Which witch?

"The idea that women are natural liars has a long pedigree. The key document in this centuries-long tradition is the notorious witch-hunter's manual, the Malleus Maleficarum or The Hammer of Witches, which was commissioned by Pope Innocent VIII. The book was written by two Dominican monks and published in 1486. It unleashed a flood of irrational beliefs about women's "dual" nature. "A woman is beautiful to look upon, contaminating to the touch, and deadly to keep," the authors warned. They also claimed that "all witchcraft comes from carnal lust, which is in women insatiable"."

I really should find and buy this notorious book, or at least an interpretation of it. I really should find and buy a book about Witch Trials and the period that spawned it.

Above quote comes from a totally irrelevant news article about a murder trial, where a woman is one of suspects. The prosecutor accuses the woman of being a witch.


I am a woman, so I know a thing or two about women. A woman as a "contaminating" being? Having "carnal lust"? Being "Insatiable"?

I am curious.

According to the logic of the period, is  it the woman who is contaminating, or is it the man who feels he is "contaminating" the woman by touching her and then transferring the guilt to the contaminated. Remember honour killings, where the female victim of rape is killed to "clean family honour"?

Is it that a woman becomes a witch by carnal lust, or is it the man who cannot control his basic instincts and becomes something lesser than what he is, and then transfers this guilt to the woman? Remember how courts excuse jealousy murders by men of women.

Is it the woman who is insatiable, or is it that man is afraid of not being able to satisfy woman. Or that, because of social rules, the man is the insatiable one? And that fear of being unsatisfactory, or that insatiability, is transferred to the woman?

Were the men of the era punishing women for their own shortcomings or fears?

Remember how, today, a woman is either an angel or a slut.

Are the men in this, modern era punishing women for their own short comings or fears?