Andy: “I mean, what if I don’t want to live the way you live?”

Miranda: “Oh don’t be ridiculous, Andrea. Everybody wants this. Everybody wants to be us.”

 

              The 2006 movie, The Devil Wears Prada shatters glass ceilings as it is centered around extremely successful, professional women. Specifically, the role of Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), Editor-in-Chief of Runway Magazine, showcases the true authority of a woman in power. However, the movie also largely highlights the downfall that results from Miranda’s success, thus playing into the stereotype that women cannot have both professional and personal success. The Devil Wears Prada represents its main female characters as empowered by their careers, yet unhappy with their social and romantic relationships.

              Arguably one of the most influential figures in the fashion world, Anna Wintour, the devil herself, accepted Meryl Streep’s portrayal of her. Anna Wintour is the current Editor-in-Chief of Vogue US. Leading the world’s most influential fashion magazine for decades requires a level of professionalism, and dedication that is hard to imagine, thus, it is no wonder that in the movie, Miranda Priestly has a reputation for being a cruel and ruthless perfectionist. Yet, because she is a woman, instead of receiving praise for her professional achievements, she is consistently condemned for her lack of emotion. There is a scene in which Miranda’s new assistant, Andy Sachs, defends her coldness, “Okay, she’s tough, but if Miranda were a man…no one would notice anything about her, except how great she is at her job.” Devil or not, Miranda Priestly is chastised for her immense success. After watching this film, I’m left wondering in a profession like Wintour’s, will society only accept your success in association with “the devil”?

              For decades, those consorted with the devil were accused of witchcraft. In the 17th century, it was believed the devil could give witches supernatural or spiritual powers in exchange for their service and loyalty. The Salem Witch Trials occurred in colonial Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693. In American history, the Salem Witch Trials were a series of investigations that caused 19 convicted “witches”. 14 of the 19 people found guilty of and executed for witchcraft in Salem were women. The first female accused of practicing witchcraft during the 1692 Salem witch trials was an enslaved girl named Tituba. Under pressure for her life, Tituba ultimately confessed to the crime of being a witch. She alleged, “The Devil came to me and bid me serve him.” Across New England, witch trials occurred somewhat regularly from 1638 until 1725. According to author Carol F. Karlsen’s “The Devil in the Shape of a Woman,” 78% of alleged witches in New England were female.

              Merriam Webster defines a witch as “a woman who is believed to practice usually black magic often with the aid of a devil or familiar”. But the connection between devil, witch, and women predates the Salem Witch Trials. Women, according to biblical doctrine, were seen as weaker vessels and therefore more susceptible to evil and Satan’s wiles. Fear of witchcraft or sorcery, and the belief that it was the cause of many illnesses was widespread in the ancient world, and thus punishable by death. The Torah shares this attitude towards witchcraft:

 

שמות כב:יז מְכַשֵּׁפָה לֹא תְחַיֶּה. Exod 22:17 You shall not permit a witch to live.

Ancient Near Eastern laws confirm that men could legally be sorcerers, and not women. Similarly, “Practitioner of witchcraft” functions as an insult against women in the Bible. For instance, when Jehu is about to assassinate King Jehoram, he insults Jehoram’s mother by accusing her of witchcraft:

מלכים ב ט:כב וַיְהִי כִּרְאוֹת יְהוֹרָם אֶת יֵהוּא וַיֹּאמֶר הֲשָׁלוֹם יֵהוּא וַיֹּאמֶר מָה הַשָּׁלוֹם עַד זְנוּנֵי אִיזֶבֶל אִמְּךָ וּכְשָׁפֶיהָ הָרַבִּים. 2 Kgs 9:22 “How can all be well as long as your mother Jezebel carries on her countless harlotries and sorceries?” In contrast, we do not see sorcery used as an insult against men in the Bible.

