Are Childfree Women the New Witches?
About this episode
This episode explores the parallels between historical witch hunts and the modern demonization of childfree women.
Hag. Spinster. Crone. Childless cat lady 🐈⬛ The words have barely changed - and neither has the patriarchal playbook. In this episode, we trace the threads between the women burned as witches and the childfree women demonised today: fear of females outside of men’s control, the suspicion of our time and money, the medical misogyny that came after midwives and still shows up in doctor’s offices to this day. Join us as we get dark, summon the spirits of our long-dead sisters, and gather a coven of powerful childfree women ✨ BBC Radio 4 podcast: Witch Jody Day: The Symbolic Annihilation of Childless Women in Films and Media Harpy: A Manifesto for Childfree Women by Caroline Magennis Guen, Berlin: “People wonder, when left to our own devices, what trouble childfree women get up to.” Roz, UK: “It was all men making decisions about my body.” Monica, Berlin: “I was struggling to find a job, until I started to bring up being childfree in interviews. The results were staggering.” Childfree Stories: My Body, My Choice Podcast: The Devil You Know with Sarah Marshall We are Childfree podcast: Birth Rate Panic! Not our problem. Shop Hag merch on the We are Childfree store Vice: 50-Year-Old…
People in this episode
Host: Zoë Noble
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: BBC Radio 4, We are Childfree, Vice
Books & works: Harpy: A Manifesto for Childfree Women, The Devil You Know, Paltrie Vermin, Cats, Mise, Toads, and Weasils: Witches, Familiars, and Human-Animal Interactions in the English Witch Trials
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