Flipboard Culture Desk<p>The back stories of the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good are the subject of "Wicked," now in movie theaters with a 90% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://flipboard.com/@Smithsonianmag" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>Smithsonianmag</span></a></span> tells the true story of Matilda Gage, L. Frank Baum's mother-in-law, who inspired the witch characters in "The Wizard of Oz." "After male critics branded Gage as satanic and a heretic, she became an expert on the subject of witch hunts," writes Evan I. Schwartz. "Her 1893 manifesto 'Woman, Church and State' chronicled the five centuries between 1300 and 1800 when tens of thousands of human beings, mostly women, were accused of witchcraft and put to death by fire, hanging, torture, drowning or stoning."</p><p>Link: <a href="https://flip.it/iL6akN" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">flip.it/iL6akN</span><span class="invisible"></span></a></p><p><a href="https://flipboard.social/tags/Wicked" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Wicked</span></a> <a href="https://flipboard.social/tags/WizardOfOz" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>WizardOfOz</span></a> <a href="https://flipboard.social/tags/Movies" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Movies</span></a> <a href="https://flipboard.social/tags/Books" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Books</span></a> <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://a.gup.pe/u/bookstodon" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>bookstodon</span></a></span> <a href="https://flipboard.social/tags/LFrankBaum" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LFrankBaum</span></a> <a href="https://flipboard.social/tags/Witchcraft" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Witchcraft</span></a> <a href="https://flipboard.social/tags/WomensRights" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>WomensRights</span></a> <a href="https://flipboard.social/tags/Suffragists" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Suffragists</span></a> <a href="https://flipboard.social/tags/MatildaGage" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>MatildaGage</span></a></p>