What are the main themes in *The Witches Are Coming*?

- **Accountability**: Examines systemic complicity in oppression, from #MeToo to racist media narratives. - **Pop culture critique**: Analyzes films, TV, and public figures (e.g., Adam Sandler, *Forrest Gump*) as vectors for harmful ideologies. - **Witch symbolism**: Reclaims “witch” as a label for women resisting patriarchal control.

What iconic quotes are in *The Witches Are Coming*?

While direct quotes are restricted in reviews, readers highlight lines like: - “We’re not melting—we’re burning shit down.” - “The truth is not an algorithm; the truth is a searchlight”. These encapsulate West’s blend of defiance and clarity, often cited for social media shares.

The Witches Are Coming

Q: What is *The Witches Are Coming* by Lindy West about?

*The Witches Are Coming* is a sharp, humorous essay collection critiquing modern societal norms through a feminist lens. West tackles post-2016 political backlash, misogyny, toxic masculinity, and pop culture’s role in normalizing oppression, using references from *Ghostbusters* to Donald Trump. The title metaphor challenges patriarchal fearmongering, declaring, “Yes, we are witches—and we’re hunting you.”

Q: How does this book compare to Lindy West’s *Shrill*?

While *Shrill* focuses on personal essays about body positivity and identity, *The Witches Are Coming* adopts a broader sociopolitical scope. Both use humor, but the latter emphasizes systemic critique over memoir, reflecting West’s evolution from individual to collective advocacy.

Lindy West

4.1 (26125 Reviews)

Overview of The Witches Are Coming

In "The Witches Are Coming," NYT writer Lindy West brilliantly dismantles misogyny in American culture with razor-sharp essays that redefined post-#MeToo feminist discourse. Nominated for Goodreads Choice Award, this collection turns "witch hunt" accusations into a battle cry for truth-tellers everywhere.

