Is this information about witch persecution correct or more exist bollocks.

[malificent7]

My male acquaintance informed me that the most attractive women were persecuted and it must have been other women who dobbed them in as they were jealous.

I call sexist bollocks. Why do men say this shit?

Sounds like bollocks. I mean can you imagine the men getting behind the notion of burning the most attractive women in the village? I'm sure they would have found some excuse for them lol.

I doubt he’s right, who would record the level of attractiveness of accused witches ?, but your friend may be mistaken rather than sexist.

the accusers in the Salem trials were women btw.

I think generally it was the opposite. It was women who lived alone, not married, elderly, perhaps a bit odd.

Unless a historian has do a study on the attractiveness of victims of witch trials, which would imagine is impossible he's talking a load of rubbish and probably fits his idea of women.

He's wrong, of course. The witch trials were usually persecuting women who lived alone, or looked a bit odd. One of the famous "pendle" witches was thought to be a witch because one of her eyes was lower than the other.
What an ignorant man

No, as previous poster has said, it was usually older women who lived alone, and had specific knowledge about medicinal herbs and midwifery practices. This was at the same time as male dominated "medicine" was coming into practice (blood letting, theory of humors etc). Funny that.

Definitely bollocks.

Physical perfection was equated with godliness. Many people felt that those afflicted with features that marred their looks were in some way out of favour with god.

I'm massively simplifying this (because I haven't slept and lacking in wakefulness) but unattractiveness was associated with sinfulness...Specifically deformities, warts, moles etc

Protrudences such as warts or moles were often taken as a nipple especially for suckling the devil. It was one of the ways witches were "identified" during the witch hunts.

As a pp said, women who in some way didn't conform to social norms were also at risk, such as widows and spinsters. Especially if they were in some way knowledgeable about healing/herbs etc or seen talking with/hanging about with/in the vicinity of animals.

Certainly, some people were accused as a result of personal grievances but to state that it was women accusing beautiful women out of pure jealousy displays a total ignorance of the facts, of the cultural and social history, and an astonishing (and vaguely misogynistic) arrogance.

Note also that the rise in witch hunts coincided (along with many other influences) a push back against female brewers.

Brewing beer was female work. Women brewed beer in cauldrons. Some wore tall black hats very much of the time but not dissimilar to the image of a witches hat. Cats were needed to keep vermin at bay from the grains/hops. They were making money and obtaining autonomy through selling beer in markets and there was a concerted effort by men of the time to take over this 'monopoly' of brewing.

Odd coincidence of imagery, don't you think?

The Pendle witches were the poorest of the poor, and reviled socially long before accusations of witchcraft, so unlikely to have won any beauty contests. It was the Jeremy Kyle show of its day.

People accused others as either a survival mechanism, or, as we saw during lockdown, some people just get pleasure from such behaviours.

Is he basing his theory in watching Winona Ryder in The Crucible or something?!

I studied the witch trials as part of my history degree, and can say with confidence it had very little to do with female envy of beauty - though personal grudges undoubtedly will have contributed, it was far more complex than that.

Would recommend this podcast podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/witches/id1564112828?i=1000577265176

Women (and sometimes men) tried as witches tended to be elderly, poor, often disabled and (the biggest factor) not supported by a man or having a male relative to speak for them. However your acquaintance is right that it was women as well as men who were often involved in persecution, although only men prosecuted women as witches.

Stop hanging around with this moron, every encounter will dock your IQ two points.

What a shallow and ignorant comment from your male acquaintance. It’s hardly an obscure subject. He could easily look up some reliable historical information before spouting nonsense. But then, facile sexism is so much easier!

I looked into the records that I could find about witches where my family came from and while there was one account of a young woman being accused and killed for refusing the advances of one of the councilmen (not the reason given at trial) most seem to have fallen foul of the minister (playing cards on the Sabbath, not attending church etc). Seemed to be one minister in particular though there were one or two not church related but it mostly seems to have been grudges.

What rubbish. He has got his information from Hollywood and probably a bad porno.

Why do men say this shit?

Usually because they have formed their opinions from a totally unreliable source (as pp said, something like Hollywood films) or they are making shit up in their heads.

Whatever the case in your acquaintance's case OP, he's talking bollocks.

He’s wrong but I don’t see how it’s sexist. So called “witches” were all women, the whole enterprise was sexist, but not necessarily your friend who is merely discussing it.

Sorry! Wrong thread. Have asked for it to be removed.

It's a sexist comment because it implies that one of the most notorious abuses of women in western history was perpetrated exclusively by women and by stereotypical female envy.

It absolves the historical men from all responsibility.

It's bullshit & yet another example of misogynists blaming women for misogyny.
It's time women woke up to this crap.

There's certainly research showing that those accused were not popular (isolated, odd), that there were grudges and that they were brewers. I doubt if the most beautiful were targeted - probably the reverse.

In the cases I looked into many were men.

As I mentioned mostly fallings out with the minister and grudges and rivalries.

More likely it was the clever outspoken women who were tried as witches.

You said it OP, its bollocks.