From Whore to More...

The female subject of the Panther Narrative is indeed almost a different creature than the beaten-down, stigmatized woman that Cotton Mother preaches about. Though, in terms of relative historical length, these texts are not far apart, their context and views of women represented in these narratives are worlds away.

The first texts we focused on, principally the witchcraft tales of Cotton Mather, were filled with high-flow, religious language that was developed to be a moral guidance to the reader. However, it is evident through the outrageousness of the literature (the descriptions of specters torturing victims and girls coughing up crooked pins) that these were also meant to be entertaining. The primary goal however, is to preach to an audience about the evils that are befalling the New World because they did not live up to God’s expectations. The fantastical elements only serve to draw the reader in and to show the otherworldliness and evil of the “witches.” These texts are didactic tools and warning reproaches of fallen women. The female characters are given little characterization rather than evil, supernatural deeds from the witches and fits of hysteria from the afflicted girls. The audience of these texts was, at least in Mather’s view, God-fearing folk who wanted a reason of why these “evils” were befalling Puritan America. He suspected that these people believed heavily in the devil and the wrath of God.

The next set of historical works that we read were categorized into infanticide narratives and confessionals. Women in these texts were much more colorful than in Mather’s prose, however they too are confined to a limited set of feelings. Though these texts were supposedly written by women, the complex stylistic devices and lack of emotionality about difficult subject matter seems to suggest otherwise. The infanticide narratives track the journeys of wicked women who killed their young babies, and were subsequently punished for it. These women often trace their evil ways to childhood and their seemingly simple faults there, and then in a slippery-slope manner they fall into a life of debauchery. Another pattern in these texts is that the women all come to a realization before their execution and come to repent their fallen ways. The same is true for the confessional narratives, where the women have committed other crimes as wickedness other than (though perhaps including) infanticide. The language after their conversion is very high-flown and overdone. Their newfound religiousness is sudden and overwhelming, suggesting that the authors believed that there were only two types of women: saints and whores. It can be concluded that these texts were also largely didactic in nature, especially the early ones. This can be seen through the intense religious overtones and the fact that the women always see the error of their ways and are redeemed through a gracious God. However, these texts are also sensationalist and were written to “shed further light” on infamous female criminals of the time. They were capitalizing on the notoriety of women convicts and writing fake confessionals for them. These male authors were writing for an audience that wanted the dirt on female convicts, and the authors took advantage of this hunger to feed them stories about repentance and the glory of God.

These earlier texts are marking a small progression in their view of the audience and of the fallen woman. However, the Panther Narrative, also known as “A Very Surprising Narrative of a Young Woman, Who was Found in a Cave” is a drastic change from the previous texts we have read. For the first time we are seeing a woman who has some degree of agency in her own life. Though the female pirate’s tale was imbued with a sense of more dynamic femininity, this tale represents a more drastic demarcation. The young woman leaves society and ends up alone in a cave for nine years. She must protect her chastity against a savage giant (who in later editions turns into an Indian, then a Negro), and kills him and chops him up in defense. This female is also quite wild is some ways, disobeying the will of her harsh father and living in the wilderness. But she is not a total change from the previous accounts of women: the audience still gets the feeling that she is a fallen woman. She does not follow societal norms exactly, but she does not fully depart from them. The young woman is remarkably well kept for living in the wilderness, and she tries to domesticate her cave. In the end, she returns to civilization. The lesson the audience receives is somewhat ambiguous, but it can be interpreted that society triumphs in reclaiming the wild woman. Her return must be acknowledged, because even though the text is by no means condemning of her, she is not allowed to continue to dwell outside the constraints of society. Even when she is in the wild she is domesticated and feminized. This is a narrative written to be fantastic and entertaining to an audience that was apprehensive about the effects of travelers moving westward. They were also an audience that craved sensational tales and entertainment. The audience is not quite ready for a fully independent, assertive and transgressive woman. This is evidenced through the ending of the Panther Narrative. But it is definitely a step in a more feminist direction. The fallen woman is no longer the object of such strict social stigmatization or religious reprobation as she was in the past.

Modern Warnings to Our Young Girls

I found that the literature of “Pillars of Salt” was archaic and heavy-handed, however, I recognized that some of the basic sentiments about the “fallen” women in the texts were similar to modern society’s sentiments regarding transgressive women. Though several centuries have passed, our modern culture still has a way of stigmatizing and punishing women who traipse across the boundaries of “acceptable” feminine behavior. And our modern narratives have ways of warning the youths not to “fall” just as the fiery preachings of “Pillars of Salt” were meant to dissuade Puritan youths from transgression.