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Intro

Summary of The Witches Are Coming

1
When the Witches Finally Talk Back
00:00
00:00
Picture a man in his forties standing in a Chicago queer bar, indignant because a woman declined his invitation to dance. His complaint? He's "NOT ALLOWED TO DANCE." When someone suggests he could, you know, just dance without grabbing strangers, he asks for backup "if something goes wrong." This absurd scene perfectly captures our current moment-where men mistake being asked to respect boundaries for being stripped of basic freedoms. They cry "witch hunt" whenever held accountable, co-opting language from an era when tens of thousands were tortured and burned alive. But here's the twist: what if the witches really are coming? Not with pitchforks and flames, but armed with something far more dangerous-truth. This cultural reckoning isn't about revenge; it's about finally naming what's been hidden in plain sight for generations.
2
The Golden Age of Mediocre Men
Why has there never been an Adam Sandler for girls? After watching eight Sandler films, the formula became clear: he plays a loser who's secretly THE BEST, talks in funny voices, has anger issues that somehow benefit him, and despite being deeply unappealing, always gets the beautiful woman. In "Big Daddy," he kidnaps a child and teaches him to urinate on buildings. In "That's My Boy," statutory rape becomes comedy. These aren't just bad movies-they're cultural blueprints teaching us that women exist as prizes for male growth, that female sexuality deserves shame while male dysfunction earns applause. White men failing upward has become so normalized it warps our sense of quality itself. If Ellen Cleghorne had made something as terrible as "Little Nicky," would she have gotten seventy-seven more chances? The real tragedy isn't these films existing-it's the emptiness around them. Straight white boys got their abundance. The rest of us got reflected glow.
3
The Myth of Charisma and Who Gets Believed
Ted Bundy wasn't particularly charismatic. Billy McFarland, the Fyre Festival con artist, is an obvious fool who still conned good people. Both are more charming than Donald Trump, yet he became the most powerful man on earth. America's bootstrap mythology conditions us to cheer deregulation and beg for the removal of consumer protections-we're literally asking to be conned. Institutional benefit of the doubt is monstrously powerful, turning lies into truth through repetition. When Judge Edward Cowart sentenced Bundy to death, he praised him: "You'd have made a good lawyer." I wonder how many of Bundy's victims would have made good lawyers. "Witch" is what we call a woman who demands that same benefit of the doubt, who punctures the con, who refuses to play likable. Because likability in a sexist culture isn't objective-it's compulsory femininity, invisible labor, smallness, sweetness. Power in women will never be likable.
Chapter 4
The Stories That Raised Us
Growing up, I didn't resist shallow representations of women on screen-I took notes. Makeover shows taught me I was ugly. Romantic comedies taught me stalking means love. Disney movies taught me if I made my waist small enough, a man might marry me. "The Smurfs" taught me boys can have seventy-eight possible personalities while girls get one: high heels. "The Breakfast Club" taught me male rage signals allure, not abuse. In "Revenge of the Nerds," the heroes install hidden cameras in women's bathrooms and commit sexual assault by deception-and we're supposed to root for them. Remember Fat Monica? I need a separate therapist just for Fat Monica. Two years after Weinstein's fall, Hollywood still dictates how people should look, talk, and exist. Victoria's Secret won't feature trans or fat models because it's selling "a fantasy"-as if thin people are the only aspiration. What we need is about a hundred years of phase cancellation-not neutrality, but new work that actively challenges old assumptions. Unseating powerful abusers is a start, but not an end unless we radically change the power structure itself. The solution? You do it. Whatever your sphere, make choices within it. Be a demon about diversity and never let anyone sleep.
Chapter 5
When Wellness Becomes a Class Marker
At Gwyneth Paltrow's In Goop Health expo in Culver City, tickets cost $500 to $1,500, with color-coded bracelets marking your tier. Higher prices bought access to "sound baths" or lunch with "GP" herself. The venue featured a resident shaman, aura photography, oxygen bars, and IV drips. The marketplace sold the infamous $55 jade eggs Goop suggested women insert vaginally. Years earlier, I'd tested Paltrow's diet book, spending $300 on three days' groceries-a disaster involving wet almonds, exploded soup, and an avocado smoothie that could give diarrhea an existential crisis. Most recipes were delicious but required hours of daily chopping and cleaning, practical only for people with flexible schedules, disposable income, and household help. The expo was shockingly white-maybe ten people of color among hundreds-and panels avoided politics entirely. You can't honestly address wellness without addressing poverty, racism, healthcare access, and reproductive rights. Unless you're only talking about people who are already disproportionately well.
Chapter 6
The Danger of Smirking Through the Apocalypse
South Park premiered when I was a freshman in high school, so outrageous my husband wasn't allowed to watch it. Now creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are middle-aged millionaire dads, yet we still treat them as counterculture vanguard. For decades, they've positioned themselves as the only "Reasonable Men" standing against both Right and Left, insisting both sides are equally stupid. They've created a neat trap: criticize the show and you're just a moral scold. The only acceptable position is nihilistic detachment. But both sides are not equally bad. This false equivalence has become extinction-level dangerous, especially regarding climate change. When Republicans separate children from parents at the border and call for a return to coal while we have perhaps thirty years before there's no more ice, smirking at liberals for being "social justice warriors" crosses from contrarianism into psychopathy. Their "South Park Republicanism" spawned a proto-alt-right movement of young white men who felt "bullied" by liberals and fought back with irreverence and vicious stereotyping. While liberals are imperfect, Republicans literally want to strip healthcare, suppress wages, expand gun access, cage refugees, force unwanted births, roll back LGBTQ rights, and extract every last resource until everything burns. There is no cool version of conservatism - to conserve inherently means embracing stasis because the current system benefits certain people very well.
Chapter 7
Fighting Forever and Finding Hope
When adapting my memoir for Hulu, I insisted the pilot show Annie getting an abortion from casual sex simply because she doesn't want to be pregnant. Wanting an abortion is the same as needing one. My real abortion was similar, except I went alone-something I might have done differently with better representation. In 2015, when my friend Amelia posted about her abortion on Facebook, writing "having an abortion made me happy in a totally unqualified way," I shared it with #ShoutYourAbortion. The hashtag exploded globally with stories of freedom from shame, illegal procedures, late-term abortions for nonviable pregnancies, and transgender experiences. We must stop arguing about extreme cases when abortion restrictions of any kind represent total disenfranchisement. Climate change has transformed my beloved Pacific Northwest-summers now bring choking smoke. I've sobbed reading we've missed the window to prevent climate collapse. But despair is the death of action. The world is beautiful and worth saving through daily civic engagement. The hardest truth isn't that this cultural moment is a finish line-it's that there may be no finish line at all. Maybe we will fight forever. But I live in the America that won-with art, empathy, free press, and fierce protest. The witches are coming, not for your life but for your lies, your legacy, and our future. This time, we're not backing down.

