Gender and the stereotypes of the witch.

Becoming a witch ‘you shitty witch’… a public insult heard by the villagers, Ursula Gotz had been branded a witch and only a trial could settle the issue. 1623, Ursula Gotz accused of witchcraft in south western Germany. accused of killing 88 animals, harming her little niece, her niece’s mother and baby sister. she had sucked out the blood of young children to use in her diabolic salves. 1627, beheaded.

Female witches early modern witch: old, leaky, polluting maternal body. gender is dependent on the structures of its physical setting. women perceived as a threat to the patriarchal order if single, or old. problematic economic position or if they had medical knowledge. >women tried more as men were the bearers of patriarchal authority, while women were excluded from the formal exercise of judicial power at any level. witch hunt was in the hands of men as judges, jurors, theologians, scribes, notaries and hangmen. 1486, Malleus Maleficarum (the Hammer of Witches) by Heinrich Kramer. >infamous for its misogynistic statements: women were more susceptible to attempts by the Devil. Weak, deceitful, unintelligent.

Male witch The majority women but 20-25% also men In some areas men were actually predominant (Iceland, Normandy, Estonia, Russia, Finland) Usually men accused of different kind of magical practices. Magical powers of women more mysterious and harmful. >Able to affect childbirth, death and love. Men made up 37% of those tried for witchcraft in the German Duchy of Westphalia. this increase is linked to changes in the way the Sabbath was imagined. Men associated more with harvest and weather’s spells because of their role, more practical and tied to the reality of everyday life.

At times authorities were more hesitant in accusing men as they were more concerned with legal or economic considerations. denounced financial opponents or social or political rivals Among male witches we find the figure of benandanti. >Rites of an ecstatic cult to ensure fertility of the fields and who were tried in the north of Italy as witches by the inquisition. Male vagrants were suspect of witchcraft and caused anxieties.

Third gender: werewolves werewolves: beyond humanity, in the realm of animal. sexual bestiality> not male or female, usually associated to cannibalism, murder and deviant sexuality. demonic pact men of lower socio-economic status that worked as herdsmen. A new idea of masculinity linked to honour and violence. An inversion of Christian values of family and of the preservation of progeny.

> The fear of maleficium (the working of harmful magic) took precedence over gender in the mind of the accuser. produced ideas that were more gender-ambivalent. >More women than men were accused of witchcraft. However, there is no uniformity! >The most witch accusations in general were in the Holy Roman Empire, Switzerland and parts of France. >Scepticism led to the gradual end of the witch hunt in Europe. Authorities began to doubt, influenced by rationalism and pietism. Demands for clearer evidence and a decreased use of torture.