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Speaker 1: Welcome to stuff mom never told you from house top

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Speaker 1: works dot com. Hey, eron, welcome to the podcast. Is

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Speaker 1: this Kristen, This is Molly? So Molly? Yes, Halloween season

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Speaker 1: is a pawn us. Yes, this is supposed to be

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Speaker 1: our spoo keep podcast keep podcast. And you know what

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Speaker 1: this time of year makes me think of? What song

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Speaker 1: comes to mind? Witchy Woman by the Eagles or Season

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Speaker 1: of the Witch by Donovan. Yeah, I'm trying to think

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Speaker 1: if I can name any other songs, what songs about witches? Well,

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Speaker 1: when we think about all these songs about witches, like

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Speaker 1: Witchy Woman, Season of the Witch, what comes to mind

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Speaker 1: a woman? Yes? Why are which is always associated with women? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: Because I used to think that, well, which is a woman?

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Speaker 1: Because the warlock is a man, but name Molly, two

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Speaker 1: different things entirely. Both men and women can be witches.

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Speaker 1: So I think for this Halloween, let's set the record

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Speaker 1: straight on witches. Okay, let's do it. Do they have

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Speaker 1: green faces? Do they ride on brooms? These are things

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Speaker 1: I need to know. Yes, do they really like black cats?

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Speaker 1: Is it still a great Halloween costume? That one I

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Speaker 1: can answer? Yes? Okay, So now we started researching witches

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Speaker 1: and we found out that there's really no one definition

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Speaker 1: for a witch. It means different things to different people.

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Speaker 1: But there are some notable characteristics that have emerged. These

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Speaker 1: are people who meet secretly at night, indulge in cannibalism,

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Speaker 1: have sex with the devil, performed black magic, and they

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Speaker 1: usually don't wear many clothes. I've realized from our readings, right,

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Speaker 1: we have this stereotypical which costs in mind, but I mean,

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Speaker 1: if you really want to be a witch for Halloween,

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Speaker 1: walk around naked. So they also use incantations, which are

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Speaker 1: formulas or chance to invoke evil spirits. They use divination

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Speaker 1: and oracles, emulets and chalms, potions, dolls, and they can

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Speaker 1: use all of this for good, as the Wizard of

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Speaker 1: Oz pointed out, or for evil. Um. Now, they had

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Speaker 1: all of these things in all sorts of cultures dating

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Speaker 1: back and and all cultures through history. There have been

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Speaker 1: people who have used incantations, who have had, like you know,

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Speaker 1: these elements of sorcery. It's always been part of folklore,

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Speaker 1: but the idea of a witch itself only emerged in

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Speaker 1: Europe at the end of the Middle Ages. And this

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Speaker 1: idea of the which arises during the Reformation, in which um, uh,

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Speaker 1: we have the birth of the Protestant Church, and then

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Speaker 1: we also have a lot of stuff going on in

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Speaker 1: the Catholic Church where they're really trying to clean house

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Speaker 1: and get rid of heretics. Yeah, and you know what

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Speaker 1: that means, what, let's get rid of witches. And we

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Speaker 1: do this because in fourteen eighty four Pope Innocent put

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Speaker 1: out a papal bull, which is just a fancy word

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Speaker 1: for document, and I wish we called all documents bulls.

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Speaker 1: But anyway, he puts out this document that condemned witchcraft

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Speaker 1: is Satanism and it's the worst of all possible heresies.

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Speaker 1: And this is when, um, this association with the witch

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Speaker 1: and the devil gets made, because at that time, is

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Speaker 1: there anything worse than the devil? No, the devil has

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Speaker 1: caused all sorts of trauma up until this point, like

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Speaker 1: the plague, people have died. If we need to get

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Speaker 1: rid of the devil, and so in looking for a scapegoat.

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Speaker 1: After this paper bull comes out, these inquisitors named Heinrich

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Speaker 1: Kramer and Joseph Springer write a book that probably does

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Speaker 1: the most sort of damage women and witches, which is

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Speaker 1: called I Might pronounce this wrong malius a meleficarum a

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Speaker 1: k A. Hammer of the Witches, which is what we'll

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Speaker 1: call it from now on because Hammer of the Witches

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Speaker 1: is so much cooler as a name. Yeah, Hammer of

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Speaker 1: the Witches is a pretty radical name for a book. Um.

