Kyla's Witchy Blog

  At the end of my popular media presentation on Into the Woods, I asked the class to discuss the roles of older actresses in Hollywood and how their treatment may mirror the historical treatment of witches. While I enjoyed hearing my classmates’ answers, I did not get a chance to thoroughly explore this conversation. Since this is an important topic that integrates many of the themes of this course, I decided to answer this discussion question myself... “In those days I had no reason to believe I would have a career past 40. You could work up to 40 and then you’d start playing hags and witches . It’s one of the reasons I refused to play a witch until ‘Into the Woods’ – and I had been offered many witch roles. It was that trough that women fell into.”  – Meryl Steep "I was offered three witches [roles] when I turned 40 - in one year, and I thought: 'Oh, this is how it's gonna go?' … At this point in my career, I think, I really think hard about: 'What am I puttin...

  As I read the final section of Witchcraft: A Short Introduction , I found myself both intrigued and appalled by one particular topic– torture. As we have discussed in class, methods of torture and coercion were frequently used to force confessions of witchcraft. Aside from the social pressure of hearsay and rumors, the accused would undergo seemingly ridiculous, medieval tests to prove their guilt and ideally force a voluntary confession. Beyond the infamous swimming test, there was also the pricking test. It was believed that teats and “witch’s marks” on one’s body were insensitive to pain and would not bleed; so, examiners would repeatedly stab and prick the person’s flesh until they discovered a spot that did not bleed (Andrews, 2014). Ouch!! Personally, if I was being repeatedly stabbed with needles, I would confess to just about anything to make it stop.  While these coercive methods seem outlandish, cruel, and utterly illegal in my mind, I learned that “the use of tort...