Just as there were a set of standards for a Puritan woman, there are a set of social norms that are demanded of women today (though they are much looser than those of two hundred years ago). Today’s girls are expected to remain chaste (or at least maintain the appearance of chastity), to behave in a way socially prescribed for their gender, to fit the mold of idealized feminine beauty, and to abstain from large amounts of drink of drugs. If a girl “falls” far from adhering to these norms, she has transgressed her prescribed social boundaries and will be stigmatized for them. This does not mean that she will become a social pariah as in the olden days or will be hanged. However it means that she will face a degree of stigmatization, reprimanding, taunting and that she will be faced with prejudice and labeling. Let’s say a TCU girl goes out at night to have casual sex with several men, and then speaks openly about it or stumbles out of the boy’s lodging in “shacker” wear. Chances are this girl’s reputation will be seriously damaged, and other girls will think ill of her and cast her out of their circle. Boys will treat her as damaged goods and expect her to be a sexual object. She has not been cast out of society, but has been relegated to a tier of society that is considered seedy and shameful.

Other women that are seen as cause for social reprimanding in modern culture are lesbians, overweight women, spinsters, tomboys, ugly women, childless females, alcoholics, druggies, “unfit” mothers, and etcetera. It as is if our modern culture has a range of what is socially acceptable for a female, and women who fall outside of that range are reprimanded and ostracized, or thrown into their own group of “undesirables.” The women in this class make up the “fallen females” of today because they possess traits which isolate them from their prescribed femininity and therefore from society. We are a culture that sees our womanhood, and the socially constructed roles that go with it, as essential to our sense of being. We treat transgressors in a tad more civilized way as did our predecessors. The women in these infanticide narratives are similar to those I have listed above because they fall into the category of a woman who has rejected her social gender role. If a woman commits infanticide, it is a crime that is contrary to her womanhood. Being female means being constructed to breed and nurture, and infanticide is an act that wrecks our idea of what being female is all about. Even if these women did not actually commit the crime, they overstepped their bounds by excessive drinking and blatant sexuality: which are still grounds for condemnation in modern society.

I feel that we have our own versions of the infanticide narratives: messages constructed so as to warn young women not to transgress their prescribed roles or to “fall” into a certain lifestyle. Movies and television shows often teach children that it is a slippery slope between small sins and a life of debauchery. They show characters having a swig of beer at one moment and engaging in prostitution the next. Most of these depictions can be found in Lifetime movies or in shows tailored for the very young. Pre-teen dramas often have plots constructed around a “good girl” encountering a dangerous situation, which she either falls into or escapes and learns a valuable lesson from. Often these preachy shows are directed at teens to impress on them how easy it is to fall into bad lifestyles and to scare them into behaving. Other examples of our modern narratives are the constant warnings parents give their daughters about sex. Girls are constantly warned about sexual activity through threatening them that they will be labeled whores. The idea of being thought of as sexually promiscuous is one that is horrible to a young girl. I remember hearing “warning tales” of girls who were very like myself and who made bad choices and ended up with miserable lives. These stories are our own constructions designed to keep our youths “on the right track.”

Feminists Reclaim the Crone

I enjoyed reading Rountree's academic essay on feminist witchcraft and regaining the "agency" of the crone. On the whole, I found the article very accessible because it enumerated on concepts that I heard about before in other classes. My current class “Sociology of the Body” often focuses on the ways that our bodies are not just anatomical structures but also cultural ones: and that women’s bodies are often labeled and oppressed by patriarchal structures. Also, an assignment in last semester’s “King Arthur” class acquainted me with the concept of the goddess and the divine feminine. For me, Rountree’s thesis was a clear way to bring together these concepts I had heard about but was not totally understanding of. After reading “The New Witch of the West” I feel that I am more educated on the current women’s movement’s treatment of the terms “witch” and “goddess.” I also understand their attempt to reclaim these words and their biased definitions from patriarchal agencies. These feminist witches are showing solidarity for those persecuted women who were labeled witches in the past. They were women who did not fit into the gender roles prescribed by a patriarchal society, and who ostracized and demonized for their independent thoughts. By calling themselves “witches” these new feminists are not casting spells and stirring cauldrons, but are showing a solidarity for their female predecessors while simultaneously expressing their disdain for the rigid norms set by a male-dominated society.

Rountree asserts that Western culture is intent on defining life through dichotomies, and that the archetypes of the witch and the goddess are examples of this. She states that the pre-Christian figure of the Goddess was a multi-faceted figure who was both good and beautiful and chaotic and dangerous. Furthermore, Rountree says that, in the Christian world, the negative aspects of the Goddess were separated out and made into their own purely wicked archetype: the witch. Therefore the goddess was left as pure and her negative traits were cast out so that they could be more clearly punished by society. The “goddess” of pre-Christian religion, as well as feminist witches, want to see the world as holistic, where everything is related and things can be multi-faceted instead of black and white. Therefore, their attempt to regain control of the word “witch” comes with the simultaneous quest to reunite the “crone” with the “goddess,” creating the whole that once existed in one figure. This is what Rountree is expressing when she says that modern feminists believe that a contemporary woman can be both witch and goddess.

