Listening to Margaret Atwood, i realised how easy it must have been to brand her a witch if she was born at a different time. After watching Wicked recently, I went into a little obsessive digging of what it meant to be a witch, especially in India (where I'm from): the term 'witch' really doesn't do justice to the legends and realities of Indian women but it's close enough. One interesting tidbit I found during the whole thing was how people who place a small, black mark with soot on children's faces to protect them against evil was essentially a protection against witches. This is a common practice even today in India. If you'd like to read more, here's something I've published recently: https://olakatu.substack.com/p/margaret-atwood-and-other-witches?r=5ax5zq