Key Themes in The Witches Are Coming

male mediocrity
cultural gaslighting
accountability culture
gendered media tropes
institutional benefit of doubt

Quotes from The Witches Are Coming

White men failing upward has become so normal it distorts our perception of quality.
Institutional benefit of the doubt is monstrously powerful, turning lies into truth through incantation.
If someone is universally likable, I don't trust them.
A witch has power, and power in women isn't likable.
From romantic comedies I learned stalking means he loves you.

Characters in The Witches Are Coming

Lindy WestThe author and narrator of the essays
Adam SandlerComedian used as a case study for male mediocrity
Ted BundySerial killer discussed regarding male charisma
Billy McFarlandFyre Festival con artist discussed as a case study

About the Author

Lindy West, New York Times bestselling author and feminist cultural critic, explores systemic injustice, pop culture, and gender politics in her incendiary essay collection The Witches Are Coming. A defining voice in modern feminism, West merges sharp wit with unflinching social critique, drawing from her experience as a Guardian columnist, This American Life contributor, and co-founder of the reproductive rights movement #ShoutYourAbortion.

Her debut memoir, Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman, a New York Times bestseller adapted into a Hulu series, cemented her reputation for dismantling fatphobia and misogyny in media. West’s work has been featured in Jezebel, GQ, and her Butt News newsletter, where she critiques film and culture.

A Stranger Genius Award winner and Esquire Best Book honoree, she co-hosts the comedy podcast Text Me Back and lives on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. Shrill has been translated into 12 languages and streamed globally via Hulu’s acclaimed adaptation.

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FAQs About This Book

The Witches Are Coming is a sharp, humorous essay collection critiquing modern societal norms through a feminist lens. West tackles post-2016 political backlash, misogyny, toxic masculinity, and pop culture’s role in normalizing oppression, using references from Ghostbusters to Donald Trump. The title metaphor challenges patriarchal fearmongering, declaring, “Yes, we are witches—and we’re hunting you.”

This book appeals to feminists, social justice advocates, and readers seeking incisive cultural criticism blended with humor. Fans of West’s prior work (Shrill) or writers like Rebecca Solnit will appreciate her unapologetic analysis of gender, power dynamics, and media. It’s ideal for those exploring intersectional feminism or disillusioned by post-Trump political rhetoric.

Yes—readers praise its quotable prose, laugh-out-loud snark, and timely insights. Goodreads reviewers highlight its “biting wit” and “scholarly rhetoric,” calling it a standout in feminist literature. West balances levity with urgent critiques, making complex topics accessible while offering actionable optimism.

Accountability: Examines systemic complicity in oppression, from #MeToo to racist media narratives.
Pop culture critique: Analyzes films, TV, and public figures (e.g., Adam Sandler, Forrest Gump) as vectors for harmful ideologies.
Witch symbolism: Reclaims “witch” as a label for women resisting patriarchal control.

West argues that 2016’s political shifts exposed existing societal fractures, particularly misogyny and white supremacy. She critiques both conservative policies and liberal complacency, urging collective action over “individual fixes” to systemic issues. Essays dissect abortion rights, rape culture, and media’s role in shaping public perception.

While direct quotes are restricted in reviews, readers highlight lines like:

“We’re not melting—we’re burning shit down.”
“The truth is not an algorithm; the truth is a searchlight”.

These encapsulate West’s blend of defiance and clarity, often cited for social media shares.

While Shrill focuses on personal essays about body positivity and identity, The Witches Are Coming adopts a broader sociopolitical scope. Both use humor, but the latter emphasizes systemic critique over memoir, reflecting West’s evolution from individual to collective advocacy.

Some readers note West’s sarcastic tone may alienate those unfamiliar with her style, and her focus on U.S.-centric issues limits global applicability. However, most praise her ability to 平衡 wit with substantive analysis.

West dissects films like The Lion King and public figures (e.g., Bill Cosby) to reveal embedded sexism and racism. For example, she critiques Forrest Gump as a vehicle for romanticizing ignorance, linking it to anti-intellectual political trends.

Yes—West advocates for collective activism, urging readers to reject apathy and confront systemic inequities. She emphasizes storytelling as a tool for change, exemplified by her #ShoutYourAbortion campaign co-founded in 2015.

