Witches have been around for many centuries. Premodern texts primarily claimed that witches were female who work with the devil to bring about harm. Although there are some modern texts that argue against the stereotype, many follow the same reasoning of female witches. The show Supernatural is a modern example of this ideology. Two brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester travel all around the country to fight evil spirits. During one of their trips, they come across some witchcraft. This leads them to discovering a coven practicing witchcraft with an undercover demon. Supernatural 2008).
With the gendering of women in modern television and premodern texts one can ask: To what extent does the gendering of witches imply that they work with demons? Dating back to Kramer and Sprenger’s Malleus Maleficarum to Supernatural, the general stereotype of females working with demons worked its way from the fifthteenth century into current television. Through the episode “Malleus Maleficarum” in the show Supernatural, the gendering of witches and demons convey the idea that witches are women who collaborate with a demon to create harm.
One scene in Supernatural shows Sam Winchester interrogating the three witches of the coven. Sam and his brother, Dean, went to the town to investigate a series of unusual deaths. They narrow their killers down to 3 witches in a coven. Sam goes to a meeting they are holding and accuses them of witchcraft. He later finds out that one of them is a demon. Of the three women, two of them are wearing blue, feminine looking clothing. The last is dressed in a gray, boxy blazer. The last woman ends up being an undercover demon. All of these women are portrayed as everyday housewives.
Their appearance is very put together, hich contrasts the image that pops into one’s head when the term witch is said. However, according to Edward Bever’s article, Witchcraft, Female Aggression, and Power in the Early Modern Community, women most likely to be accused of witchcraft were married women who didn’t fit the stereotype of a witch (Bever 2002). Bever states the idea that witches have been women who have somewhat of a “normal” demeanor. They are usually married and well liked by others around them. This contrasts the stereotype of a witch being that a witch is usually a woman that is not as put together, and is a social pariah.
With the women in the coven in Supernatural, the women talk about ordinary mundane things they were attempting to accomplish with their witchcraft, like promotions with husbands. The women of the coven are dressed fairly plainly. The two in blue don’t truly understand how their witchcraft is working; however, the last woman in gray turns out to be a demon. Blue clothing tends to represent trustworthiness and honesty; however, gray clothing means organization and formality. With the woman in gray, it is uncovered that she has been controlling their good fortune the entire time.
The serious color helps show that the woman is taking the witchcraft seriously and is more in control. The women in blue are not aware that the woman in gray is a demon until she admits to Sam Winchester. They assumed their magic was working in other ways, completely oblivious to the way witchcraft works in the episode. This is an example of how women can be used by the devil, as discussed by Kramer and Sprenger in Malleus Maleficarum. They claim that the devil doesn’t need to work with a witch; however he can (Kramer and Sprenger 12).
Only one woman in the episode is working with the demon directly; however, because the demon possessed the one woman, the other two are working with the demon indirectly. The demon could have worked by itself; however by possessing one woman and working with the other two, the demon was able to be more discreet, causing more harm than it would have if it worked alone. The two women who weren’t the demon liked the outcomes the demon produced; therefore, they enjoyed working with demon, as Kramer and Sprenger explained.
The stereotype of witches working with demons and the devil is further supported by Kramer and Sprenger and Supernatural, because they both conform to the social constructs of what a witch should be. Similarly, the scene with Sam Winchester and the women in the coven is shot in low lighting with many shots that only feature one person. There is dialogue between Sam and the demon, Tammy, switching back and forth between them, as if to show the duality of good and evil. The witch stereotype includes working with a demon and harming others.
The earliest instance of this is explained through Laura Stokes’ Toward the Witch Craze. Laura writes about the Alpine witch, the earliest witch that was gendered. “One of the reasons that the early modern witches were predominantly women can be traced to the fact that the Germanic popular concept of the Alpine witch, which predated the concept of the diabolic witch and helped to determine the details of demonology, was strictly female” (Stokes 584). Witches were feared, because they were thought to have caused unnatural harm. Stokes mentions the word diabolic periodically throughout her text.
Witches were seen as diabolic back with the Alpine witch and current day with Tammy the coven leader. As seen later in the episode, she admits to killing other people, and then proceeds to murder one of their own coven members for questioning her. The back and forth shots show that Sam is there to defeat the evil witch. Sam is seen as the good guy throughout most of the series, which pours over into this episode. The duality of the camera shots emphasizes the evil female witch, by contrasting her with the supposed “good”, male counterpart. Misogyny has always been a part of witch culture.
Kramer and Sprenger in Malleus Maleficarum, primarily talk about females being witches. This was the earliest “guide” for hunting witches. It set the stereotype for evil women witches, which has carried over into current day television. With the camera shot and the low lighting, Tammy the demon is shown as more evil and serious. This further represents the diabolical side of witches by portraying them as serious and businesslike. With ideas from Kramer and Sprenger and Stokes, Supernatural illustrates the idea of witches being diabolical by switching the camera from the “good” male to the “evil” female witch.
The female witch is seen as evil, even though Sam threatens to kill them all as well. Because she is a demon and female. Tammy is seen as diabolical while Sam is shown as doing something for the greater good. Misogyny and stereotypes are prevalent in this episode to show that witches are evil women. With the use of wardrobe and camera work, Supernatural exemplifies the idea of witches that are demonic and harmful. The coven works with an undercover demon to better their own lives. This demon is portrayed as an average housewife, which goes against the stereotype most usually picture.
This stereotype has been seen from early pre-modern texts, like Malleus Maleficarum, to modern texts like Witchcraft, Female Aggression, and Power in the Early Modern Community. Supernatural works with the duality of good men versus diabolical women and evil. The wardrobe choices show the demon and believers. The camera work and lighting show how serious the situation is. Supernatural covers many bases with stereotypes of women and witches. Through the use of premodern and modern texts, it is concluded that witches are females who work with demons to harm others.