Annis : The most physically powerful and feared of the hags, annis hags were ferocious savages with nails and teeth like iron. They were egotistical brutes who saw strength as virtue and appealed to simple-minded beings like children or primitives. [7] [2] The author describes how the experiences of women around fertility and child bearing is diminished by gender neutral language but I don’t think that is necessarily the case either. I won’t go into this as others have in much better detail. After all, defining experiences such as periods and pregnancy as belonging only to cis women has so far worked not so well in terms of changing the status quo anyways. As the story went, when the world was young and dark, many terrors lurked in the shadows. and so the fearful races sought protection from that which went bump in the night. In response to these prayers, the moon came into existence, and with it a queen to command the light, Cegilune. Cegilune was a silver-haired beauty whose worship spread across the world and who received constant attempts to court her favor. She adopted the most pious and pleasing priestesses as her daughters and granted them powers they were to use to grant her greater status. Her prophets were given the ability to walk on water so as to spread her good word, the songs of Cegilune bestowed beautiful voices to allure others into service and her protectors the strength to protect other worshipers from harm. In her glory days she was feared and wondered, but success breeds complacency and complacency breeds failure. [7]

Mike Mearls, Stephen Schubert, James Wyatt (June 2008). Monster Manual 4th edition. ( Wizards of the Coast), pp. 150–151. ISBN 978-0-7869-4852-9. My thoughts is that it would be hugely reductive to frame other feminist debates - e.g, the sex wars - in this way, but that is exactly what the author does. It seems intellectually lazy to not consider the actual ideas that are being debated - that in fact, the trans-inclusive feminists may have their own ideas and politics that are fully formed and cannot be attributed to naivety or ignorance. The book talks a bit about the sex wars, but barely touches on the gender debate - which in some ways is fair, since it's not what the book is about, but it becomes increasingly distracting in it's efforts to talk "around" what the issue even is! I also don’t have strong views on jk Rowling as a person but don’t like her actions. I liked Harry Potter and I liked the strike tv series. I’ve watched them all when they came on uktvplay! Lots of authors and famous people in history have had abhorrent views and we can still like their work (looking at you roald Dahl and David Bowie). But in repeatedly defending jk in the way she does, the author does diminish what she has actually done and why this isn’t ok. Jk is entitled to her own views regardless of whether anyone agrees but she then doubled down and started using her platform to voice quite a lot of very negative views about trans people over a prolonged period of time. Regardless of said personal views, using your platform in this way is problematic for more reasons that I have thoughts at this time of night. This argument does stray into a whole other topic of cancel culture and even how this differs for women and men that isn’t covered in the book and is far bigger than this tiny review.

Mike Mearls, Greg Bilsland and Robert J. Schwalb (June 15, 2010). Monster Manual 3 4th edition. ( Wizards of the Coast), pp. 108–109. ISBN 0786954902. As noted in my mid-book comment, I am too young to fall into the 'hag' category defined by this book, for that reason I am sure that there are portions that may well appear differently to me in a decade or so. A changeling often appeared normal, even beautiful and healthy for their kind, with their true nature often a mystery even to themselves for most of their lives. However, over time, their hag heritage would begin to show as their forms and personalities were impacted by their ancestry, although not even these bullying tendencies and other bad habits were extreme enough to make them appear like anything but a particularly brutish member of their kin. [7] [10]

You cannot end violence against women if your love for women is conditional on them remaining at a particular life stage or holding particular beliefs. If you make a scapegoat of the older woman - the witch, the harridan, the hag - one of two things will happen: either you will age into being her, or the criteria for being her will broaden until they apply to you, too. You can never kill enough witches to start the whole project of being human from scratch.” The current biological consensus to explain the menopause is the “grandmother hypothesis”: at a certain point in a woman’s life cycle, the expected evolutionary benefit to her is greater if she focuses on supporting whatever offspring she already has, rather than attempting to produce any more. In other words, it is because of the significance of women’s contributions in later life that the menopause exists. Nevertheless, says Smith, much research and discussion about menopause has carried an implied question of “why haven’t these bitches died yet?”. Let's start by saying transwomen are women and if you're yelling at customer service staff you deserve to be called a Karen. Sea hag : The indisputably ugliest of the hags, sea hags were decrepit piscine women of such hideousness that one could die from looking at them. The aquatic hags sought to defile and invert all that was beautiful. [1] Given all this, I should be glad that in 2023, most young women – and many young men – throw the word feminism around like confetti. Thirty years ago, I longed for others to see the world as I did, and after all, there is still so much to be done. But, alas, this isn’t how I feel. Such talk sounds increasingly hollow; a question only of clever marketing. While the pressures on young women are greater than ever, many of their rights terrifyingly under threat, the bigger surprise is that I find myself on the receiving end of as much sexism and misogyny now as I did when my bum was pert and my breasts very bouncy – and nearly all of it comes from those far younger than me. Was the harassment I experienced when I was young better or worse than the dismissive contempt that’s aimed at me today? I’m not sure. All I know is that I’m far angrier now – and far more clear-sighted about the cause of that anger – than I ever was in the days when I campaigned for every female student to have a free rape alarm.Robert J. Schwalb (December 2011). “Dungeon Master's Book”. In Tanis O'Connor, et al. eds. The Book of Vile Darkness ( Wizards of the Coast), pp. 64–65. ISBN 978-0-7869-5868-9. Often hag's eyes were coated in varnish and set into pendants, rings, medallions, brooches and other accessories before being given to unsuspecting enemies and victims as gifts or mementos, allowing the hag to know their every move. They were also commonly given to the minions, familiars and animal companions of a hag and used to watch over their dealings, aid them in patrols and communicate by combining their effect with spells like clairvoyance, sending, or whispering wind. [1] [4] [5] [10] Reports varied on how many hag's eyes a single coven could possess, ranging from just one to an effectively unlimited amount (although this meant creating several weak points for themselves), allowing them to keep watch over their territories with a magical surveillance system. [1] [10] Magic items that a hag needed to keep a literal eye on had the hag's eye worked into it so that they could chase down and slaughter the unsuspecting thief. [10] Hag Brew [ ] Bheur : The unrivaled masters of winter witchcraft, bheur hags were blue-skinned beldames that made cold seasons even harsher than normal. They were cold-hearted crones who reveled in the greed that bad conditions brought out. [2] There are certainly large portions of this argument that I understand and fully endorse. It is undeniable that the hag/crone/witch/Karen concepts are often misappropriated in a lazy misogynistic attempt at silencing women and denying female experience. It is undeniable that older women are disproportionately cut out of large sections of the workplace, and society while also being disproportionately impacted by inequalities both financial and violent.

Hag-hate, Smith argues, is driven by the female fear of ageing, and young women’s consequent desire to disidentify with the generations that went before them. We want to reassure ourselves that, though we might age, we will never truly be like the older women we see around ourselves today. I am like this; she is like that. When she was young, she surely couldn’t have been as smart and enlightened, as vibrant and alive, as I am today. I will not allow the currency of youth to slip through my fingers, as she so foolishly has done.Green hag : The most duplicitous and hateful hags, green hags used illusions and temptation to lead others to destruction and tragedy. The forest femme fatales sought to poison that which was pure and drag down the civilized world into barbarism. [10] [1]