We’re Witches and We’re Hunting You: Matriarchy and Misogyny in Conjure Wife

Abstract

In recent years, America has adopted a particularly combative approach to gender relations. Stories of sexual assault elicit jokes about flirting being illegal, investigations are described as “witch hunts,” and chants of “lock her up!” seem less about opponents and more about generalized hostility toward women. This chapter examines recent misogyny through a midcentury novel and its cinematic adaptations. Fritz Leiber’s 1943 novel, Conjure Wife, posits that all women are witches. A professor who discovers and protests this must then protect his family while coming to terms with his new understanding of women. Two filmed renditions—1944’s Weird Woman and 1962’s Night of the Eagle—place competing emphases on exoticizing the wife or on a showdown that moves the emphasis toward a more literal battle of the sexes. Leiber’s vision of witchcraft, as well as its diverging adaptations, offers a framework for evaluating gender politics in our own world.