The Witch Guilt

In the play "Vinegar Tom" by Caryl Churchill, one of the 17th century women sentenced to death for supposedly being a witch admits that she killed ten cows in her village in the preceding year and has also caused illnesses of her neighbors. After being rejected for not fitting into the norms of her contemporary society, after a long and consistent persuasion by figures of authority that she is essentially bad, the woman started to believe in her own viciousness. One can imagine that at a certain point of losing faith in her own fundamental goodness, the woman may indeed have wished misfortunes upon her neighbors and may have even done something to inflict those misfortunes. So it is the mistreatment and the rejection of the society, the endless misunderstanding and blame that drive the woman to the point where, in her own mind, she becomes a witch.

The witch guilt is a spiritual affliction of women. In today's society women are not burned on the stake. But they are expected to fit into many contradictory frames. An online marriage preparation program of the Catholic Diocese of Denver teaches that it is the wife's responsibility to uphold high spiritual standards of the family, that the man in created by God to be grounded and down to earth. The ideal of the virgin Mary imposes on the woman the impossible standard of virginity and motherhood, while the media and the dating standards expect her to be always desirable and open to give sexual pleasure. She is expected to do well at work, but not too well: one of my friends with a Ph.D. in math once confessed that she would not tell her potential boyfriends her occupation, for fear of being rejected for being "too smart".  The contemporary woman is also supposed to be warm and emotional, but when she expresses her emotions, she is often treated as someone whose feelings have nothing to do with objective reality, as a weak creature prone to inadequate reactions.

The witch guilt is not easily diagnosed. A woman who is afflicted by it genuinely believes that she has done many things that are seriously wrong. As she feels guilty and focuses on her mistakes, she makes more mistakes and this way proves her own sinfulness to herself. When she speaks to other people, she is then able to give examples of her "bad" behavior to prove her "guilt".

What's wrong with being aware of one's own sinfulness? -- you may ask. Humility is possible only when one is aware of her true sins as opposed to the discrepancies between one's nature and the expectations of the church and the society. Sinful behaviors subside when a person gets in touch with her own true self and, in that way, finds a union with God. The witch guilt prevents women from finding true peace and leaves them in constant anxiety as they keep looking for their "wrongdoings".