Visit the Dutch town of Oudewater and you can step onto the oversized scales of its historical witches’ weighing house. From the 16th century onwards, accused witches travelled there to be weighed and, if heavy enough, leave with a certificate proclaiming their innocence. Witches could fly, it was believed, so the logic went that they must be supernaturally light
Amid the witch hunts that swept through Europe between the 15th and 18th centuries, women’s bodies became evidence; weighing was among the milder tests. Other women were stripped, shaved and pricked in search of a witch’s mark. Centuries later, the policing and scrutiny of women’s bodies remains familiar. “Until governments and religions stop policing women’s bodies, how can...
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