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Speaker 1: And this was the first book that really lashed out

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Speaker 1: against women as witches. This was the soul defining characteristic

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Speaker 1: of this book because other people had written about which

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Speaker 1: is in the need to get them out and punish

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Speaker 1: them for their their devil dealings. But uh, Heinrich Kramer

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Speaker 1: really had a boned pick with women as which is,

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Speaker 1: for instance, because they said that specifically midwives surpass all

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Speaker 1: others in wickedness, and they thought that women were definitely

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Speaker 1: more prone to be witches because of the supposed carnality

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Speaker 1: of women, because we have this uncontrolled sexual lust that

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Speaker 1: would lead us into the snares of the devil. And

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Speaker 1: we were also um feebler and intellect so we wouldn't

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Speaker 1: be able to resist him with any sort of you know,

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Speaker 1: smarts or wits. Um. But you know, the thing is,

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Speaker 1: it's not just that Kramer was an awful misogynist, although

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Speaker 1: that's how the book reads. It was actually a pretty

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Speaker 1: well um researched and cited books. It cited a lot

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Speaker 1: of the scholars of the time, so you know, yeah,

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Speaker 1: it was damaging, but people try to try to give

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Speaker 1: Kramer a little bit of a now and at the

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Speaker 1: same time, and this is coming from a paper by

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Speaker 1: Tama herzig Um in the Middle Ages. On the flip

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Speaker 1: side of this witchcraft witchery sorcery stuff going on, Um,

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Speaker 1: you have this idea of the mystical sainthood and saintly

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Speaker 1: female mystics who are also gaining prominence in the church.

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Speaker 1: And while she's the emblem of piety, the witch would

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Speaker 1: be her mirror image, this evil woman. And there are

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Speaker 1: thoughts that maybe this idea of the female which is

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Speaker 1: more popularized to downplay the authority of these female mystics

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Speaker 1: in the church at that time, which was very male dominated.

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Speaker 1: So we have this book come out and even though

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Speaker 1: it's very misogynist and says that women are are really

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Speaker 1: more likely become witches and midwives especially are just which

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Speaker 1: incarnate Um, we found a lot of sources that say,

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Speaker 1: you know, this book is important, but it's not the

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Speaker 1: only reason why we think of women as witches. It's

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Speaker 1: not the reason that the women were killed because it

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Speaker 1: was thought to be witches. Um and Encyclopedia Britannica says

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Speaker 1: there's really no satisfactory explanation for why women were the

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Speaker 1: most accused of witchcraft and the most that died. And

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Speaker 1: let's throw out some numbers. They claim that about a

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Speaker 1: hundred and ten thousand people were tried for witchcraft and

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Speaker 1: no more than forty to sixty were executed. Not millions

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Speaker 1: and millions as sometimes is reported, but forty to sixty

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Speaker 1: thousand still kind of behind number. You're right, I shouldn't

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Speaker 1: just qualifying the numbers of people executed. I shouldn't just

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Speaker 1: write that off as nothing. But I feel like that's

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Speaker 1: when you read a lot of these essays, that's what

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Speaker 1: the scholars do. They say, Oh, it's not as big

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Speaker 1: a deal as you think, and oh, it wasn't an

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Speaker 1: attack on women, but they never really were. Yeah, they

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Speaker 1: never really explained why it wasn't an attack on women,

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Speaker 1: because we have this book that says midwives are bad.

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Speaker 1: Midwives are bad, and women are full of carnal lust

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Speaker 1: and they're souls are basically poorous, devil absorbing sponges. But

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Speaker 1: there are a few other explanations that do make some

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Speaker 1: sense to me. Um, Like we said, at that time,

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Speaker 1: the devil was just the greatest enemy of the church.

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Speaker 1: And you know, when you've got a Protestant Reformation and

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Speaker 1: this Catholic counter Reformation going on, it emphasized, emphasizes the

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Speaker 1: idea that you will loan are responsible for your own salvation.

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Speaker 1: So it divides people into good going to heaven and

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Speaker 1: bad not going to heaven. So obviously you don't want

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Speaker 1: to be bad, so it's much more easier to blame

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Speaker 1: sin on your neighbor. Yeah, and it also is a

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Speaker 1: simple way to explain misfortune, general misfortune that happens in life,

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Speaker 1: such as stillborn children, or crops failing or plague befalling

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Speaker 1: your house. Of course, it's witchcraft because at that time

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Speaker 1: they don't know, they don't have the knowledge of the

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Speaker 1: scholarship to know exactly what's happening. They don't know, you

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Speaker 1: know that maybe it was a woman's nutrition or uh,

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Speaker 1: poor uterus or something that caused the child to die

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Speaker 1: in the womb, so they blame it on the midwife.

