The Gluttony of Witches
In the book The Deepest Sense by Constance Classen, Chapter Four titled "A Woman's Touch" discusses the purposes and expectations of women throughout history. In particular, the section titled "A Witch's Touch" interested me because "the female witch was the symbolic inverse of the female saint" (90).
These two female forms were particularly interesting because of the interactions they established with eating and food in general. Female saints would starve themselves to somehow keep themselves pure whereas female witches would gorge on the food offered by Devils even if it were human flesh. This idea of gluttony being associated with witchcraft seems almost backwards to me. In Catholicism, the Lord offers himself as a food offering as a way to pledge holiness and to prove ones purity. Eating is not seen as something that harms ones image but rather as a way to cleanse one's self.
Women were said to be gluttonous by nature. Female saints, by contrast, often starved themselves as part of their quest of holiness. At the other end of the moral scale, witches gorged themselves
at demonic feasts and transgressed the greatest of food taboos by eating human flesh. While
holy women had visions in which they spurned devils offering them food, witches accepted
the Devil and took the food. (90)
These two female forms were particularly interesting because of the interactions they established with eating and food in general. Female saints would starve themselves to somehow keep themselves pure whereas female witches would gorge on the food offered by Devils even if it were human flesh. This idea of gluttony being associated with witchcraft seems almost backwards to me. In Catholicism, the Lord offers himself as a food offering as a way to pledge holiness and to prove ones purity. Eating is not seen as something that harms ones image but rather as a way to cleanse one's self.
Today, we use food to celebrate special occasions and as a way to bond with other people. Gluttony is still frowned upon but there is no one being deemed a witch because of it.
It's because society hates women, not food. That's my glib answer. But it might also be a chicken/egg question. Medieval ethics tend to prefer moderation to excess. Are witches and other women disparaged because they are perceived as having immoderate appetites, or are women perceived as having immoderate appetites and disparaged because they are women?
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