Posted on 04/08/2025 3:11:02 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Witchcraft has been feared, mocked and romanticized — but rarely has it been fully understood as a story of feminist resistance and enduring cultural power. Feminist studies scholar Jane Ward has set out to change that narrative. Her latest book — a collaboration with co-author Soma Chaudhuri — introduces “feminist witch studies,” a new interdisciplinary field that explores the power, persecution and political dimensions of witchcraft across cultures.
Ward, a professor at UC Santa Barbara, first engaged with the subject while preparing a course on the history of witches and witchcraft. Known for her work in sexuality and gender studies — including a first-of-its-kind course called Critical Heterosexuality Studies — Ward noticed a clear difference in how scholars from the Global North and Global South wrote about witches. “In the Global North, witch hunts are treated as relics of the past, largely viewed as events limited to the medieval or early modern periods," she said. "But in the Global South, witch accusations and persecutions are still ongoing today.”
This contrast sparked a broader conversation — one that questioned not just history but who gets to tell it. Ward and Chaudhuri’s book, “The Witch Studies Reader” (Duke University Press, 2025), shifts the focus away from an outsider studying witchcraft as a cultural curiosity and instead amplifies the voices of those who identify as witches themselves, many of whom are living in Latin America, Asia, Africa or Oceania.
A central theme of the book is how witchcraft serves as a powerful form of feminist and decolonial resistance. The book illustrates how practices historically demonized as witchcraft — such as midwifery, herbal medicine and abortion care — have enabled women to exist and operate outside of state and capitalist control.
“Witchcraft is often about existing just outside state control and capitalism,” Ward said. “This makes it critical to understand witchcraft through a feminist lens — not just because women are typically its practitioners, but because of what makes it threatening to established power structures.”
Still, these very practices become legitimate when sanctioned by the state. In Uganda, healing methods labeled as witchcraft are criminalized unless officially licensed by government authorities. “The same pattern played out in the U.S. and Europe, where midwifery was once associated with witchcraft but later legitimized through state regulation,” Ward added.
The Halloween witch — crone-faced, wart-nosed, hunched over her cauldron — is one of the most enduring images in Western pop culture. But Ward argues that the fear she represents is much deeper. “The cauldron, the mortar and pestle — these are just kitchen tools,” she explained. “But because they’re tied to women’s domestic work and healing practices, they’ve been transformed into something sinister.”
Jane Ward teaches and writes about gender and sexual cultures and has published on topics including the anti-gender movement, masculinity and online misogyny, the marriage self-help industry, the ebb and flow of interest in lesbian feminism, the meaning of sex...
But Ward and her co-author aren’t just interested in how witches are depicted — they want to know how witches see themselves. “For some, ‘witch’ is a patriarchal slur that they reclaim for resistance,” she said. “For others, it’s an identity tied to essential feminine magic, or a deeply queer figure who exists in defiance of rigid gender norms.”
“We’ve seen people using the concept of the curse, the hex and the spell as ways to push back against gendered violence and oppression,” Ward said, noting how the witch has been adopted as an image of defiance against patriarchal structures.
Beyond folklore, Ward and Chaudhuri are examining the witch as a powerful yet feared figure in global media. Stories of seductive women who morph into hags, witches who drain life from children and teenage girls who use supernatural abilities to resist oppression all reflect deeper anxieties about female power. “From ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ to the Pakistani series ‘Churails,’ the witch is often portrayed as someone who fights back against oppression,” Ward said.
With this book, Ward and Chaudhuri are positioning feminist witch studies as a formal academic field, claiming it as “a new discipline.” “We believe gender studies needs this perspective — analyzing the witch through a feminist, decolonial lens reveals critical insights about power, resistance and history,” Ward said.
The amount of socialist lexicon used by these *itches tells you all you need to know...
In the 1970’s my husband had neighbors who were part of a coven. Husband was part of wife’s coven. Really weirdo people…
As you know, I've ALWAYS been fascinated by history of all kinds. So when we learned about the Salem Witch trials in school, I wanted to know more, so started reading up on that, which led me to the start of it all in Europe, and I just have kept on reading up on this topic.LOL
And that then led me to the "magic" societies ( especially in England),formed by ALL MEN, in the mid-late 1800s, and then onto more modern times.
That college class is CRAP and no doubt I could easily teach a far better, FACTUAL history class on this topic, omitting the STUPID "feminist" tripe.
Are my federal tax dollars subsidizing this? DOGE, where are you?
“Gee. Why is my tuition so high?”
Colleges are the only places who can employ useless people like this.
I believe male “witches” are called warlocks or wizards.
Of course, I could be wrong.
Nevermind, I should have finished reading your message, lol.
The Malleus Maleficarum, written in 1486 ( yes, I've read it and own a copy of the book ), has many different names for witches. It was written by a Catholic priest, under a pseudonym and used in the earliest European witch trials.
It's a crazy topic, but an interesting one. Did you know that there were even "witch trials" for animals? There was a very famous one, that took place in France, and a movie, THE ADVOCATE ( a really good film! ) about it. Yes, the pig had a LAWYER and a full blown trial! ;^)
I am a descendent of one of the Pendle, also known as The Lancashire, witches.
She was a widow with property who refused a marriage proposal. The rejected suitor accused her of witchcraft. In prison and at trivial, she steadfastly refused to answer questions about her whereabouts and activities or her associates. She wasn’t a witch, but in actuality a recusant Catholic and answering their questions would have betrayed other Catholics. She died in prison before she could be executed. There is a statue of her in Lancashire.
I actually do KNOW about your ancestress and the trials. It was true to form; most people who were accused of witchcraft either owned something that someone else wanted, had had a fight with someone, refused marriage, etc., both in Europe ( the UK in that position too ), or in Colonial America. And most refused to give names of others, for one reason or another. A person/persons could be accused of witchcraft over nothing at all; even just a dislike.
In a way, it was akin to what goes on, on Tik Toc, long before such a thing existed.
The wildest thing, IMHO, is that animals of all kinds, but especially pigs and yes, cats, were put on trial!
This witch and her husband had many animals in cages including a fox…I think they called them familiars. She had a daughter from previous marriage that she treated horribly because the girl looked like her Dad. I felt so sorry for that child.
oh that poor child! :-(
Yes…this was in Long Beach, CA. Early 1970’s.
Good answer.
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