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Speaker 1: It's a way just to make sense of inequality. You know,

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Speaker 1: if your crops fail, and that was one of the

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Speaker 1: most common things that happened that led to an accusation

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Speaker 1: of witchcraft. UM. It was it was not you know,

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Speaker 1: things like people growing a third nose. It was really

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Speaker 1: simple suspicions involving livestock, crops, storms, disease, property and inherence, inheritance,

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Speaker 1: sexual dysfunction, family feuds, marild discord um, sibling rivalries, and

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Speaker 1: local politics. It's not, you know, it's not like anyone

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Speaker 1: turned anyone into a toad. But if your crops fail,

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Speaker 1: and remember that your neighbor looked at you funny, then hey,

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Speaker 1: let's blame it on that. And there's also an interesting

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Speaker 1: connection between UH birth control and which is and this

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Speaker 1: comes from UM a paper by Gunner Heilson an Auto

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Speaker 1: steiger Um called witchcraft, population Catastrophe and economic Crisis and

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Speaker 1: Renaissance Europe and UM it points to the malius malefica

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Speaker 1: arm ak, a hammer of the witches that defines the

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Speaker 1: concept of birth control as quote seven methods by which

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Speaker 1: the witches infect the venereal act and conception of the womb.

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Speaker 1: So in these periods of lower birth rate, they would

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Speaker 1: look to the witches as having infected the wombs of

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Speaker 1: the women, and it wasn't just their womb. If a

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Speaker 1: man couldn't perform, like I said, if it was a

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Speaker 1: cause of sexual dysfunction, obviously that was the witch's fault too.

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Speaker 1: But these early midwives were the ones that had the

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Speaker 1: most you know, all thought was rudimentary at the time.

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Speaker 1: They had the most knowledge of how a woman's body worked,

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Speaker 1: and so when birthrates were low after things like the play,

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Speaker 1: they needed to get the populations of your back up.

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Speaker 1: They need to get these witches away from the women,

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Speaker 1: and they're they're eating children and causing abortion methods. But

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Speaker 1: you know, like we said, it was just probably a

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Speaker 1: baby dying because of malnutrition or something like that. So

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Speaker 1: once they got rid of the witches, these historians tracked

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Speaker 1: um population surges, and generally when they got rid of

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Speaker 1: witches and had witch hunts, populations surged after that, even

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Speaker 1: when you accounted for things like wars and other things

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Speaker 1: that have been depleting the population, things that would naturally

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Speaker 1: cause baby booms, they would just point to the witches.

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Speaker 1: And so then this perpetuates the idea that which is

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Speaker 1: as women are evil, right, And so you know, one

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Speaker 1: thing I did find interesting though, when um, we're researching

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Speaker 1: this podcast, Christen is, we have these um you know,

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Speaker 1: probably Monty Python inspired uh images of what they did

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Speaker 1: to witches, you know, throwing them into ponds to see

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Speaker 1: if they would flow, and pricking them to see if

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Speaker 1: they'd bleed, and and um, things like that. But it

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Speaker 1: really wasn't as widespread. Again, you know, this could just

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Speaker 1: be scholars downplaying it, like they seemed to about everything

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Speaker 1: with witches, but they really weren't that cruel to them.

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Speaker 1: All over all these countries it was a pretty um

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Speaker 1: localized phenomenon. Places where a local judge was holding trow

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Speaker 1: would be that would be a place where be much

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Speaker 1: more likely to have these weird, awful tortures, whereas if

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Speaker 1: they were more let's say in a town and a um,

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Speaker 1: a keen or a judge was present ding over this,

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Speaker 1: it would probably be more of a of a decent

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Speaker 1: trial by our standards. And one more interesting thing you

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Speaker 1: know we hear about you know, numbers and numbers, but

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Speaker 1: the fact is if you killed um one alleged which

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Speaker 1: you could make a pamphlet out of it is when

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Speaker 1: I was reading and just just just to read it

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Speaker 1: to all the towns and that would scare everyone off

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Speaker 1: of of thinking, you know, that it was a witch,

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Speaker 1: that they had gotten the witch, that they didn't need

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Speaker 1: to persecute as me people, Oh so use a witch,

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Speaker 1: a single witch as an example propaganda, propaganda, which propaganda.

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Speaker 1: So now that's Europe in the Middle Ages, probably if

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Speaker 1: you live in the United States. The most um dramatic

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Speaker 1: example of a witch hunt we have are the Salem

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Speaker 1: witch trials. Yes, let's travel back in time too, in Salem, Massachusetts,

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Speaker 1: when we have an outbreak of witch hunts and witch

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Speaker 1: trials that all started when two young girls started I

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Speaker 1: kind of crazy, having convulsions, screaming. They were saying that

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Speaker 1: they were being pit or bitten, and so naturally who's

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Speaker 1: to blame? Which is which is? So we were reading

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Speaker 1: an interesting article by Elizabeth Rice called Confessor Deny What's

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Speaker 1: a Witch to Do? And when you read about the

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Speaker 1: Salem witch Trials, a lot of women just confess there

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Speaker 1: were witches, which, you know, may people think, well, heck,

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Speaker 1: they are witches. And she links this to Puritan beliefs

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Speaker 1: at the time. Now, she points out that Puritan theology

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Speaker 1: does not say that, you know, the women are necessarily

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Speaker 1: the weaker sex, and they're just going to be attracting

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Speaker 1: uh Satan's demons more easily and more readily than men.

