LJ Idol Week 29: Portfolio Challenge #2

[marlawentmad]

Surrender Under Protest

REMOVED FOR SUBMISSION

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So concludes my second story for the Portfolio Challenge.

Please check back after the weekend for voting information!

Comments

[penpusher]

My revelation from this piece is a simple one. The witch hunts generally were about women, who many of the men in whatever sad villages they lived in at the time, found them "not attractive" or found them "too attractive" or found them "behaving inappropriately," or were people they just didn't like and were likely used as a method of driving said women out of sight of the townsfolk. It is a continual storyline for many - we don't want to see you, now get out. Of course, that would be inhumane for the group leaders to do if those were the reasons for sending these women away, so there needed to be a string attached - she is a witch. " I couldn't help laying with her, I was bewitched." "Her mere presence in our community is a blight. She must be removed."

And it makes sense that those women would at least attempt to find ways to make what would be an utterly hateful practice into something they could use to defend themselves creating a "need" for magic. Self-fulfilling prophesy. You want a witch? Here's your witch! And may the wrath of this witch's powers come down on them.

[marlawentmad]

I agree with you, and I will add another thought to your list: "She knows too much." I think a lot of women healers were ostracized because there was no room for a woman who knew too much about how to heal the body, to take care of a difficult or an unwanted pregnancy, who listened to their intuition instead of bowing their heads and following along with the status quo. I was too young to understand my affinity for all stories involving witches, but as I aged I understand more and more.

[penpusher]

Yes of course! A woman who knows more than the male elders?! We can't have that.

Seriously, we watched that play out in 2016 so we're still dealing with this stupidity, now - some three hundred plus years later. Society needs to finally get out of the 17th Century, or we will all suffer the consequences.

[marlawentmad]

Yes, Yes! I always loved fantasy, genre, science fiction, because these stories are perfectly capable of highlighting major issues in modern societies. It is so frustrating how we chase our own tails, bite into them, creating cycles of wrongness and hurt.

[penpusher]

P.S. From the elders' standpoint "knowing too much" would likely fall under "behaving inappropriately."

[marlawentmad]

Ah, the tricky subjective nature of what is or is not appropriate.