With Halloween upon us, witches resurface alongside other frightening figures summoned for the occasion. However, unlike pumpkins, zombies, and other poltergeists, witches have never entirely left the public consciousness in recent years.
Presented as women persecuted for being women, in the line of work by philosopher Silvia Federici and Mona Chollet, witches have long permeated the public discourse. The feminist activist and writer Lindy West or French deputy Sandrine Rousseau have, for instance, signed opinion columns associating this figure with their political demands. The repression of witchcraft is used as a metaphor for the female condition subject to patriarchal hegemony.
