Content Category
Literary Criticism
Abstract/Description
The invocation of the term witch hunt in particular is unsurprising, as it has a long and troubled history, and is used today to discredit politically motivated movements. Major political players have touted the phrase from press conferences to Twitter feeds. However, in the case of the Me Too Movement, the term witch hunt is particularly weighted as it carries with it a complicated Puritan, female, past. Witch hunts have not always been a symbolic representation of a threatening entity to society—they were an authentic reaction to the inexplicable in early American life. Most notably, the Puritan witch trials have gone down as an infamous miscarriage of justice and have become a morbid fascination of contemporary media. It is astounding and somewhat disheartening to realize that the Puritan witch trials, which are far more complex than the stereotype Salem provides, have been largely misunderstood for what they really were. In this paper I will explore the dissemination of accusation and blame and the lack of substantial evidence as the perpetuation of the witch hunt mindset and the inversion of female power by our society’s patriarchal powers that be. I will then explain how the Me Too Movement arose in response to this denigration of women, and how it too has come to be considered the next witch hunt in a long and troubled line of he said/she said. This final female witch hunt shows that the true accusation against women is not the act of witchcraft or the leveling of false allegations of misconduct against decent men. The true charge is against female control, and the fact that women have taken hold of power that men never meant for them to have.
Copyright and Licensing of My Content
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Origin of Submission
as part of a class
Faculty Involvement
Mary Eyring
Witches Will be Witches: The Accusation of Female Power
The invocation of the term witch hunt in particular is unsurprising, as it has a long and troubled history, and is used today to discredit politically motivated movements. Major political players have touted the phrase from press conferences to Twitter feeds. However, in the case of the Me Too Movement, the term witch hunt is particularly weighted as it carries with it a complicated Puritan, female, past. Witch hunts have not always been a symbolic representation of a threatening entity to society—they were an authentic reaction to the inexplicable in early American life. Most notably, the Puritan witch trials have gone down as an infamous miscarriage of justice and have become a morbid fascination of contemporary media. It is astounding and somewhat disheartening to realize that the Puritan witch trials, which are far more complex than the stereotype Salem provides, have been largely misunderstood for what they really were. In this paper I will explore the dissemination of accusation and blame and the lack of substantial evidence as the perpetuation of the witch hunt mindset and the inversion of female power by our society’s patriarchal powers that be. I will then explain how the Me Too Movement arose in response to this denigration of women, and how it too has come to be considered the next witch hunt in a long and troubled line of he said/she said. This final female witch hunt shows that the true accusation against women is not the act of witchcraft or the leveling of false allegations of misconduct against decent men. The true charge is against female control, and the fact that women have taken hold of power that men never meant for them to have.