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Speaker 1: But she was saying that there was a difference in

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Speaker 1: Puritan piety between men and women. For instance, um, if

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Speaker 1: a woman is confessing her sins during that time, she

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Speaker 1: would take on more guilt as being a broken, sinful

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Speaker 1: person on the whole, whereas um Puritan men at the

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Speaker 1: time would only point to minor instances of sinning. So

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Speaker 1: chas you know, well, yes i gambled that one time,

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Speaker 1: but you know, I'm still an upright person. So it

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Speaker 1: seemed like there was just a little more a little

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Speaker 1: more guilt on puritu women's shoulders, and so they were

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Speaker 1: more likely to confess to these these crimes. Right. It

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Speaker 1: was almost like they saw just an ordinary sin as

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Speaker 1: an example of an entire vile nature. And then the

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Speaker 1: article also so that some women confess, because they said, hey,

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Speaker 1: if you confess, you can help us, we won't hang you.

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Speaker 1: So obviously a lot of women just got out of

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Speaker 1: their way, whereas some women would say, well, I'm not

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Speaker 1: going to confess to a sinful nature. And when they

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Speaker 1: wouldn't confess to any sin, at all. Then they thought, well,

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Speaker 1: of course they're witches. Everyone has sin. Yeah, so it's

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Speaker 1: sort of you know, darned if you do, darned if

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Speaker 1: you don't. And so over a period of nine months,

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Speaker 1: you have more than a hundred people who were placed

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Speaker 1: in prison um for being witches, and twenty are executed.

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Speaker 1: Arim chapter it is. And that's that's another one where

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Speaker 1: you know, in hindsight we try, and I don't know,

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Speaker 1: give the Puritans motives for why they did what they

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Speaker 1: did and say, oh, we're not like that anymore. But

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Speaker 1: the fact of the matter is that the battle against

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Speaker 1: witches is not over. Yeah, which brings us to modern

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Speaker 1: day christ And we are reading a Reuters report from

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Speaker 1: just last month about how so many women are being murdered,

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Speaker 1: just hacked to death because they are alleged witches. And

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Speaker 1: this is happening in countries ranching from South Africa to India.

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Speaker 1: And there are children living homeless on the streets because

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Speaker 1: they're suspected of being witches and their families drive them out. Um.

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Speaker 1: They don't have numbers for how many are being killed,

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Speaker 1: but it's at least tens of thousands. And then when

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Speaker 1: you add in beatings and taking away the property. This

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Speaker 1: could possibly be affecting millions of women, and the u

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Speaker 1: N and the other speakers who came together to make

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Speaker 1: this report said that a lot of the problem is

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Speaker 1: poverty and then the same thing that happened in the

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Speaker 1: Middle Ages, where people need scapegoats for why things go wrong,

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Speaker 1: and it just so happens that these elderly women and

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Speaker 1: children are good scapegoats. Yeah, they usually bear the brunt

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Speaker 1: of when something happens. There was one a story that

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Speaker 1: um U alleged witch was talking about where she um

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Speaker 1: I think her maybe grandson was sick and she came

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Speaker 1: to see him, and then the next day the boy died,

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Speaker 1: and so the mother and father blamed it on the

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Speaker 1: old woman coming to see him and somehow casting some

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Speaker 1: evil spell, and so of course she's like banished from

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Speaker 1: the tribe. And they're now number of witch camps for

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Speaker 1: these banished witches um to go and actually live in

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Speaker 1: a protected space so that they wouldn't be killed or

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Speaker 1: maimed by other people in their tribes. Right. In one

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Speaker 1: Guardian article from December two thousand five, there was an

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Speaker 1: estimate that four accused witches were living in six camps

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Speaker 1: in northern Ghana and UM it's basically if your relative

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Speaker 1: says I, I you know, I shunned you, I take

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Speaker 1: away my my commitment to you as a family member,

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Speaker 1: that's where you could go and live. They would and

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Speaker 1: turn away anyone UM and what was interest? You know,

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Speaker 1: some women would deny being witches, but others would say, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I'm I'm magical, but I only used it to protect

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Speaker 1: my own children, which is why some people thought I

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Speaker 1: was a witches. I had seven or eight children and

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Speaker 1: other children died, and an increasing number of children are

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Speaker 1: also being accused of witchcraft as well, and they're probably

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Speaker 1: being linked to UM women who are accused of of

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Speaker 1: being witches. Because if you if you look at the

