Both politics and popular culture have seen a resurgence of the witch in recent years. From Donald Trump’s tweets about “WITCH HUNTS” and right-wing criticisms of the #MeToo movement, to the release of the musical Wicked, witches have come to occupy a prominent space in our cultural imaginary. In each of these examples, though to varying degrees, witches symbolize a particular kind of power that is simultaneously desired and abhorred. Historically, the figure of the witch is commonly associated with fears and desires about female power and sexuality. However, the most influential work in political thought on witches, that of Silvia Federici, emphasizes the link between European witch hunts and broader processes of primitive accumulation in the transition to modern society. Though Federici’s work consistently references how such hunts sought to contain the threat posed by female bodies and their deviant sexuality, ultimately she mobilizes these bodies and their sexual pursuits to support her theory of the birth of the proletariat. This essay revisits Federici’s influential work to offer a political theory of witches and witch hunts that centers bodies, sexuality, and femininity not solely as fodder for modern enclosure, but in an effort to understand how witches come to symbolize pathologization of the female sexual being. I consider archival material from both US and English witch trials that document an obsession with sexuality and the female erotic experience, examining interrogations and testimonials of the accused. These reveal a marked obsession with the ‘witch’s mark’ (also sometimes referred to as the ‘devil’s mark’). Such examinations were often performed on women by women, giving these female neighbors and family members authority over the witch’s body. Through an analysis of the complicated dynamics between women that play out in relation to their bodies and sexualities, I provide an alternative political theory of witch hunts.
