Religion, Politics and Gender Ideology

When someone mentions “witch hunts”, we tend to think about the witchcraft trials that took place during the 14th-16th centuries in Europe or even the Salem Witch trials that accorded during the beginnings of America. Fueled by mass hysteria and fear, the results of these trials ended in burnings or lynching of those believed to be associated with witchcraft. At the heart of these trials we find the influence of society (i.e., widespread fear) and politics which in this case involved the legal courts. Witch hunts were sustained for so long because they were effective in limiting social deviancy, any variation of the norm would land you with the stigma of practicing witchcraft. Since the witch hunts ended with the deaths of so many (mainly innocent) individuals, the idea of conducting a witch hunt has garnered a negative social connotation. Though we would like to believe, however, that the days of being consumed by such irrationality as the witch hunts are over, the 1950s hunt for communists proves this belief false. Similar to the way the idea McCarthyism was accepted, modern day witch hunts have come under the guise of maintaining stability and social order. The responsibility of control is deferred to individuals in positions of political and religious power, for these are the people who can manipulate governmental laws and impact social opinions in favor of social normalcy which influences gender ideology.

To understand how laws and social opinions can be altered by those in power to reflect the ideals of the majority, we must first know the link between political and religious ideology. In short, religion and politics are the factors that gender ideology are modeled to fit within society. In a political sense, laws...

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...gion, attacks on these ties are met with resistance. That being said, in order to combat threats to social and moral codes religion increases the intensity of its forces (i.e., political and religious powers). An increase in power generally results in an attempt to eliminate threats. This is done so by using political sway and religious policies which are enforced by government officials and religious leaders. It is important to note here that the individuals that come into power bring with them their own sets of beliefs and morals; these individual systems may or may not fall under the realm of societal norms. However, it is here that we find the most utilization of power in order to defend their system of beliefs. As far as gender ideology goes, the very foundations of it hinges upon the decision of those in power to set laws and help shape social opinions.