Throughout history, men have depended on women to tell on each other and keep each other in line.
I think often of the young women who set off and kept the Salem witch trials going, probably knowing that their claims were entirely fictitious yet holding to them anyway. By the end of the trials, fourteen women and five men were executed, their accusations primarily coming from young women and girls. As noted by Megan Abbott, there is something dangerous about the boredom of teenage girls, but only so often does the boredom of teenage girls turn an entire…
