Moral panics and mass hysteria

Updated Sep 26 2024

• historical-precedents
• lexicon

Imma start collecting moral panics from the past so our current ones sound less wild. Moral of the story: humans will moral panic over just about anything 💀

Courtesy of Jesse Bering in his book Perv:

You’ve heard of the witch hunts in Salem, but I’m guessing you’re not as familiar with the pig-man hunts of New Haven.¹ The most troubling sex fiends of those days weren’t pedophiles (the age of consent in the colonies was ten, if that tells you anything) but men secretly in league with the Devil to impregnate barnyard animals.

The settlers had gotten this strange idea from the teachings of the violently prudish medieval scholar Thomas Aquinas, who coined the term “prodigy” to refer to any hybrid creature sprung from the loins of another species but borne of human seed. According to him, prodigies could also be conceived through sex with atheists (a.k.a. perverts), but it seems there were far fewer of those milling about the colonies than solicitous swine.

I really need the standard introduction for Aquinas to be “violently prudish medieval scholar,” it would do my heart so much good. Also, I wish that the origin of “prodigy” was common knowledge, just so it could be endlessly mocked as it deserves. #themoreyouknow