How did the stereo type for witches come about?

Question

I was wondering if the tradition that witches wear black, pointed hats and fly on brooms came from the book The Wizard of OZ.

Answer 1

no it doesn't come from the Wizard of Oz. The "traditional" witch look comes from Europe, particularly the British Isles.

The tall pointed hats were common enough in Medieval times. You can look at woodcuts or illustrations and see that men and women both wore them. It was a fashion then, and the hats were easy to make, particularly by country people. The black dresses and capes were actually bastardized costumes from nuns and priests; nuns still wear black habits in many cultures.

The broom riding is because witches in the middle ages were usually "discovered" to be women, and the broom is a symbol of womanhood, household things and female work. The broom was considered a magickal item because there was so much symbology attached to it; it was a natural leap of imagination to believe that witches rode them as transportation as well. There was supposed to be an ointment made from certain hallucinogenic plants that caused witches to believe they were actually flying; and as this information trickles down through the ages, it becomes distorted and unreliable so that by the early 19th century, we had witches actually riding their brooms and flying through the night. Nonetheless, a broom was an important part of any woman's household, and no less so if she was a witch.

Incidentally, the word "witch" has origin in Old Enlish as meaning "wise one" or "one who knows."

The Christian church is responsible for turning "witch" into the hag and evil being she is today. Prior to the church's Inquisition and witch-hunts/burnings/hangings that swept Europe in the Middle Ages, witches were not considered evil; they were the town herbalists, healers, psychologists, and doctors. They were not always women, either. Much of the symbology that is part of our modern idea of witches was attached in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and has no basis in reality or history. Like pictures of Santa Claus dressed in red, with a snowy white beard (which was a product of advertising,) the witch has become a figure of ugliness, devil worship, and misinformation because it suits the commercial aspect of witchcraft and boosts Hallowe'en merchandise sales; but the truth does not support this view of witches.

Witches were "created" to be like the one in the Wizard of Oz, which used the most popular form of witch at the time. The movie itself did not create the witch. Hollywood created her.

Answer 2

we've those stereo types cuz thats how we are taken care of via maximum human beings of fellows i tot it replaced into undesirable in severe college it gits worse in college cant say that for all men cuz have met some effective ones yet its gunna take so lots greater to out weigh the pigs lol keep tryin