Of false hair, Spanish wool, and witchcraft: the Act of Parliament that never was

Daniell, Alison (2022) Of false hair, Spanish wool, and witchcraft: the Act of Parliament that never was. Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, 45 (4), 447-462. (doi:10.1111/1754-0208.12840).

Abstract

The wording of the so-called Hoops and Heels Act of 1770 ostensibly permitted the husbands of women who had used beauty aids to ‘betray [them] into matrimony’ to declare their marriages null and void, and for those wives to be punished as witches. A set form of words, this supposed Act of Parliament has been quoted and re-quoted across the globe since the late eighteenth century, even though its provisions never existed in law. This article analyses some of the Hoops and Heels text's possible cultural origins: namely eighteenth-century understandings of witchcraft, the moral panic surrounding divorce and adultery, satires surrounding cosmetic usage as well as long-standing discourses that – even today – associate women's sexual power over men with witchcraft and deception.

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