THE MEN WHO ARE BEING NAMED IN THIS GLOBAL OUTPOURING AGAINST SEXUAL HARASSMENT ARE NOT THE “WITCHES” HERE. WHEN THEY USE THE TERM “WITCH HUNT” THEY ARE FLIPPING THE CONCEPT AROUND. THEY THINK THE WITCHES ARE HUNTING THEM. WOMEN AREN’T WITCHES
All over the world, accused sexual predators are crying “witch”. Green thumb ( with allegedly wandering fingers) Don Burke is just the latest. After a cascade of women told stories about his lecherous ways, Burke went on the telly to call it a “witch hunt”.
“I’m guessing it’s the social media, the Twittersphere thing. I guess they’ve stirred this up, the Harvey Weinstein thing and we’ve got a witch- hunt,” he said in response to accusations he was a “psychotic bully,” a “misogynist” and a “high- grade, twisted abuser”.
Burke’s invocation of the occult is not original.
Woody Allen — an actor accused of child sex abuse — was one of the first to use it after Harvey Weinstein was outed as a serial sex pest.
“You also don’t want it to lead to a witch- hunt atmosphere, a Salem atmosphere, where every guy in an office who winks at a woman is suddenly having to call a lawyer to defend himself,” he said.
To paraphrase the legendary words of swordsman Inigo Montoya, they keep using those words and I do not think it means what they think it means.
The modern definition of a witch hunt is when a group of people are persecuted for their unorthodox views. The hunt is usually based on scant to no evidence — it’s a ruse by the authorities to shut down subversives.
Unless you take issue with the way he pollinates philodendrons, Burke is no subversive.
Right now, he’s just a guy hoping the women he’s worked with over the years would just shut up.
As it happens, the real witch hunts were also often about men trying to shut women up.
Back in ye olden days — from the 14th century to the 17th — all over Europe they were hunting witches.
At least three quarters of the tens of thousands killed were women. Victims were often unmarried or widowed women, troublemakers, and people with mental health disorders or disabilities.
With the backing of the Catholic Church, they were picked up and subjected to farcical trials.
One well- known test of witchery was to tie the alleged sorcerer up and chuck them in water.
If they sank ( and drowned) they were innocent; if they floated they were guilty. Lose/ lose.
Sometimes suspects were weighed — usually on rigged scales — and found guilty if they weighed