Glinda Vs. Wicked Witch of the West
Essentially every participant in my study had seen The Wizard of Oz and knew its storyline very well. While none of my participants initially said that the Wizard of Oz had an impact on their decision to identify as a witch, most of them reported having
thoughts and opinions on the film and the characters in the film. There was an
interesting difference on opinions when it came to Glinda and the Wicked Witch of the West. Almost all participants sided with one witch over the other, and the majority sided with the Wicked Witch of the West. I think this finding would be flipped for non- self-identified witches, which is not surprising.
Participants who sided with the Wicked Witch of the West were quick to point out her strength. Michelle said, “Um, I hated that movie (The Wizard of Oz) growing up (laughs)…it had nothing to do with the witches in it. It was just not my cup of tea….well, at least in my vision, probably started as the Wicked Witch of the West probably was like willing to actually go out and fight for things, whereas Glinda wanted to be good and wanted to be the one that everyone liked.” Michelle was quick to draw attention to Glinda’s conformity, which as noted in both this chapter and the previous chapters, is something most participants do not like and something they try to avoid in their lives.
As mentioned earlier in this chapter, The Wizard of Oz includes two witches – the princess-esque Glinda and the evil Wicked Witch of the West. The morality of these two characters is connected directly with their physical appearance – the ugly, evil Wicked Witch of the West and the beautiful, good Glinda. Participants in this study were also very aware of this connection, such as Angela who said, “I thought that the Wicked Witch of the West was perfectly justified in wanting her sister’s shoes. They weren’t Glinda’s to give away, and I thought that was really unfair. Nobody cared about the witches, the Wicked Witch of the West’s journey because she was green, and had an ugly nose, and an annoying voice. Nobody cared what she felt, or was going through, or
how she was fundamentally human, and another living soul that needed to be listened to and understood…because she was ugly, she was automatically evil, and Glinda was pretty, she’s automatically good. That’s bothered me all through all the Disney movies forever, and ever.”
Similarly, Samantha said, “I think it’s kind of funny (laughs) The Wizard of Oz is kind of funny. I wouldn’t say I thought anything of it as a kid…but now that you bring it up, it’s kind of interesting that, you know, you have the Wicked Witch of the West, and even though Glinda’s the good witch, they don’t really, I don’t think people really think of her as a witch. I think people think of her as more of a fairy, you know, or the fairy
godmother, which (laughs) you know is interesting, it kind of again keeps with the evil witch, Satan kind of thing (laughs).”
There was a small number of participants who did connect more with Glinda the Good witch, precisely because she was a witch that did good things to help people. Courtney describes the same juxtaposition between good and evil but thinks that is fitting of how the real world actually is by saying, “I like the fact that they (The Wizard of Oz) show the differences between the good witch and bad witch. Which is kind of true, because there are people that might be portrayed as witches or say that they’re witches that do have the negative stuff. But then it also shows the light and good and they only want to help and they’re just trying to be there…so I’m on the fence about it. I think it’s a little bit better than most things I’ve seen.”
Sarah reiterated Courtney’s thoughts when she said, “I liked that, because it just showed that it’s not, you know, not the only like, not only the dark side. Just darkness is
not like, you know, evil. It’s good too. We can be good people to help people out and do good spells and stuff…(Glinda) she’s a witch too! And she’s good!...It made me happy.” Sarah’s discussion on popular culture was an interesting paradox, because she tended to focus on the light, happy aspects of witches in popular culture over the darker ones, but she was a fan the new Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, even though that show very strongly connects witchcraft with Satan, who most would argue is very dark, scary, and even violent. (Sarah’s paradoxical view of Sabrina is discussed more in depth below in the section on the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.)
90s Cliché but So Powerful: The Craft
The Craft was the least watched film/show out of the four heavily discussed in this study. Almost every participant had heard of it and possibly seen it once, but it appeared to not have a profound effect on the participants, and if it had an impact many of them did not remember it well enough to make solid comments on it. For participants who were teens during the premiere of The Craft, they looked back on it fondly, while the youngest participants in the study commented on how a lot it seemed dated. This finding is not surprising because The Craft was considered groundbreaking for self-identified teen witches of the 90s (Berger and Ezzy 2009).
Those who have seen and remember it, tended to enjoy it and feel like it is a good example of how witches in popular culture are slowly starting to become more normalized and include more accurate depictions of self-identified witches.
Michelle did an excellent job of summarizing this sentiment by saying, “I love The Craft. I love it. Um, it’s not so much practical. They do a lot of the stuff that I’m
interested in, but like they did make it very 90s cliché, and I think that like some of the spells that they do aren’t practical in just like actuality. Like, I don’t know of many people who could do a spell that was going to make all the scars go away like the girl in the film…but…it portrays what most people think witches are, but it also shows what they did and how like for the most part, yes, they did things for evil reasons, but they also, I guess they were super proud to be witches and didn’t care what people thought, but also they’re portrayed as like the bad asses and the punk girls or the girls with deformities and stuff like that…but I love it…I love The Craft (laughs).” Similarly, Samantha said, “The Craft…Yes I actually love that movie (laughs) I just think it’s super entertaining. It’s so good. I do actually like the Pagan and witchcraft elements they have in The Craft are surprisingly like pretty close…like I appreciate they have the athame and they like, when they, they set up their little altar in the woods, it like has everything an altar should have on it. And, it’s I don’t know, it’s interesting in that sense, but, then, it kind of goes off the rails (laughs).” It was interesting that the participants who said they enjoyed The Craft
seemed to be embarrassed about it, almost like it was a guilty pleasure film for them. The other three films and television shows explored in this chapter did not illicit that type of embarrassed response.