's Health & Reproductive Rights Worldwide AOC Front Page

Pictured above on her first trip to Africa in 1993, Melinda Gates could now be the most important action hero for women worldwide. That includes America, where the Republican War on Women is in full swing with their commitment to defunding Planned Parenthood, rolling back not only abortion rights but rights to contraception as well, and focusing on personhood legislation, which not only establishes a legal definition of life as beginning at conception, but severely limiting the civil rights of all pregnant women by equating her rights with those of a 24-hour old fertilized egg.

With the rise of alt-right lover Donald Trump as America's next president, the Trump administration is surrounding themselves with officials who want to implement this full-court strategy against American women asap.

Without Hillary Clinton at the helm of the American presidency, the future of women's most precious rights probably falls to Melinda Gates, who is notably apolitical. The first order in a Trump administration will be once again cutting off any federal government support for contraception and family planning worldwide. America's Catholic bishops and Christian conservatives in Congress won't permit it.

Read on about Melinda Gates and her refusal to bow to these massive powers that dominate American culture. 

Women's News | Gloria Steinem Meets Amanda Stenberg | Meet Poised Taupe Where Brown & Grey Have A Baby

Women's News September 4, 2016 AOC Front Page

Gloria, who came to fame in the early ’60s as an enterprising journalist, has blitzed the world for the past half century with her views on gender equality and women’s rights. She doesn’t have patience for Midtown traffic or the geographically challenged, and it’s clear that age hasn’t quelled her independent spirit. When I offer to take her luggage, she looks at me as if I’ve recommended she reserve a burial plot. “No, thank you,” she says with a laugh. “I’ve got it.”

Waiting upstairs in a suite to interview her is Amandla Stenberg, one of the new guards of feminism. Over the course of her 17 short years, Amandla has schooled the Internet on black hair, rejected the gender binary, and costarred in The Hunger Games. She graduated from high school this week—literally—and arrived earlier this morning on a red-eye from Los Angeles. As a makeup and hair team fusses, Amandla diligently reviews notes. “I had to psych myself up to do this,” she admits. “I’ve admired her a long time, but…I have some questions,” referencing the seemingly exclusionary brand of “white feminism” that defined Gloria’s era.

More Headlines

In Brooklyn, Stifling Higher Learning Among Hasidic Women @ New York Times

Serena Williams Sails Past Match Record in Grand Slam @ New York Times

Sherwin Williams Just Announced the Color of the Year @ House Beautiful

Hillary Clinton September 4, 2016

Hillary Clinton's Painful Media Relationship | Rebecca Traister on Hillary's Feminism AOC Hillary Clinton News

Women's News September 4, 2016 AOC Front Page