As I was watching the movie Spell (2020), which feels like a crossover between Misery and The skeleton key, I thought we could discuss something interesting.
Hollywood‘s mystification of Hoodoo and Voodoo magic. Especially the dolls.
While I don’t like explaining things as a little white lady when it doesn’t deal with my own culture, I do tend to cringe a little whenever white executives use another one for jumpscares…
Not knowing it has nothing to do with that to begin with.
It first started with european healers, as « poppets » were being used to treat patients.
Who then were turned into the infamous witches.
Back in the day, it was illegal for black people to read or write… Including healers.
Having many people to visit, it is widely understood in folk medicine history that the dolls served as medical charts. Putting needles where the patient hurt, so that when they would visit again, if he or she felt better, they would remove it and that was it.
Then Americans decided to propagate the myth to the general public that the dolls were used to cause harm.
To demonize an entire population, of course, against their « civilized » self.
Imagine people not being Christians back then. They were working for the devil in the minds of many.
Sadly but surely, that stuck. History is written by the oppressors, not the oppressed after all.
And now we have to go through sooooo many movies relying on this that it hurts.
So next time you see a pin in a doll on screen, remember : it was probably just a headache, not a curse.