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Speaker 1: reasons why UM women in these African countries are often

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Speaker 1: accused of witchcraft. First of all, we're talking about very rural,

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Speaker 1: isolated areas. At the same time, in those societies, women

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Speaker 1: are responsible for hearth and home and childcare. Makes sense, okay,

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Speaker 1: while the men are going out and traveling and hunting

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Speaker 1: and hopefully providing for the family. And one explanation that

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Speaker 1: I read for UM why women are accused of being

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Speaker 1: witches in South Africa was that the problems that happened

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Speaker 1: are the ones that happened at home, and since women

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Speaker 1: are in charge of what's going on at home, then

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Speaker 1: they would naturally be the root of the evil, not

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Speaker 1: the men who aren't even hanging around the house. And

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Speaker 1: there's some evidence that just in a patriarchal society, if

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Speaker 1: a woman does get some sort of economic power over

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Speaker 1: fields or over land, you know, the stereotypical man's domain,

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Speaker 1: then she should be stopped and the easiest way to

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Speaker 1: do that is to call her a witch. And the

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Speaker 1: u N has also pointed the finger at some pentecostal

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Speaker 1: preachers in these areas, um who are uh spreading rumors

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Speaker 1: about witches being possessed with demons and wreaking havoc and

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Speaker 1: evil on homes and ruining people's livelihoods because that gives

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Speaker 1: them a position of importance in these societies because they

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Speaker 1: need the pastor there to cast out the demons and

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Speaker 1: to protect people from the witchcraft. And they're actually manipulating, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, the people for personal gain because they're probably

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Speaker 1: going to support him financially as well. So there are

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Speaker 1: different levels to you this this witchcraft problem that's been

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Speaker 1: going on But what's interesting is that that there are

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Speaker 1: instances where an organization will go in and show a

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Speaker 1: villager that the actions they're blaming on a witch are

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Speaker 1: actually not her fault at all. You know, there was

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Speaker 1: one example in a and in the Independent that um

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Speaker 1: if an organization went in and showed that cooking over

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Speaker 1: an oven, a certain kind of oven gave a woman

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Speaker 1: red eyes, which is a sign of which witchcraft to them,

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Speaker 1: if they showed it was due to the oven, then

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Speaker 1: the villagers would be like, Okay, that's just the oven.

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Speaker 1: And if they could show that, you know, malaria caused

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Speaker 1: a child to die, they'd be like, okay, that's what

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Speaker 1: that was. And so to me, it was really interesting

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Speaker 1: to see how when you read these selarly accounts of

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Speaker 1: which hunts in the medieval era, they found all these

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Speaker 1: reasons to explain it away. Oh it wasn't you know,

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Speaker 1: it wasn't our ignorance, it wasn't an attack against women, etcetera, etcetera.

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Speaker 1: But I feel like now with what's happening in some

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Speaker 1: other countries, we kind of have evidence of them just saying, yeah,

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Speaker 1: these are women that we want to get rid of,

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Speaker 1: and there's no a real way to explain it away,

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Speaker 1: but we're not doing anything about it. Yeah, and even

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Speaker 1: the women who are cast all the camps and end

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Speaker 1: up at the witch camps are subject to undergoing exorcisms. Also,

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Speaker 1: even if they firmly believe that they are not possessed

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Speaker 1: by the devil and our witches. Um, they still have

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Speaker 1: to go through the motions to satiate the other tribe

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Speaker 1: people to not come after them and kill them. Right.

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Speaker 1: So I do hope that you know, people can use

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Speaker 1: this example of an organization going in and being like, oh, no,

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Speaker 1: you get red eyes from cooking over a stove, and

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Speaker 1: not just saying oh, you know, these people are I mean,

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Speaker 1: the danger is saying they're just too primitive to help.

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Speaker 1: But if we do give them that education, then I

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Speaker 1: think we can stop the killing of which is so

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Speaker 1: I think there is a fine line to walk between

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Speaker 1: not infringing on native culture at the same time, Uh,

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Speaker 1: systematically killing women and children is wrong, right, I think

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Speaker 1: we could all agree with that. Right. But if we're

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Speaker 1: talking about modern witchcraft today, Molly traveling back across the

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Speaker 1: Great Ocean to the United States, leaving Africa behind of America. Um,

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Speaker 1: the thing that I think about when I think about

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Speaker 1: which is is the Wickaned religion? Okay, tell me about

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Speaker 1: Christian But while the Wickaned religion is not this dark

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Speaker 1: and scary occultish art that we commonly associate with with witchcraft,

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Speaker 1: in fact, it is very it's kind of hippieish, you

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Speaker 1: really do, uh, And I hope that's not offensive to

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Speaker 1: any Wigans listening to that. I only mean that in uh,

