How do you convince someone who is so sure you’re guilty that you’re innocent? Caught up in passion, wrath, conviction– do you desperately try to explain yourself? Maybe you should buy some time? Or do you confess to a crime you haven’t even committed?

These were your options– life or death, basically– for women residing in Salem, Massachusetts during the early years of America. 

This was also the case for Desdemona in Act V of Othello, her spiteful, bloodthirsty husband looming over her in a jealous rage. Desdemona begged, “Kill me tomorrow, let me live tonight.” But her last pleas had no effect on Othello; he had made up his mind.

The Death of Desdemona by Eugene Delacroix

Unrighteous executions– especially those of women– were not uncommon throughout Europe. Tens of thousands of “witches” were persecuted from the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries, Blumberg states. It’s ironic, the way the first Americans first settled in the New World for religious liberty. Soon enough, however, religious extremists accused over two-hundred women in Salem of witchcraft, and killed twenty for the crime. One victim, Dorothy Good, was four-years-old when she was questioned and imprisoned for eight months.

A highlighting feature of these unjust punishments is gender. As Snider explains, the worth of a woman during that time period typically depended on her ability to bear a child. After all, hundreds of years of myths and folklore linked women to immoral, devilish witches.

Iago, ever the cunning mastermind, used this to his advantage. He promoted Desdemona as a vile, cheating woman to Othello. Despite Desdemona being the best, sweetest wife one could ask for, Othello let these sick ideas wrap around his brain, fogging his judgment and ultimate verdict: Desdemona must die by his hand.

Luckily, today we won’t see such cruel, unusual trials and punishments— we have a whole amendment preventing it. However, the passing of time or movement of society is not enough to expel misogynistic views of women completely. I’d even argue that the coming of the internet has only bolstered the spread of such thoughts. It takes one influential, misogynist youtuber, or an “alpha” podcaster, or even a hateful comment section of boys on TikTok wanting to be funny, and it seems like all progress has been flushed down the drain. 

But one thing we can do is learn. Spread positivity, truly educate and wash away that ignorance. It’s not easy– it never has been– but we’ve gotten this far. To have a better future, we must know what mistakes we’ve made, what our wrong and unfair rules have done to affect each other. 

There will always be people who won’t understand– who don’t want to.

Don’t let it be you.