The article which we read was plainly written through a feminist lens, though it raises many good points about the nature of our society and the consequences of domination by one sex. Rountree’s writing showed me the pervasiveness of patriarchy in the Western world, and how it shades all aspects of our society from medicine to religion. I had never before considered that witches were a threat to the male-dominated medicine field because they offered alternative less scientific treatments. It suddenly made sense that these women were to be so harshly persecuted: they were standing in the way of profit! Her article also made me reexamine the place of the female in the Christian religion. It is a sad fact that Christianity views God largely as male, and that most important characters in the Bible are masculine. The Church has been one of the main avenues for the persecution of women and for their relegation to subservient roles. This made me think back to a movie called “The Mists of Avalon” that I saw in my King Arthur class. The women in the film were ones that our culture would label as sorceresses or witches: they were more powerful than the males are worshipped a feminine goddess. The movie was interesting because it showed the gender and religious struggles that resulted when the Christian and “pagan” ways met. The result was the almost complete eradication of the Goddess figure. Women who continued to adhere to these “pagan” beliefs were often cast out from society or killed.

The sad truth is, that like many things in the world, the titles of witch and goddess, and the persecution of women who fall under these delineations, is all about power. The modern feminist is trying to reclaim power, to take back agency, by redefining these masculine marked words. In contrast, patriarchal society was trying to secure their power in creating these terms and splitting the goddess and the crone into two distinct roles. I think it would be better if we as a society could think of things more holistically. Perhaps then we would not be so apt to persecute those who fall outside of our self-creating lines of “good” and “evil.”

I suppose I was a strange child because I was always interested in the supernatural- whether it be witches, ghosts, mystical creatures, fairies, etc. I will just attribute it to an active imagination and a love of being frightened. Whatever the case, I was totally in love with the TV show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" when I was about 16. It had all the supernatural elements mixed in with soap-opera situations, witty dialogue, and hot guys. So I watched the show loyally for all its 7 seasons, even when it went downhill. Besides vampires, there were demons and witches as major characters on the show. Buffy's read-headed best friend Willow was a witch and a very important part of the show. In the first season, she was just a bookish math-nerd with more brains then she knew what to do with. As the show progressed, Willow developed an interest in the occult and started to learn spells out of dust-covered spell books in the school library (yeah, like most schools have that kind of literature). Willows spells and charms were usually harmless in nature and seemed to conjure up traditional images of witchcraft: strange but natural ingredients, incantations, talismans, and potions. Her spells always helped the other characters out of tough jams and gave the viewers the overall impression that witchcraft could be lighthearted and earthy.

But the show went on and Willow's old magic tricks weren't as interesting to the viewers as they used to be. So the writers ditched Willow's werewolf boyfriend for a female witch. Yes, Willow magically became a lesbian a few seasons in. Not only that, Willow's magic began to get darker and more sinister as the episodes rolled on. She started to look in "dark magic" books and become obsessed with learning more powerful forms of magic. She could now erase people's memories, transport herself from place to place, and other large-scale tricks. In one season Buffy died defeating a fallen "god" (yes, ridiculous) and Willow's spells raised her from the dead in the next season's premiere episode. Convenient, I know. But all these powerful spells had an effect: magic became like crack for Willow. Whenever she was "using" magic, her eyes would turn all black and creepy and she would go on spell binges. And when she didn't use she craved the magic. People who got in her way got their skin turned inside out and other dark magic spells performed on them. At the end of that season Willow went so spell crazy that she turned evil and tried to destroy the world. She stood in the middle of a giant pentegram and recited evil incantations until Buffy went to her and told her she loved her and not to do that. Yes, the show had definitely "jumped the shark."

The point of all this is that Willow's role on Buffy the Vampire Slayer was symbolic to me of the way that I feel American society feels about witches and witchcraft. On one hand, we feel that there is an allure to the potions and the naturalism that witchcraft praises. But on the other, our society fears that an interest in witchcraft is addicting and can lead to dark and dangerous beliefs. Not only that, but our culture shows that people must be cautioned against witches. This is shown through Willow's turning evil in Buffy and through the roles of witches in fairy tales. There is definitely a double standard with witches in America: a pull between fascination and unwariness.

The presence of shows like Buffy, and their popularity, shows that there is still a fascination with the idea of “evil” in the modern world. In the show, the fight against evil was an enduring theme, and evil could be embodied in a variety of different ways: through vampires, demons, ghosts, devils, and corrupt humans. Each time evil came into the world, Buffy, the essence of good, would fight and conquer it. The show is symbolic of humanities fears that evil truly exists in the world. Mather believed that evil was an active agent that sought to corrupt the world. This view is still widely held- oftentimes in the Christian religion. I have several friends and a mother who believe that demons are present in this world and corrupt those who are not careful. I believe that our contemporary society is still uncertain as to the nature of evil. We heartily believe it exists, but cannot always identify it. In fact, evil is a concept that is socially created. We see it represented in the archetypal figures of Satan, demons, ghosts and other supernatural beings, yet we are also painfully aware that evil is a force that may lurk within the human heart.