In the 21st century, has the stereotypical witch been reinvented? Martha Vine (lower sixth) examines what witchcraft looks like to Gen Z...
For the past 16 years, I’ve never missed an opportunity to dress up for Halloween. Arguably foreshadowing my interest in the occult, and definitely to the annoyance of my family, I pretty much refused to go as anything other than a witch (although sometimes, if I was feeling especially adventurous, I would go as a witch’s cat.) Over the years, my classic costume – green face paint, black robes, warts – evolved into something else. Now, if you look up ‘witch Halloween costume’, you’ll find less ogres and more corsets, gloves, and purple lipstick. It’s become more sophisticated, more polished – you could take parts of it and wear them on a normal day, if you were feeling daring.
So, this creates a question – what is a 21st century witch? The boom in occult interest over the last two decades could be partially responsible for this new representation of witchcraft. In an article titled ‘The explosive growth of witches and wiccans,’ it explains that spirituality and mysticism are now resting on the fringes of mainstream culture, thanks to the influence of millennials and gen z. It also shows that in the space of only seven years, the number of practicing witches in the U.S has more than doubled.
Witchcraft has had a complex history, but has always been closely intertwined with feminism. In the days of the Salem Witch Trials, women who were childless or financially independent from men were persecuted because they did not adhere to traditional female expectations. It should come as no surprise, then, that the term ‘Witch’ has been reclaimed by new-age practitioners as part of the ever-growing ‘self-power’ movement that has swept over social media in the last years. Modern-day witchcraft remembers the bloody days gone by and uses them to grow, becoming a practice that encourages independence, mindfulness, and respect for nature. It is, arguably, in accordance with the values that the younger generations hold today.
Witchcraft is also vastly more accessible to these teenagers. For those who use social media like Instagram or TikTok, the algorithm means that once you interact with one video on a subject, you’re basically bombarded with related ones. For example -- I am firmly stuck on Harry Potter TikTok at the moment, and unless I ignore all those videos, I doubt I’ll be able to claw my way out. So, if you like one mystical video, it’s very probable that you’re going to fall down the rabbit hole. I even asked some people in my year about this – none of whom are practicing witches – and a surprising amount of them said that they regularly get tarot card readers on their For You pages.
It’s easy to see how, because of this, we are exposed to witchcraft so casually and frequently that it does not seem out of the ordinary. By seeing it from a younger age, we manage to bypass the prejudice and fear of witchcraft that many older people have ingrained in them. The generational gap grows, and my perception of the typical witch will therefore be different to my grandpa’s, or even my father’s.
I don’t think witches have ever just been for Halloween. But the period in time where they were demonised corrupted society’s perception of them to such an extent that now, in the 21st century, we are only just managing to shake it. So yes, our stereotypical witch may look different to the view we held fifty years ago. But I’d say we’re coming a full circle.
By Martha Vine, LVI 15
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