This is a rather late reaction to our discussion about
connotations but this has stuck with me since that class.
As a class we took a poll of what connotations we associated
with witch and wizard; resulting is the majority thinking of witch with a
negative connotation and wizard with a neutral if not positive connotation.
What I found really interesting is that as an explanation for the results for
wizard the Harry Potter series was provided.
I loved the Harry Potter series so I completely understand that jump to
the positive; however I’m still surprised that this series hasn't impacted our
views of witches (assuming of course we are restricting it to only female
magicians). We also seem to forget that
the vast majority of the “evil” characters in Harry Potter are in fact male.
There are a few females in Voldemort’s following, most notably Bellatrix and
Alecto Carrow; and then there is Umbridge. If you look at the “good” witches the list
goes on for ages, Hermione, Professor McGonagall, Professor Sprout, Luna, Cho,
Fleur, Molly, Ginny, Tonks, Madame Pomfrey, Lily, even Narcissa can arguably be considered
a “good” witch (these are just off the top of my head). Given that Harry Potter
has had such an enormous impact on this generation one would think that all the
“good” witches would have changed our view of witches as a whole. Even if we
came to a conclusion that both wizard and witch were neutral terms would be
better as there were both fighting on either side at the Battle of Hogwarts.
Especially in the case of Harry Potter the number of named male participants on
the "evil" side far exceeds the number of females; Voldemort, Fenrir Greyback, Amycus Carrow, Dolohov, the rest of the Lestranges. I know personally that I still think of
witches with a negative connotation but after thinking about this I think that
I seriously need to re-think it.
[edit] This is just a thought that came to me after reading Ariels post that mentioned Kiki's Delivery Service. Growing up I loved watching Kiki, I wanted to be her so badly (still might do). This movie doesn't have any bad witches and Kiki is a fantastic role model. For those of you who don't know Kiki is a young witch who must become independent so she leaves home on her broom with her adorable cat Jiji to find her way in the world. She hits a few bumps but eventually creates a life for herself. I think that movie like this could continue to change the view of witches. In the movie they are just incredibly independent, sufficient women who are witches. We even see them readily excepted by society in this film.
Completely oppositely there is magic in Once Upon a Time. This show often shows evil magic being significantly more powerful than that of good magic. These opposite views of witchcraft show the conflicting ideas of whether or not magic is positive or negative in the media.
[edit] This is just a thought that came to me after reading Ariels post that mentioned Kiki's Delivery Service. Growing up I loved watching Kiki, I wanted to be her so badly (still might do). This movie doesn't have any bad witches and Kiki is a fantastic role model. For those of you who don't know Kiki is a young witch who must become independent so she leaves home on her broom with her adorable cat Jiji to find her way in the world. She hits a few bumps but eventually creates a life for herself. I think that movie like this could continue to change the view of witches. In the movie they are just incredibly independent, sufficient women who are witches. We even see them readily excepted by society in this film.
Completely oppositely there is magic in Once Upon a Time. This show often shows evil magic being significantly more powerful than that of good magic. These opposite views of witchcraft show the conflicting ideas of whether or not magic is positive or negative in the media.
Good point! Do you think JKR might be purposefully trying to upend that gender stereotype?
ReplyDeleteI think in many ways she was. In her interviews she often talks about Hermione and Luna. How Hermione wasn't the typical female sidekick that shrieks and cowers behind her male friends. Both Luna and Hermione, not to mention Professor McGonagall, are all complex characters that wield magic incredibly well and for good. Even when looking at JKR's 'evil' females they are incredibly competent, and often very aware of their own competence which I feel is lacking in other texts. Another way I think that JKR made an attempt to change the stereotype is by making a variety of very differently complex women. I think that this helped solidify the notion that female witches aren't inherently evil because we could see people we know throughout the novel.
ReplyDeleteI am also surprised movies like Harry Potter have not impacted peoples perceptions of witches. I wonder if the new American Horror Story theme will have any effect on people's views of witches. The new theme is witches.
ReplyDeleteAlso to answer our teachers question, in my view JKR did want to change the stereotype of witches. Not only does she include more male bad witches than female bad witches, she also provides more male good witches than female good witches.
I think that another important part of JKRs thought process was not ignoring the the fact that there would be bad witches out there.
ReplyDelete