Why You Shouldn’t Dress as a Witch at Halloween
By: Stephanie Jenkins-Bell
Tags: Halloween, Feminism, Equality, History, The Witch

@feminist_at_30

We’ve all done it. Picture this; it’s the early 90s. I’m eight and I’m dressed as a witch. My hair’s been backcombed to buggery, my face is a queasy green and I’ve fashioned a huge black wart on my nose. My mum eggs me on to jump from our dining room table, straddling an actual broomstick, while she uses one of her precious, disposable camera-clicks to capture the moment; mid-air. It was the funniest Halloween to date and it’s one of the most haunting (read embarrassing) images my mother (and secretly, I) hold dear. And if you’re a woman or a girl, or ever have been, I bet you can remember your first time dressed as a warty, ugly, old witch. Am I right? It’s every woman and girl’s go-to, fail-safe outfit at Halloween and why shouldn’t it be?

Here’s why it shouldn’t be.

THE MODERN CONTEXT

When we look at the witch, what do we see? Well, if Disney is your fancy, then we see evil. She’s ugly; an old woman with a wart on her nose; hunched over a cauldron ready to cook up evil, green slime.

If Warner Brother’s recent adaptation of The Witches is anything to go by, you’re a beautiful person with a couple of missing limbs and penchant for snake jewellery.

Look a bit closer.

She has fingers missing — Paralympian Claire Cashmore was bullied for years because she was born without a lower left arm. She felt shamed into trying to hide her difference, when the people who should have been ashamed, were those doing the bullying.

You see an old woman. What’s wrong with women getting old? Hollywood and the media would have you believe this is the epitome of evil. Hey witchy, get a facelift or some Botox, will you?

She has a wart on her nose; she is ugly. Guess what? There’s nothing wrong with warts and who is to say this woman is ugly? Who set that standard? Oh yeah, the media. Pah. Getaway wit-ya-self.

And guess what she’s cooking — the most delicious pumpkin and sage risotto you’re ever likely to try because her grandkids are coming over and one of them’s got the sniffles and needs a pick me up.

YOU’RE A WITCH

How many of us are increasingly reaching for organic, vegan, plant-based beauty products?

Maybe you’re a doctor or a nurse? A midwife that knows every essential oil to help with calming a woman in labour or encouraging labour? Maybe you like to make your own face masks or lavender oil? Hell, maybe you just love helping people. There can’t possibly be anything wrong with that. Right? Wrong.

Hundreds of years ago you might have been accused of witchcraft. And there’s a chance you would have been hunted, maybe tortured, then killed. And not just a bit killed. You’d probably have been burnt alive or hung or drowned.

The term ‘witch’ has been used for hundreds of years to legitimise the stigmatisation and oppression of women. It’s been a tool used to shame women for getting older. A word used to legitimise the association of evil with a woman who doesn’t conform to ridiculous beauty standards. A word used to shame everything a woman has, historically, been about: caring, helping, supporting a community, bringing people together.

A word that even today allows women to be beaten, raped and murdered.

HISTORICALLY

We all know about the Salam Trials — when 200 people were accused of witchcraft. It resulted in fourteen women and five men being found guilty and hung.

The Salam Trials have been given global notoriety, but a lesser-known case graced the press this year. Clair Mitchell QC started a campaign to pardon 2,500 people killed as witches in Scotland. About 87% of whom were women. Rightly so, Clair Mitchell QC points out that there have been many cases where men have been pardoned for historical offences of homosexuality. Yet, women were tortured and killed in one of the biggest miscarriages of justice to ever take place in the history of Great Britain and not one single person has been pardoned. Statues have been erected for men and animals for less. Yet no apology or memorial has been erected for all those women who lost their lives needlessly.

To date, historians estimate around 50,000 people, mainly women and children, have been executed for witchcraft.

TODAY

There’s a reason people don’t dress as black slaves, Nazi soldiers or concentration camp victims at Halloween. And if they do, they’re lambasted for it (eh Harry?), and rightly so. It’s because what happened was atrocious and still happens today. Black people are still losing their lives because of the colour of their skin and people still treat Jewish people discriminatorily because of their religious following. Not to mention how offensive that would be to the families of those who lost their lives.

But killing for alleged witchcraft is still happening today too.

In 2010, Ama Hemmah a 72-year-old Ghanaian grandmother was blamed for the death of two local children. She was accused of being a witch, tortured then burned alive.

In July this year, an elderly couple from Jajpur was burned to death while they slept. Unbeknownst to them, they were accused and found guilty of witchcraft when half a dozen people from their village died for unrelated reasons.

According to India Today, in the last few years, 210 women have been put to death for witchcraft. Two women are currently awaiting trial but have already been tortured, paraded naked through the streets and forced to drink urine for supposedly being witches.

DITCH THE WITCH

Because if you’re not someone who follows the ancient and misunderstood religion of Paganism, you’re committing cultural appropriation. And that’s not cool.

Because the popularist idea of the witch represents this: female oppression, injustice, fear, and the idea that it’s okay to torture and kill thousands of women without trial. Simply because, in most cases, they were women.

And that’s not okay.

#ditchthewitch #notawitch #halloween #halloween2020 #halloweenlockdown #disabilitymatters #able #notugly #beautiful #womannotwitch