Old H@g: The Witch Trope

As I work on new ideas about modern Western society's negative view of women aging, I've been thinking about where the outdated stereotypes stem from. Join me as I begin with my take on the notion of the older woman and the witch trope. 

-

Betrayal, jealousy and death! If you want drama it's all there in fairy tales, the innocent stuff of childhood, and while we all enjoy a bit of harmless gruesome fun, fairy tales also play a further role in shaping our world views and deeper psychological make up. They serve a purpose of mirroring our own deep insecurities and reflecting them back to us as villains and monsters. For alongside the plucky heroes and heroines and the magical trials they are put through, burned into our collective consciousness, is the notion of the evil and dangerous older woman.

Whether she takes the form of the the vain and jealous stepmother or the old duplicitous crone, older women in fairy tales are generally to be mistrusted and feared. They're authority figures who should be avoided if we are to stay safe. It is only the sweet and gentle who can be trusted and the fairy godmothers and grandmothers who pose no threat. Similarly, in the real world, in the West especially, it's mostly the cosy maternal image of a grandmother that is seen as the safe and acceptable option for a woman over a certain age. Type 'Old lady' into Google image search and the majority of pictures mirrors this. 

Now think of all the older women (and here I could mean any female between the ages of 35-100 thanks to modern culture's limited view, see my introduction post for more on this) who do not fit that stereotype and how society immediately micro judges them as mutton dressed as lamb, eccentrics, loopy, over the hill or as a 'hag', the ultimate put down, stripping women of their perceived femininity, power and status. So, why should it matter to us what an older woman looks like or what she is doing and why do we feel like it is any of our business? Just where does this sense of unease come from? 

Lets take a journey back 430 years or so to the rule of King James Sixth of Scotland and First of England whose obsession with witches caused the two nations to be swept up in a delirium of panic and fear. His book Daemonology, based on his personal deep rooted insecurities and zealous doctrine, endorsed the use of witch hunting and encouraged an era where almost 500 people (90% of them women) were put to death after being charged with collusion with the Devil. 

If we were to pull back and look further to Europe between the years 1500-1600 nearly 80,000 suspected witches (80% of them women) were executed after the same frenzy took hold. This was most definitely fuelled by the viral sensation of its day, “Malleus Maleficarum”, a guidebook to flushing out witches living among the populace. The fear of hidden danger mixed with a religious fervour was used to control the masses and witch hysteria became the norm amongst all walks of life.

Those accused were often midwives, healers, the elderly and quarrelsome women from poorer backgrounds. The common denominator being that they held some form of power or standing in the community either through their profession, age or forthright nature. Women with any power went against the 'natural order' even if their purpose was to help their neighbours. This was an era of intense patriarchy and thanks to people like King James, intense paranoia and suspicion. What better way to disarm these troublesome women than to turn their power against them and brand it as evil?

These were dangerous times for women who didn't fit in, and as witch mania grew, accusations of sorcery took hold. Disagreements with neighbours, accidents, unwanted natural occurrences and treatments and births that went wrong were all used as excuses to punish the perceived wrongdoer.

'A swearing and blaspheming wretch, forespeaking sudden death: and how that neighbours in her looks, malicious signs did see: and some affirmed she dealt with Spirits, and so a Witch might be' 1619.

As many of those accused had lived hard lives, were poor and/or old they began to fit a pattern that suited the narrative of being a witch; Missing/odd teeth, lank hair, bony fingers, hunched backs. These all fit the stereotype of a witch, yet they could just as easily have described an old person of the time. With such a steadfast meshing of ideas, the image of the older women became indelibly layered with that of the hag/witch/crone/wrongdoer and the archetype was cemented into society's subconsciousness.

Yet is wasn't just the poor (or old) who got this treatment, throughout history women from higher classes also got caught in the net from time to time. Witch accusations could be tied to their names and used to destabilise their power sometimes leaving valuable land and money free to be repossessed. Likewise, identifying a woman as a witch was a good way to pigeonhole her as someone who deserved punishment. For instance, despite the rhetoric that we are used to, Anne Boleyn was not charged with witchcraft when she went to trial. This claim was only put forth as a form of Catholic propaganda some 50 years after her death by a religious opponent of her daughter Elizabeth 1st. The myth that Anne also had a projecting tooth, a large wen under her chin and a sixth finger were conveniently put about to back up the witch allegation around the same time.

But what happens when the ugly/hag stereotypes and lies don't hold? Enter the jealous and vain older woman/stepmother/evil queen trope which is just as prevalent in our imaginations today as it was centuries ago. 

 

In fairy tales this is an older woman that still fits the notion of acceptable attractiveness, but due to her age is vain and protective about her looks and jealous of her younger counterparts. Her insecurity makes her dangerous, prone to punish and harm her young charges and use her own sexuality and witchcraft to hold sway over their would be protectors.

Ageist undertones can be found in the classic story of Snow White where essayist Terri Windling wrote that the Queen is "a woman whose power is derived from her beauty; it is this, the tale implies, that provides her place in the castle's hierarchy. If the king’s attention turns from his wife to another, what power is left to an aging woman? Witchcraft, the tale answers. Potions, poisons, and self-protection."

 

 

This does little to validate her existence for at the end of the fairy tale the wicked older woman usually meets a gruesome fatal ending that means she cannot find redemption or ever come back.

Lucy Worsely in her podcast 'Lady Killers', also poses the idea that the 'wicked stepmother' stems from real life situations in history where husbands left as widowers due to high childbirth mortality rates regularly wed second wives to take care of their remaining children. These stepmothers could also have children from other marriages and often the huge burden of extra care duties in hard and mean times could result in favour being given to their own offspring over the acquired step children. From the outside it's easy to discount the psychological and physical strain brought on by these desperate situations and fall back on the idea that it must be jealousy and insecurity causing the woman's malpractice.

The Stepmother trope is an example of a different kind of older woman who once again doesn't fit the limited roles assigned to her by society. Too old to be fertile (for much longer), too young to be a crone it makes it difficult to categorise her and and that makes society twitchy. For a women with no guiding properties could begin to gain an independence and power of her own. Whether they be crones or stepmothers you have to keep a sharp eye on aging women, keep them in their place and punish them if they step out of line.

-

These might be fairy tales and broad theories but in modern times have things really changed? Its often been said by women that getting older is like becoming 'invisible' to the world.  Once they no longer fit the young and desirable/useful bracket, women who show age simply hold little interest for a society that is fixated with youth.

Here women are faced with an unspoken choice, accept their fate and gracefully fade into the background or continue to be the people they have always been; sexual, argumentative, intelligent, provocative, useful, skilled and unique. The only issue being that to stay true to ones self could come at the price of judgement and backlash based on centuries of misogyny and residual fear passed down through time and the innocent stories we repeat to our children.