The situation goes on even after marriage and well into old age. You’ve got to be nice to your husband; you’ve got to be nice with the kids and their teachers and their friends and their friends’ parents. You’ve got to be nice to your husband’s colleagues. You’ve got to be nice to your colleagues and your boss (In this sentence I actually typed “mice” and then realized my mistake was not a typo but a Freudian slip). You’ve got to be nice to your friends and your parents’ friends. On your wedding day you’ve got to practically promise to immolate yourself on behalf of your in-laws, should they ever require it. God forbid you should say a word behind anyone’s back because that would mean you weren’t a nice person. And there is no sin for a woman greater than not being thought of as “nice”. Women, it’s well known, are people pleasers, have a large need for acceptance and approval, and as a result, tend to have low self esteem because they think of others (and of what others will think of them) more than they think of themselves (and what they think of how others treat them).

So “National Witch Day” could actually be seen as something very beneficial to women’s collective mental health. This would be the one day where you, as a woman, are not allowed to be “nice”. In fact, you have to be nasty from the moment you wake up to the minute you fall asleep. Imagine that: roughly sixteen hours where you don’t have to pretend to like the fact that your husband thinks your making his breakfast is the high point of your day.      <Previous     Next>