 

              In the late 19th century, the suffragette Matilda Joslyn Gage asserted something revolutionary: she believed that the persecution of witches had nothing to do with fighting evil or resisting the devil. A witch, she said, wasn’t wicked. Witchcraft she believed was entrenched in social misogyny, the goal of which was to repress the intellect of women. And though the Salem Witch trials only accounted for 14 women, accusing women of witchcraft caught on as a popular device to derail female empowerment and leadership. Joan of Arc led the French to victory against the English and was renowned in France for her cleverness. But when the English leadership couldn’t beat her, they undermined her, crediting her success to demonic means, since, of course, a young woman could never perform such wonders on her own. When she was captured, they tried her for witchcraft. “From a sociocultural perspective,” says journalist Heather Greene, author of Lights, Camera, Witchcraft, “accusations of witchcraft are a weapon thrown at women.”

              From impeachment inquiries to sexual assault investigations to allegations of corruption, the term “witch hunt” has become a refrain used to ridicule all walks of life for women. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Democratic candidate Hilary Clinton was dubbed “a witch with a B” by the conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh. She was taunted by Trump supporters who vilified her “vagenda of manocide”, and by Bernie Sanders supporters who cried out to “Bern the Witch!” Hillary Clinton became the Wicked Witch of the Left. And by who? None other than her male counterparts. The strident hatred which she was shown was undeniably at fault of her audacity to grasp for power. Anna North, Opinion Writer for the NYT writes the “The witching hour is upon us. I’m talking not about Halloween but about Election Day,” in reference to the 2016 election. Hillary Clinton lost the election.

              And yet, a witch transgresses norms of female power. In the late 19th century, the suffragette Matilda Joslyn Gage asserted something revolutionary. The persecution of witches, she said, had nothing to do with fighting evil or resisting the devil. It was simply entrenched social misogyny, the goal of which was to repress the intellect of women. Witch hunts attempt to regulate and maintain the established gender hierarchy in a given community, which is to say, the patriarchy. Through history, women with serious political power drew accusations of witchcraft like Joan of Arc and Cleopatra. Such accusations were an effective way for a woman’s political enemies to smear her since it is impossible to offer definitive proof that one is not a witch. The misogyny of all this is obvious. “For as long as women are denied power while simultaneously dismissed for having it, the figure of the witch will exist, persist and resist.” - Suzanne, a coven member tells Vicky Spratt of the publication Riposte.

              To this day, witch trials result in violence against women, including murder, as they have done since the hangings at Salem. In the last decade, UN officials have reported a rise in women killed for witchcraft across the globe. Internalized misogyny was a reality back then just as it is now.

              From Macbeth to The Wizard of Oz, from fairytales to folklore, the figure of the female witch has always been prevalent. Real or imagined, the female witch is at once a subject of fear and fascination, and more recently a reference in fashion and symbol of female empowerment. Today, #witch reveals no less than 3,882,797 results, while #witchcraft logs 1,202,271. The hashtag #WitchTok has been viewed 25 billion times. We know, anecdotally at least, that young women are identifying as witches through social media. As you would expect, where there are women tapping the power of the witch there are men continuously using the term to denounce powerful women.

 

Excerpt from Witches, Sluts, Feminists: Conjuring the Sex Positive by Kristin J Sollee:

“Witches, sluts, and feminists are the trifecta of terror for the patriarchy. To me, the primal impulse behind each of these contested identities is self-sovereignty … witches, sluts, and feminists embody the potential for self-directed feminine power, and sexual and intellectual freedom.”

Emily: [to Andy] “You sold your soul to the devil when you put on your first pair of Jimmy Choos, I saw it.”

 

              I’ve never been accused of being a witch, or the devil, but I have been told that I “talk too much”, “try too hard”, “am narcissistic”, and that I “take up too much space”. When we isolate and single out women on the basis of their personal ambition, it is as if we are putting them at the stake. In a world still so threatened by the idea of powerful women, if it takes the portrayal as a witch to be recognized as a successful woman, then so be it. If it takes being evil to hear “you can do anything in the world”, then let there be witchcraft in my blood.

 

Excerpt from Nikita Gill’s To The Men Who Burned Witches

There is witchcraft in our blood,

in our bones we carry the magic

that you could not burn away.

You see, fire never forgets.