In Defence of Witches: Why women are still on trial

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Ongoing Covid restrictions, reduced air and freight capacity, high volumes and winter weather conditions are all impacting transportation and local delivery across the globe. These adverts enable local businesses to get in front of their target audience – the local community. Hotjar sets this cookie to identify a new user’s first session. It stores a true/false value, indicating whether it was the first time Hotjar saw this user. Celebrated feminist writer Mona Chollet explores three types of women who were accused of witchcraft and the independent woman, since widows and celibates were particularly targeted; the childless woman, since the time of the hunts marked the end of tolerance for those who claimed to control their fertility; and the elderly woman, who has always been an object of at best, pity, and at worst, horror. Examining modern society, Chollet concludes that these women continue to be harrassed and oppressed. Rather than being a brief moment in history, the persecution of witches is an example of society’s seemingly eternal misogyny, while women today are direct descendants to those who were hunted down and killed for their thoughts and actions. Chollet's thought-provoking text posits that although women are no longer burned at the stake as witches, much of the anti-woman sentiment that sparked past witch hunts is alive and well. According to Chollet, 50,000–100,000 women were tortured and murdered as "witches" throughout history. Most of them were single, widowed, childless, beyond childbearing years, or in control of their own fertility during a time when society tied a woman's worth to her ability to bear children or care for a husband. With many real-life examples or media portrayals of historic and contemporary oppression and misogyny, this could be a demoralizing and overwhelming listening experience. The encouraging tone throughout, however, urges listeners to create a world where bodies and minds are never associated with this type of historical past again. Alix Dunmore's lovely accent and warm delivery add to the hopeful tone of the production, and her precise, careful pacing helps listeners absorb the many references. VERDICT Filled with hundreds of endnotes, this original and entertaining work would make a great book club choice. —Beth Farrell Library Journal - Audio

In Defence of Witches: The women who dared to simply exist In Defence of Witches: The women who dared to simply exist

Years of propaganda and terror sowed among men the seeds of a deep psychological alienation from women.’ This is a very interesting book on feminism with a lot of information about society, women and history. But that wasn't what I'd been expecting. I had been hoping for a book about wiches. I'd hoped to read a bunch of trials, panic and how it still relates today. I think if I'd been prepared for the book I got instead of the book I had wanted, I would have rated this higher. As it was, I found the title created an idea of what it would be with a story it wasn't. Et lire les destins tragiques et révoltants de ces milliers de femmes accusées de sorcellerie, eh bien figurez-vous que ça m'a donné encore plus de force. Je suis habitée d'une colère qui me donne envie de m'investir encore plus dans ma lutte féministe, qui me donne envie d'encore plus de sororité. We are experiencing delays with deliveries to many countries, but in most cases local services have now resumed. For more details, please consult the latest information provided by Royal Mail's International Incident Bulletin. The Witch is arguably the only female archtupe that has power on its own terms. She is not defined by anyone else.'Mona Chollet is a Franco-Swiss writer and journalist. She is the chief editor for Le Monde diplomatique and has also written for Charlie Hebdo. She lives in Paris, France.

In Defence of Witches: Why women are still on trial In Defence of Witches: Why women are still on trial

Really interesting book when it focuses on the history of witches, witchhunts, historical oppression of independent women, and the use of witches as a feminist metaphor. The book becomes a bit more mundane in the last third when it covers important issues like marriage, the medical establishment, looks, etc. but from a more straightforward non-witch focused point of view. Also quite interesting to see a French point of view on feminist theory and issues. Sarah Gilmartin, Irish Times Explores the worldview that the witch hunt has sought to promote - and its consequences on society today. A source of terror, a misogynistic image of woman inherited from the trials and the pyres of the great early modern witch hunts – in In Defence of Witches the witch is recast as a powerful role model to women today: an emblem of power, free to exist beyond the narrow limits society imposes on women. Chollet takes this structure and traces a direct pipeline between the mass-murder of women during the European witch trials and the reasons why women today are still being scrutinised for personal choices, albeit in subtler, yet more insidious ways. If you enjoyed Caroline Criado Pérez’s Invisible Women (and by “enjoyed” I mean, if your definition of a jolly good time is reading infuriating facts that reveal how inherently misogynistic society is), then In Defence of Witches is a book for you.MyHome.ie (Opens in new window) • Top 1000 • The Gloss (Opens in new window) • Recruit Ireland (Opens in new window) • Irish Times Training (Opens in new window) Elle est ensuite pigiste pour Charlie Hebdo. Mais son contrat est interrompu en 2000 après sa contestation d'un éditorial du directeur de la rédaction Philippe Val, qui qualifiait les Palestiniens de « non-civilisés ». Elle raconte : « Quelques jours après, il m’a convoquée, et il m’a annoncé qu’il arrêtait mon CDI après le mois d’essai, alors que j’étais pigiste depuis un an. Ça m’a sidérée »1. l'indépendance des femmes, et comment notre refus de se sacrifier attire immédiatement des réprobations

In Defence of Witches: a rousing feminist argument – The In Defence of Witches: a rousing feminist argument – The

TW: abortion, abuse, adult/minor relationship, antisemitism, body shaming, child death, domestic abuse, forced institutionalization, homophobia, lesbophobia, medical content, medical trauma, miscarriage, misogyny, physical abuse, pregnancy, racism, rape, religious bigotry, r slur (used in technical form), sexism, sexual abuse, sexual assault, torture, violence. The brilliant feminist book “In Defense of Witches: Why Women are Still on Trial'' by Mona Chollet was released in January 2022. She discusses how the women who exist outside of the boundaries of patriarchal control are deemed to be villainous and morally corrupt. This extends from the witch-hunts of the 16th century to more current situations such as the anti-abortion laws the US faces, to the way in which women enter a “villain era”, which is really just self-love. Childless women must be evil witches Up to the end of the 1960s, as Traister reminds us, American feminism was dominated by Betty Friedan’s approach. The author of The Feminine Mystique (1963) and an outspoken critic of the ideal of the housewife, Friedan spoke up for “women who wanted equality, but who also wanted to keep on loving their husbands and children.”4 Critiques of marriage itself only surfaced in the feminist movement later on, with the birth of the fight for gay rights and with lesbians’ increased visibility. But, even then, it seemed unthinkable for many activists that a woman could be heterosexual and not wish to marry; “at least until Gloria came along.”5 Thanks to Steinem and a few others, in 1973, Newsweek observed that it was “finally becoming possible to be both single and whole.”7 By the end of the decade, the divorce rate had exploded, reaching almost 50 percent.This book looks at not only the sordid history of the burning of innocent women accused of being witches in Salem and elsewhere, but establishes how that history is still influential today. Chollet’s discussion about the “childless woman” falls perfectly into this category of female power and is unfortunately just as relevant as it was 500 years ago. Women who disrupted the patriarchal structure by forgoing married life or children were viewed with contempt, labelled as witches, and excluded from society. The vehement condemnation of the childless woman seems to be more about the women who dared to take control of their own lives than anything else. Dans le chapitre sur la maternité, elle évoque des femmes qui regrettent d'être mère mais qui aiment leurs enfants, de mémoire ça dit quelque chose comme "j'aimerais pas que mes enfants disparaissent, juste je ne supporte pas le rôle de mère attribué par la société", et en lisant ça je me suis dit "ah chouette, un chapitre genre la parentalité sans la maternité" mais non, elle change de sujet et c'est plus abordé!