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She’s ugly. She’s aggressive. She hates men and she hates children. She hates young, pretty women and will do anything to destroy them. Do not trust her. She’s evil. She’s a witch.
I've always liked witches. In fairy tales, there was something about them that simply made them more interesting than the insipid princesses and similar heroines. Even Ursula remains one of my all-time favourite characters. I assumed it was because, you know, they could do magic and magic is cool, but looking back, I think there’s more to it than that.
To the little girl with a fetish for myths and fairy tales, female role models, no matter how great, always tend to have the same basic traits: They’re pretty, they’re young, they want to get married, and they’re nurturing. There is nothing wrong with any of these traits, and, as it’s known, I love Disney princesses, but still, all of these girls fit into a basic social standard that is considered Right.
According to “Return of Kings”, a website that harbours the most misogynistic men since Henry the 8th, a woman’s value is determined not by the “intellect, resource and character” that apparently determines a man’s value, but by her “beauty and fertility”.
This thinking is pretty old; ancient, in fact. It’s found wonderfully displayed in fairy tales. The princess is beautiful, and she exists to get married. The prince is intelligent, resourceful and has a strong character. (At least these days Disney princesses tend to have some of these qualities as well.) Eventually he “wins” the princess, usually by accomplishing some sort of goal that in no way relates to whether or not he’ll make a good life partner to an actual living human being, and they live happily ever after. Bla bla bla.
Enter the witch.
The witch embodies every single thing a woman is not, according to a certain line of thought, supposed to be. She is single. She is powerful. She dislikes children. She lives alone, and doesn’t fit into society. She is old and ugly.
And so she is demonized. The fact that she doesn’t need to rely a man, like a princess needs to rely on a knight in shining armour, gets turned into her hating and wanting to kill men. The fact that she has her own power gets turned into her caring only about power.
The fact that she dislikes children gets turned into her actually wanting to kill and eat children. The fact that she lives alone and doesn’t fit in gets turned into enough excuse to brand her a danger to society. The fact that she is old and ugly gets turned into her having absolutely no value. It gets turned into her being jealous of those who are young and beautiful. It gets turned into her being a danger to princesses.
The witch is not a young, beautiful, dedicated wife and mother whose entire life is defined only by the men around her, and she never will be, and so she is written off as pure evil.
It reminds me so strongly of feminists. The stories about “those feminazis” and their unbridled evil and hatred of all things good are getting as ridiculous as the stories about witches during the “burning times”. You'd think we'd be used to women who aren't quite Snow White by now but no.
It’s so pathetically black and white. She doesn’t need a man so she's violently anti all men! She doesn’t believe in the beauty standard so she's a greedy bitch who just wants an excuse to be fat and lazy and probably eats puppies! She's ugly! Oh my God how dare she be ugly! Good God, anti-feminists. Get a grip.
There’s nothing wrong with being a young, beautiful woman who is devoted to her husband and children. Nothing at all. Plenty of feminists do it. But there is also nothing wrong with being an old, ugly, single woman who’s more concerned with her career than with babies either. In fact, people who don’t fit in have this tendency to be more interesting.
Don’t be an idiot with a torch. Witches are awesome.*
For more posts from Discordian Kitty follow her blog
I've always liked witches. In fairy tales, there was something about them that simply made them more interesting than the insipid princesses and similar heroines. Even Ursula remains one of my all-time favourite characters. I assumed it was because, you know, they could do magic and magic is cool, but looking back, I think there’s more to it than that.
To the little girl with a fetish for myths and fairy tales, female role models, no matter how great, always tend to have the same basic traits: They’re pretty, they’re young, they want to get married, and they’re nurturing. There is nothing wrong with any of these traits, and, as it’s known, I love Disney princesses, but still, all of these girls fit into a basic social standard that is considered Right.
According to “Return of Kings”, a website that harbours the most misogynistic men since Henry the 8th, a woman’s value is determined not by the “intellect, resource and character” that apparently determines a man’s value, but by her “beauty and fertility”.
This thinking is pretty old; ancient, in fact. It’s found wonderfully displayed in fairy tales. The princess is beautiful, and she exists to get married. The prince is intelligent, resourceful and has a strong character. (At least these days Disney princesses tend to have some of these qualities as well.) Eventually he “wins” the princess, usually by accomplishing some sort of goal that in no way relates to whether or not he’ll make a good life partner to an actual living human being, and they live happily ever after. Bla bla bla.
Enter the witch.
The witch embodies every single thing a woman is not, according to a certain line of thought, supposed to be. She is single. She is powerful. She dislikes children. She lives alone, and doesn’t fit into society. She is old and ugly.
And so she is demonized. The fact that she doesn’t need to rely a man, like a princess needs to rely on a knight in shining armour, gets turned into her hating and wanting to kill men. The fact that she has her own power gets turned into her caring only about power.
The fact that she dislikes children gets turned into her actually wanting to kill and eat children. The fact that she lives alone and doesn’t fit in gets turned into enough excuse to brand her a danger to society. The fact that she is old and ugly gets turned into her having absolutely no value. It gets turned into her being jealous of those who are young and beautiful. It gets turned into her being a danger to princesses.
The witch is not a young, beautiful, dedicated wife and mother whose entire life is defined only by the men around her, and she never will be, and so she is written off as pure evil.
It reminds me so strongly of feminists. The stories about “those feminazis” and their unbridled evil and hatred of all things good are getting as ridiculous as the stories about witches during the “burning times”. You'd think we'd be used to women who aren't quite Snow White by now but no.
It’s so pathetically black and white. She doesn’t need a man so she's violently anti all men! She doesn’t believe in the beauty standard so she's a greedy bitch who just wants an excuse to be fat and lazy and probably eats puppies! She's ugly! Oh my God how dare she be ugly! Good God, anti-feminists. Get a grip.
There’s nothing wrong with being a young, beautiful woman who is devoted to her husband and children. Nothing at all. Plenty of feminists do it. But there is also nothing wrong with being an old, ugly, single woman who’s more concerned with her career than with babies either. In fact, people who don’t fit in have this tendency to be more interesting.
Don’t be an idiot with a torch. Witches are awesome.*
For more posts from Discordian Kitty follow her blog