The witch symbolizes marginalized people (especially women) persecuted for challenging power structures. West subverts the trope, framing witches not as villains but as truth-tellers dismantling oppressive systems.

Though published in 2019, its themes resonate with 2025 debates about reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ discrimination, and media disinformation. West’s critique of “both-sides-ism” remains relevant amid polarized political discourse.

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LEARNING PLAN

The Female Eunuch: Reclaiming Vitality

This plan is essential for anyone seeking to understand the radical roots of modern feminism and the social construction of gender. It is ideal for students of sociology, gender studies, or readers looking to reclaim their personal autonomy from societal expectations.

1 h 12 m•3 Sections

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Wiccan magic

This learning plan provides a comprehensive path from foundational ethics to advanced spiritual mastery. It is ideal for seekers looking to integrate earth-based spirituality and feminine divinity into their personal growth and magical practice.

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The Edited Woman: Sovereignty & Artistry

This program is essential for women who feel their creative potential is limited by external expectations or internal blocks. It is designed for aspiring and established artists who want to align their personal autonomy with their professional craft.

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Female authors

This learning plan provides essential knowledge for anyone seeking to understand the vital contributions of women to world literature and feminist thought. It's particularly valuable for students of literature, gender studies, and cultural history, as well as readers who want to broaden their literary perspectives beyond traditionally male-dominated canons. By exploring both historical pioneers and contemporary voices, learners gain insight into how women writers have shaped—and continue to shape—our cultural conversations about identity, equality, and human experience.

4 h 37 m•4 Sections

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The Transgender Media Landscape

This plan provides a critical look at the economic and social forces shaping transgender adult media. It is essential for researchers, creators, and advocates looking to understand the labor rights and technological shifts within this niche industry.

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Feminism

This learning plan provides essential frameworks for understanding gender inequality and social justice in our world today. It's valuable for anyone seeking to critically analyze power structures, engage in advocacy work, or simply understand how gender shapes experiences across different communities and contexts.

4 h 51 m•5 Sections

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Women's wellness channel

This learning plan is designed for women who want to take control of their health and wellbeing through evidence-based knowledge rather than conflicting advice. Whether you're struggling with hormonal imbalances, feeling disconnected from your body, or ready to step into a more confident version of yourself, this comprehensive approach addresses the interconnected aspects of women's wellness that are often overlooked in traditional health education.

5 h 10 m•4 Sections

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Modern Work Politics: Machiavelli & 48 Laws

In high-stakes corporate environments, technical skill alone rarely guarantees advancement. This plan is designed for ambitious professionals who need to master the unspoken rules of influence and power dynamics to secure their seat at the table.

5 h•4 Sections

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The Witches Are Coming

Overview of The Witches Are Coming

Summary of The Witches Are Coming

When the Witches Finally Talk Back

The Golden Age of Mediocre Men

The Myth of Charisma and Who Gets Believed

The Stories That Raised Us

When Wellness Becomes a Class Marker

The Danger of Smirking Through the Apocalypse

Fighting Forever and Finding Hope

Key Themes in The Witches Are Coming

Quotes from The Witches Are Coming

Characters in The Witches Are Coming

About the Author

Download Summary of The Witches Are Coming

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FAQs About This Book

What is The Witches Are Coming by Lindy West about?

Who should read The Witches Are Coming?

Is The Witches Are Coming worth reading?

What are the main themes in The Witches Are Coming?

How does The Witches Are Coming address feminism and politics?

What iconic quotes are in The Witches Are Coming?

How does this book compare to Lindy West’s Shrill?

What criticisms exist about The Witches Are Coming?

How does Lindy West use pop culture references in the book?

Does The Witches Are Coming offer solutions to its critiques?

Why is the “witch” metaphor central to the book?

How does The Witches Are Coming relate to current events?

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Explore Your Way of Learning

Quick Summary Mode

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The Witches Are Coming Lessons Told Through 20-Min Stories

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Experience The Witches Are Coming in your own learning style

See More Stories?

Summary of The Witches Are Coming

When the Witches Finally Talk Back

The Golden Age of Mediocre Men

The Myth of Charisma and Who Gets Believed

The Stories That Raised Us

When Wellness Becomes a Class Marker

The Danger of Smirking Through the Apocalypse

Fighting Forever and Finding Hope

Users also liked

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