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Speaker 1: it's very earth focused. Um, it's focused on worshiping the

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Speaker 1: natural forces and powers in the earth and a god

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Speaker 1: and goddess figure who maintain and sort of rule over

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Speaker 1: these forces, right, And I was interested that they make

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Speaker 1: this vow to harm nothing nothing, you know, on the

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Speaker 1: earth threat person. It's it's very much like you said

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Speaker 1: about just harnessing available forces and using them for your

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Speaker 1: needed purpose. And another thing that I didn't know about

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Speaker 1: WICCA was that it was established in the nineteen forties

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Speaker 1: and fifties by a man named Gerald Gardner, and he

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Speaker 1: defined witchcraft as a positive in life affirming religion and so, uh,

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Speaker 1: it really hasn't been around that long. Well, And you know,

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Speaker 1: when you go back and you look at these conflicting

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Speaker 1: definitions of what a witches and who a witches. That

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Speaker 1: makes a lot more sense that you know. They're kind

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Speaker 1: of taking a definition and using part of it, but

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Speaker 1: not using part of it. Yeah, and there is no

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Speaker 1: devil and no hell in in the Wiccan religion and um.

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Speaker 1: The only kind of magical energy that they use is

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Speaker 1: the energy, the natural energy of the cosmos. Now, Molly

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Speaker 1: and I are not ex experts in the nuances of Wicca,

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Speaker 1: but just for a little bit of overview, one thing

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Speaker 1: that caught my attention was that both men and women

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Speaker 1: are witches. Men are not warlocks because the word warlock

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Speaker 1: actually means oath aker and days back to witch hunts,

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Speaker 1: so calling a man a warlock is an insult. So really,

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Speaker 1: although we have the stereotype that women are witches, men

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Speaker 1: and women are witches, men and women can be witches

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Speaker 1: and um. Witches um can either practice in groups called

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Speaker 1: covens or they can practice by themselves as solitaries and um.

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Speaker 1: In the Gardenerian Wiccan tradition, there are three phases of

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Speaker 1: learning that witches go through. That starts out as a student,

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Speaker 1: which and then you become a practitioner slash priest or priestess,

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Speaker 1: and then you become a teacher or a high priest

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Speaker 1: or priestess, and they practice different rituals throughout the year.

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Speaker 1: And most notably, I would say, would be the one

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Speaker 1: coming up, which is Salon and it is Halloween, and

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00:22:45,560 --> 00:22:50,440
Speaker 1: that is Sale was the Celtic festival that Halloween dates

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00:22:50,520 --> 00:22:53,600
Speaker 1: back to you. So I think we've come full circle

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Speaker 1: back to Halloween, back to Halloween. So next time you

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Speaker 1: see you know, when you're out trick or treating, or

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Speaker 1: you're going to Halloween parties or you're just dressed up

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Speaker 1: at work and you see someone dress up as a witch,

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00:23:05,920 --> 00:23:08,000
Speaker 1: you know, set the record straight. People. There are some

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Speaker 1: fun facts at there's some fun facts. Something to take

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Speaker 1: off that pointy hat. And yeah, they don't even know

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Speaker 1: where the pointy hat came from. It may have just

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Speaker 1: been a style at the time, not something that whitches

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00:23:17,480 --> 00:23:21,000
Speaker 1: were like, Hey, pointy hats are awesome. Yeah, and guys

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Speaker 1: dress up as witches too. This is equal opportunity witchcraft here.

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Speaker 1: Anyone can practice it. So send us an email. Tell

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Speaker 1: us um if you are dressing up as a witch,

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Speaker 1: if not what you dressed up as, because we're always

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Speaker 1: looking for good ideas and oh you look like you mindo.

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Speaker 1: Some listener mail, I do want to do some listener mail, Molly,

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Speaker 1: some Molly. I've got an email here from Claudia and

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00:23:45,920 --> 00:23:49,080
Speaker 1: this goes back to our hair podcast, and she says,

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00:23:49,119 --> 00:23:50,880
Speaker 1: for the past two years I was growing on my hair.

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00:23:51,240 --> 00:23:53,880
Speaker 1: Yet when it was finally getting longer, I realized long

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00:23:53,920 --> 00:23:56,680
Speaker 1: hair is kind of boring. I'm in a creative profession,

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00:23:56,720 --> 00:23:58,960
Speaker 1: and I prefer being able to style my hair differently.

