num_pages: 320
description: Mona Chollet's In Defense of Witches is a brilliant well-documented celebration ( Le Monde ) by an acclaimed French feminist of the witch as a symbol of female rebellion and independence in the face of misogyny and persecution.Centuries after the infamous witch hunts that swept through Europe and America witches continue to hold a unique fascination for as fairy tale villains practitioners of pagan religion as well as feminist icons. Witches are both the ultimate victim and the stubborn elusive rebel. But who were the women who were accused and often killed for witchcraft? What types of women have centuries of terror censored eliminated and repressed?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 societys seemingly eternal misogyny while women today are direct descendants to those who were hunted down and killed for their thoughts and actions.With fiery prose and arguments that range from the scholarly to the cultural In Defense of Witches seeks to unite the mythic image of the witch with modern women who live their lives on their own terms.
language: English
title: In Defense of Witches: The Legacy of the Witch Hunts and Why Women Are Still on Trial
publisher: St. Martin's Press