Femininity & Witchcraft: The Misogyny Associated With ‘Black Magic’ In Our Society & Its Repercussions

Earlier this year, an uncle who’s a neighbour, found, what he called a “tona” at a crossing within the premises of our apartments. The chaos wasn’t particularly new, things keep happening when you live in such setups – it’s a literal mirror to the society. Understandably, people had come out of their houses, despite the fact that it was quite late at night. The said uncle went on and on about his concerns. He then implied that a woman must have done it, because, “Only they’re capable.” This again, wasn’t particularly new, because the association of women with dark magic is a common practice in our society.

The commentary surely reeks of sexism, however, though, there’s more to it. This apparent assumption that women are more capable of practicing black magic adds ‘logic’ to the constant witch-hunt in our society. A few years back, a woman from the Sunsari district of Nepal was accused for her husband’s declining health, where people said that she used black magic to make people fall ill. The incident led to a witch-hunt, and the woman was assaulted. According to the Kathmandu Post, the woman belonged to a Dalit community – further stating that such allegations are more associated with women of marginalized communities.

It’s common for people to throw around casual remarks for the women in their society, without understanding the intensity of them. The ways in which character-assassination works is just more proof of it. However, it’s almost-frustratingly-funny that people villainize women in forms that make them sound SO powerful. I mean, people are so hell-bent on believing that women are just out to get them, that one would think women have more power. This should in-turn mean that women are the oppressors, and solely out of fear, there’d be lesser crimes against them. This sounds like an upside-down, because none of this happens – and it’s mostly the other way round. People clearly don’t fear women (not that anyone should fear anyone), but if women are so evil, why are men more powerful?

So, it’s not like people aren’t aware that these gendered accusations are pointless. Then, why are they still doing it? Is it to continue the narrative that women ruin households? Or is it just plain misogyny? Because something so intense cannot not have a motive.

After Sushant Singh Rajput, Rhea Chakraborty was accused and scrutinized of a lot of things – the logistics of the case is something that I don’t intend to talk about. It’s more about how our society behaved. So there was this possible lead in the case, and people clicked with two details – a woman…who’s Bengali. The media trial and discussions surrounding Rhea Chakraborty were all centred on her being a manipulative woman. People went to lengths to prove that there was a connection of black magic and the actor’s passing away. The fact that Rhea Chakraborty is Bengali added another layer to the accusation – which is just deeply sad – how we manage to change the nature of discourse with our casteist and racist assumptions.

Femininity is always looked at as something that ruins culture – it always has a negative connotation attached to it. Another opinion that women lure men with black magic, by extension, means that femininity has a connect with anything that’s considered corruptive. So, women don’t have the power, and clearly, even if they would, it’d always be termed as something demeaning. If men, on the other hand, practice something that is morally incorrect, we put them on pedestals and equate them to god. Like life, this discussion is also a never ending battle.

Commenting on the practice isn’t something we should do, especially when we do not get so much of it. So, this is exactly that – not an opinion on black magic – it’s about the society and how we hold women accountable for things that are wrong. Past records and incidents show that most times women who are accused of practices like black magic, are women who are single. Clearly, a woman without the influence of man is either naive or corrupt. In rural areas, for example, these women would be alleged of witchcraft if something, anything happened in the village. According to some reports, women have even been killed after such false claims made their way to people, and resulted in the witch-hunt.

So, no, these are not just random guesses that die down. They wreak havoc. The misogynistic opinion that “only women” can harm a society or that there’s literal villainy involved with femininity, travel, like most gossips do. And no, they just don’t exist as gossip, they take away whatever little power women have.