When you think of witches in today's media there are two strong views that the industry has seemed to take- either that of the Evil Witch - dark, ugly,and misshapen or that of the Good Witch- always beautiful, or sexy, strong, and powerful. They are either black or white- with little or no room for wiggling. This represents the idea of females in my opinion- the idea that a woman who goes against societies norms are still seen as "bad" and that those who are sweet and play by the rules are "good".
For most of post-Christian history the witch was seen as an evil creature- the consort of the devil, one who poisoned, hexed, and degraded themselves and others for the sheer enjoyment of their "Master".
Today media is using the old fairy tales as new material and not always in the same old ways. The fear of the scary evil witch is still highly prominent in both society and in the media's portrayals. The most notable of would probably be the Wicked Witch- A woman who stands up to the stereotypes.
In this the media has canonized the idea of the wicked witch- evil, ugly, and full of hate- as seen in movies like The Wizard of Oz. The Wicked Witch is the villain but it is her sister who has been killed and her shoes that are stolen. The underlying idea that her evilness makes her ugly and hateful is underlined by her opposite - Glinda the Good Witch. In the movie, Wicked is seen as horrid and Glinda- all sunshine and rainbows is seen as perfect.
WICKED WITCH: Looses Sister, shoes, and is set up by her country's government, and set up for assassination by the so called good guys.
GOOD WITCH: Knows how to get
Dorthy home the entire time but
uses her to rid herself of a political
enemy while staying the sweet
good beautiful character.
In many movies it is this case. Another example can be seen in the new movie, The Great and Powerful Oz. When the witch goes from meek to really inhabiting her own emotions and anger she goes from a sweet innocent kitten-like woman to an ugly evil looking character.
In television, we see the "Good Witch" seen in shows such as the comedy, Bewitched- where a mortal man falls for a witch and marries her then finds out. The humor comes from wacky characters from her family and she is seen as sweet, innocent and her spells and witchcraft wasn't ever anything that could be considered bad or evil. Samantha was portrayed as loving, ever patient, wise beyond her years and perfect in pretty much every other way. This show lasted eight seasons.
Another television show where the "good witches" seen as beautiful, wonderful, sweet and sexy is Charmed. A show that ran for eight seasons as well and followed the tale of four sisters who are hereditary witches and fight all manor of demons and other trouble. These four women were usually in sexy clothes, though later one became a mother and her wardrobe calmed a bit, but the sexy factor was definitely played up as well as the power factor.
Often their opponents were demons or other evils and were ugly- again plying the underlying idea that beautiful is inherently good and bad is ugly. The media is using the idea of witches as a representation of woman in general and the good ones are beautiful powerful, sexy and what you want to be- the ones who run against the grain are old, ugly, and gnarled.
There is a backlash in media now really taking the idea of the wicked as desirable.
The "Sin is Sexy" ideal is showing up more and more in images on places like Facebook and looking on Google you can see many ideas of "Sexy Witch" costumes and ideas.
So once again the media has taken an idea- that of the witch- an evil old ugly hag casting spells and debauchery doing and turned it on its head in the hearts and minds of people with subtle influences.
Many women see this as a great thing- the idea of a wise woman, a pagan or real witch being seen as old, ugly and evil or praying to Satan is idiotic at best since they don't believe in a Christian Satan, to a powerful woman is beneficial. Media's ideals on witches are changing the way that women are seen in an underlying way.
Beautiful women are the good ones in media hype- the kind that you want to be and want to be around, so sayth the media.
What do you think? Which witch was the evil one?
It's so funny that you wrote this because I almost wrote something very similar. I am OBSESSED with witches. I love the myths, the connotations, the whole idealism of women with power. After being oppressed for so long, I feel like the witch was a way to demonize a woman and also give her a sense of power that a lot of women never felt.
ReplyDeleteSince the introduction of christianity, witches have always been seen as evil because they posses the power to transcend the patriarchal structure that the church is built on. I think this idealism has been perpetuated because of the long-standing values that a lot of people believe the country was built on.
I absolutely adore the term witch. I actually use the word "feiticeira", which means "the witch" in Portuguese. I use it as an empowering term instead of an oppressive one.