Said street artist Bobby McNamara, quoted in "'Rather insensitive': Fife council to remove menacing witch mural/Mural by Rogue One found to be not in keeping with historic area, after complaints about portrayal of women accused of witchcraft" (The Guardian).
[T]he row comes as the drive for posthumous justice for the thousands of people persecuted as witches in post-Reformation Scotland is growing, with campaigners pushing for an official pardon after the former first minister Nicola Sturgeon issued a formal apology last International Women’s Day to those tortured and often executed under the Witchcraft Act 1563.... The charity Remembering the Accused Witches of Scotland (RAWS) estimates that during the great witch-hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries there were approximately 350 known accused witches in Fife, with up to 28 accused in Pittenweem itself, most famously Janet Cornfoot, who escaped from the local tollbooth but was caught and returned to Pittenweem, where she was lynched by a mob....
RAWS wants "respectful and dignified" "memorialisation" of the women who were unjustly accused and punished, but the mural shows a Halloween-style stereotype of a witch. Supporters of the mural are calling its critics "snowflakes" and emphasizing economics: "I think the mural is fantastic and I absolutely endorse it. It’s about time somebody was milking the place for the tourism it deserves."
McNamara accepts the death penalty imposed on his mural: "As a street artist, you’re used to murals coming and going. I’m surprised it’s lasted this long and everyone’s got something out of it, whether that’s publicity for me, the pub, the village or for the women."
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Trials for witchcraft once seemed to be quaint reminders of how far we have progressed from the eras in which bizarre, ridiculous beliefs were remorselessly enforced. They have a different resonance today, don't they?
The mural answers the question, "What's the last thing a Scottish newt sees?"
That's not the most representative portrayal of J.K. Rowling I've ever seen, but you can tell it's her by the public outcry and requests for cancellation. Were the complainers transvestites? Cause nobody expects...THE ENGLISH TRANSQUISITION!
Perhaps they presented as witches and people actually believed they were witches.
As in most things in life, they can be explained by Monty Python. She's a Witch!.
Thankfully, we've grown past all that. It's not like we would persecute anyone for stupid little things. We wouldn't, for example, get them fired from their jobs, hounded out of proper society for not taking a vaccine that doesn't work, or for not wearing a mask.
We wouldn't declare someone a heretic for questioning a questionable election, or for asking aloud about the contents of a laptop.
Sure. We don't burn them at the stake (yet), but we can sure work on destroying their families. "Burn him!"
I think in Futurama, they refer to the present as "The Stupid Ages," and I don't think that they have missed the mark.
tim in vermont said, "I think in Futurama, they refer to the present as "The Stupid Ages," and I don't think that they have missed the mark."
"According to the history books, this dance was supposed to help summon the rains, or a transam." - Leela
This may be a stupid question, but the word 'village' implies multiple buildings, with multiple exterior walls, and the picture backs this up. Is there really a problem? Why not make it a theme, with multiple historical expressions? We all know the answer, of course: because it's more satisfying to attack and demolish the thing than it is to contribute and take part in the creation of the new thing
This can't be true. Everyone in popular culture knows that all the witches were executed by Puritans in Salem, MA. The 30,000 in Germany? Impossible.
Look, Arthur Miller assured us of this, and he wouldn't lie, would he?
>Nicola Sturgeon issued a formal apology last International Women’s Day to those tortured and often executed under the Witchcraft Act 1563<
Really? What did this apology say? Who heard it? Who - not dead for 460 years - cares about it?
"Why not make it a theme, with multiple historical expressions?"
I think the idea is to preserve the historical look of the place, but even if you wanted new expressions of historical interpretation, this mural would be outside the range of anything worthy of the historical subject of unfairly accusing people of witchcraft and executing them. The mural (click over to see it) shows a witch of the type seen in the Disney movie "Snow White" and used for the most stereotypical "witch" Halloween costume. That has nothing at all to do with the history of the town.
Witch hunts, warlock trials, and reproductive rights... human rites in progress.
The likelihood is that the witch hunts were not about the supernatural, but about domestic burdens that were exploited for political and social progress and settled with abortion of one party.
"I think in Futurama, they refer to the present as "The Stupid Ages," and I don't think that they have missed the mark."
I think of the present as The Age of Antagonism. There really is little else anymore.
I would like to apply the same level of hideous tortures to street artist Bobby McNamara as were applied to those poor women 400-500 years ago. It might give that twit a different view about what happened to the women.
Who were these women? Herbalists. Midwives. Old widows whose property was coveted by someone more well-connected. I read of one woman who found herself on trial for witchcraft because a neighbor had wet dreams about her. Keep in mind that they were so severely tortured that the poor females confessed to performing sexual acts with Satan himself, knowing that doing so would lead to painful death. It would be good for Bobby McNamara to contemplate that as he sees his cartoonish witch get painted over.
" ... thousands of people persecuted as witches in post-Reformation Scotland ... "
Without the internet!
What will the next mural be like, after public comment and official committee approval and imprimatur by the entire village? I'm guessing it will be bland, somber, dreary and ugly.
Why not just grab some Soviet poster proclaiming women's power as workers, and slap it up there, to be done with the whole thing? Then the witches can be empowered, by bringing the bricks for their own smothering!
https://russiatrek.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/woman-image-in-soviet-propaganda-12.jpg
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