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00:23:59,160 --> 00:24:01,840
Speaker 1: With minimal ton investment, I got a good haircut and

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00:24:01,880 --> 00:24:05,320
Speaker 1: couldn't be happier. It doesn't require or does require more

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00:24:05,359 --> 00:24:08,479
Speaker 1: frequent trims, but I spend much less time styling it

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00:24:08,680 --> 00:24:11,000
Speaker 1: and have more options. I realized that I was just

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00:24:11,040 --> 00:24:12,960
Speaker 1: trying to grow my hair out because it seemed like

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00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:15,800
Speaker 1: the feminine thing to do. I mean, what girl doesn't

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00:24:15,840 --> 00:24:18,719
Speaker 1: want long, lovely hair, right, Well, it turns out that

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00:24:18,880 --> 00:24:21,720
Speaker 1: I don't. There you go, there you go awesome, Claudia,

439
00:24:22,560 --> 00:24:25,600
Speaker 1: find a good haircut is a hard thing to do.

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00:24:25,840 --> 00:24:28,040
Speaker 1: That's very true, and to find a stylist you like

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00:24:28,119 --> 00:24:31,680
Speaker 1: and trust. Now, on the other hand, Nurka Nrka, I

442
00:24:31,760 --> 00:24:35,040
Speaker 1: hope I'm saying your name right. Um. Nurka loves her

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00:24:35,040 --> 00:24:38,720
Speaker 1: long hair. She wrote in UM she is actually a

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00:24:38,760 --> 00:24:41,640
Speaker 1: member of a forum called the long Hair Community, where

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00:24:41,640 --> 00:24:43,800
Speaker 1: men and women come together to share hints on how

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00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:46,200
Speaker 1: to grow and how to keep their locks looking healthy

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00:24:46,280 --> 00:24:49,840
Speaker 1: by way of balanced eating, vitamins, styling such as braiding

448
00:24:49,880 --> 00:24:54,480
Speaker 1: and bunning, and natural i e. Homemade hair products. And

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00:24:54,560 --> 00:24:56,280
Speaker 1: she had a few miss that she wanted to clear up.

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00:24:56,320 --> 00:24:58,840
Speaker 1: And she's a long hair expert. Okay, Molly, So Miss

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00:24:58,920 --> 00:25:01,800
Speaker 1: number one, long hair is expensive to maintain, she says

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00:25:01,840 --> 00:25:05,240
Speaker 1: in truth, um, long hair is actually less expensive to

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00:25:05,320 --> 00:25:08,879
Speaker 1: maintain than short hair um, and that women don't have

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00:25:08,960 --> 00:25:12,480
Speaker 1: to go to the salon every six to eight weeks.

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00:25:12,520 --> 00:25:14,560
Speaker 1: She says, One thing that I've learned in my journey

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00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:17,120
Speaker 1: to long hair is that hair must be treated as

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00:25:17,160 --> 00:25:21,520
Speaker 1: antique lace. All of those products, heating appliances, harsh chemicals

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00:25:21,720 --> 00:25:25,040
Speaker 1: actually cause damage and are quite unnecessary when women believe

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00:25:25,040 --> 00:25:27,000
Speaker 1: that they need these things. And of course, long hair

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00:25:27,520 --> 00:25:30,720
Speaker 1: is expensive and it becomes a vicious cycle. Miss number two,

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00:25:31,119 --> 00:25:33,919
Speaker 1: long hair is time consuming as many people assume that

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00:25:33,920 --> 00:25:36,440
Speaker 1: I shoulder length hair takes a data style and twice

463
00:25:36,480 --> 00:25:38,320
Speaker 1: that length must take twice as long to deal with.

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00:25:38,400 --> 00:25:40,399
Speaker 1: And I've found that as my hair grows longer, the

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00:25:40,440 --> 00:25:42,439
Speaker 1: less time I spend with it. In the past, I've

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00:25:42,480 --> 00:25:44,000
Speaker 1: dealt with a pixie cut, and every time I wash

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00:25:44,040 --> 00:25:45,800
Speaker 1: my hair, I had to spend time blow drying and

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00:25:45,840 --> 00:25:50,680
Speaker 1: styling to avoid frizz. I've got miss number three. Long

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00:25:50,720 --> 00:25:53,040
Speaker 1: hair is considered a sign of beauty and fertility and

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00:25:53,119 --> 00:25:56,400
Speaker 1: is therefore desired, and she says, well, people may say

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00:25:56,440 --> 00:25:58,520
Speaker 1: this out loud, many people don't believe it. I've read

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00:25:58,560 --> 00:26:00,760
Speaker 1: stories from women who say their friend some family insists

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00:26:00,800 --> 00:26:02,600
Speaker 1: that they cut their hair. They will tell them that

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00:26:02,680 --> 00:26:04,600
Speaker 1: long hair is ugly and our dirty, and they will

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00:26:04,600 --> 00:26:07,040
Speaker 1: say that women over the age of forties should chop

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00:26:07,040 --> 00:26:09,720
Speaker 1: it off. I've looked around for sites that have women

