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?

I read that in the IS, it was effectively a land grab. If the women admitted they were witches, they kept their land (but were ostracised so could no longer farm). If they ‘denied’ it, they were killed and their farm went to the state who would then sell it.

Convenient if you want your neighbour’s land and she’s a widow, eh?

US not IS

As everyone has pointed out, it's sexist cobblers. Many witches were marginalised, poor, and were a source of friction because being poor they had to be supported by their communities. At times of economic hardship or when societies were under threat and were split this created resentment.

Witch hunts and accusations didn't exclusively target women, but were overwhelmingly misogynistic. By which I mean that women much more than men were persecuted.

You only have to understand the involvement of James VI&I to see how such attitudes were escalated.

This is the same period in history where women were publicly humiliated and publicly punished for 'nagging' their husbands.

It's telling that the populad imagery of witches and witchcraft even from the sixteenth century onwards (see macbeth) represents witches as female, not male.

That was my understanding too. Given that disfigurements were seen as the mark of the Devil I highly doubt this man's view. Has he been watching too many horror fims with attractive women stripping naked and dancing under the full moon?

As everyone said above, disability, age, unmarried, generally being a financial 'burden' on the community were factors.

I think as well as Hollywood fiction novels are to blame. All the historical witch based fiction I've read has an attractive teenage protagonist as the 'witch'.

It's certainly extremely likely that petty grudges and resentments, as well as plain old paranoia and fear, played a large part in accusations of witchcraft - and also, the whole 'witches were women who lived alone and made medicines with herbs' thing is hugely over-stated. Lots of married women/mothers were accused, and actually quite a lot of men too, and even children.

However, your friend is still talking absolute bollocks. Many of those who accused women of witchcraft were also women, but there's zero evidence to suggest that it was anything to do with envying the beautiful. We don't really know what the people involved really looked like, for a start, and the age range of those who were subject to witchcraft trials is pretty big, ranging from children right up to the very elderly.

At the height of the witchcraft mania, people would have been genuinely scared and looking for signs everywhere. You know how on Mumsnet someone will say something like 'My next door neighbour is a man who lives on his own and he keeps smiling at my little girl when he sees her playing on our driveway, AIBU to think this is creepy?' and dozens of people will reply 'Yeah, you can't be too careful, can you find out from the police if he's on the sex offenders register?' or 'I would not like this. Have you tried asking your daughter if he has ever touched her?' etc - well, basically like that only instead of people thinking there are paedophiles on every street corner, in those days it was witches. It was paranoia.

So, yeah, your friend is spouting misogynist crap.

He's just trying to wind you up.