The Wizard of Oz

My last memory of the Wizard of Oz is going to see it when I was to young, in theaters with my father during a Christmas break and running out crying when the Wicked Witch of the West attacked Dorothy with her army. Over the years I have seen snip bits as well as talked about the film often. Re-seeing it while watching more attentively allowed me to pick out the little details that I hadn’t seen before.

A phrase that stuck out to me, as well as the whole class because there was some chuckling during the movie was the line “only bad witches are ugly.” In todays society, that would be politically incorrect. Are society is taught that interior and personality is what defines someone, not his or her looks. It miss-represents women and is advocating that women look at physic in order to determine authority.

On the other hand, even though that comes off as a petty reason for being bad or good women in the Wizard of Oz, as Rushdie points out, women are seen as the real source of power.  I agreed with him when looking at the fact that all the lead characters, Glen, The Wicked Witch and Dorothy, are females. But I hadn’t thought of the reverse where, Oz, who is thought of as big and powerful, is actually just a small man who is intimidating his people in order to fake his power. The community has this idea of his great power, but later we find out that that was just an illusion.

This shows, as well as knowing that the Tin man, Scarecrow and Lion are now leaders but followers of Dorothy, that there is no man-oriented power in the movie. Rushdie states, and I agree with, that the women are represented through out the movie as the stronger, real force of power.