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00:26:09,720 --> 00:26:12,080
Speaker 1: with long hair. In many cases, I'll find it there

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00:26:12,080 --> 00:26:14,480
Speaker 1: where someone has left a comment about how it must

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00:26:14,480 --> 00:26:18,080
Speaker 1: smell bad, or will ask how does she use the toilet,

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00:26:19,560 --> 00:26:21,560
Speaker 1: and then on the emotional attachment to hair, she says,

481
00:26:21,600 --> 00:26:23,479
Speaker 1: this one is a hard one to address. Our hair

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00:26:23,560 --> 00:26:25,800
Speaker 1: is something that the whole world sees. It is public,

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00:26:26,040 --> 00:26:27,800
Speaker 1: and most of us want to look our best. As

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00:26:27,800 --> 00:26:29,280
Speaker 1: for long hair, it might be a way for women

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00:26:29,320 --> 00:26:31,359
Speaker 1: to feel the most attractive, and there may be a

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00:26:31,359 --> 00:26:34,080
Speaker 1: religious reason for keeping long hair. May be simply a

487
00:26:34,119 --> 00:26:36,600
Speaker 1: personal preference. I think it's unfair to assign meaning to

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00:26:36,600 --> 00:26:40,439
Speaker 1: another person's choices with how having asked them first. This

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00:26:40,480 --> 00:26:43,159
Speaker 1: is something that long haired women deal with quite often.

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00:26:43,200 --> 00:26:46,600
Speaker 1: People make all sorts of assumptions about us and our lifestyles,

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00:26:46,640 --> 00:26:48,760
Speaker 1: such as you must be a hippie, or religion, you

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00:26:48,840 --> 00:26:51,760
Speaker 1: must be a Pentecostal, or our priorities. You probably pay

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00:26:51,800 --> 00:26:54,080
Speaker 1: for haircare more on haircre than you do for more

494
00:26:54,080 --> 00:26:57,840
Speaker 1: important things, and about our psychological states. You're afraid to

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00:26:57,880 --> 00:27:00,920
Speaker 1: cut your hair because it is a secure the blanket.

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00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:05,640
Speaker 1: So we've got the long hair in the short hair perspective. Yes.

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00:27:05,760 --> 00:27:09,840
Speaker 1: And then one correction Molly about our long hair podcast

498
00:27:10,320 --> 00:27:14,359
Speaker 1: comes from Ataya Um. She wanted to point out that

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00:27:14,920 --> 00:27:19,119
Speaker 1: our discussion on Orthodox Jewish women covering their hair was

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00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:22,359
Speaker 1: not entirely correct. She said. Of course, every person has

501
00:27:22,400 --> 00:27:25,000
Speaker 1: her own variations, and some families may decide to change

502
00:27:25,080 --> 00:27:27,760
Speaker 1: or all for this particular custom, but in general, Orthodox

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00:27:27,840 --> 00:27:30,800
Speaker 1: Jewish women don't have to wear a head covering unless

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00:27:30,840 --> 00:27:33,880
Speaker 1: they are married, and this head covering doesn't usually cover

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00:27:33,960 --> 00:27:38,560
Speaker 1: the entire head like the Islamic key jobs do. So

506
00:27:39,280 --> 00:27:43,359
Speaker 1: correction there, Okay, thanks for your email about hair and

507
00:27:43,440 --> 00:27:46,720
Speaker 1: send us her email about Halloween, which is wick tell

508
00:27:46,760 --> 00:27:50,480
Speaker 1: us what you're being for Halloween if you want. Yeah,

509
00:27:50,600 --> 00:27:53,560
Speaker 1: Molly and I love Halloween costumes. We did. We've had long,

510
00:27:53,640 --> 00:27:55,760
Speaker 1: long talks about it, which is how we started talking

511
00:27:55,800 --> 00:27:57,920
Speaker 1: about which is in the first place. Yes, And if

512
00:27:57,920 --> 00:27:59,720
Speaker 1: you want to know what I'm going to be for Halloween,

513
00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:02,040
Speaker 1: should head over to our blog and all I mentioned earlier.

514
00:28:02,040 --> 00:28:04,399
Speaker 1: It's called how to stuff And if you want to

515
00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:07,800
Speaker 1: read how Halloween works and learn more about Halloween traditions

516
00:28:07,880 --> 00:28:12,280
Speaker 1: and also learn about how witches work and witchcraft, go

517
00:28:12,480 --> 00:28:17,679
Speaker 1: to how stuff works dot com for more on this

518
00:28:17,840 --> 00:28:20,320
Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics. Does it how stuff works

519
00:28:20,359 --> 00:28:24,520
Speaker 1: dot com. Want more how stuff works, check out our

520
00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:26,960
Speaker 1: blogs on the house stuff works dot com home page