Wicked Witch of the West: The Enduring Legacy of the Feminist Icon

Historian Bailey (Uncredited) uses a feminist lens to explore the cultural evolution of the Wizard of Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West in this uneven critical analysis. In L. Frank Baum’s original story, the witch was a one-eyed, nameless old woman who sought “power and control” (and was possibly inspired by his mother-in-law, suffragist Matilda Joslyn Gage). The 1939 film adaptation gave the character, played by Margaret Hamilton, green skin and a mix of “femininity [and] villainy,” pushing back, Bailey suggests, on a false dichotomy between power and womanhood. The Wiz, a 1978 remake starring Diana Ross, renamed the witch Evillene, and the character’s “bold” portrayal by Mabel King was informed by rising tides of 1970s feminism. More recently, Wicked—both the novel and musical—transformed the character into Elphaba, a complex figure more overtly positioned as a rebel. Bailey is mostly successful in tracing the character’s evolution, but she sometimes stretches her thesis too far, as when she links Elphaba’s search “for justice in a world that sought to silence and marginalize her” to the #MeToo movement and the fight for reproductive rights. Readers will find this an intriguing if scattershot deep dive into the legendary character. (Oct.)