The myth of the empowered girl duo in Wicked

My untimely review of Wicked.

Better late than never, I recently had the pleasure of being able to watch Wicked. Unfortunately, I did not have the luxury of seeing the movie in theaters like everyone else, so I had to wait out the three months until it was available on streaming. Shoutout to Peacock.

I want to start off by saying I was extremely excited to watch this movie after hearing so many positive reviews about the film online. Everyone seemed to be describing it as a beautiful film about female allyship. Two women that come from completely different backgrounds that set aside their differences and face the challenges of the world together, forming a genuine friendship in the process. Based on the trailer that I watched numerous times, this is also how the directors seemed to be marketing the movie.

I also want to make it known that I was not familiar with the story of Wicked prior to watching this film. I have heard of the original play and film but never engaged with it for myself. After watching all 2 hours and 40 minutes of the film, I can say that the marketing of this film was somewhat misleading.

As we know, Wicked acts as a prequel to the Wizard of Oz. It explores the character development of Glinda, the good witch played by Ariana Grande and Elphaba, the Wicked Witch played by Cynthia Erivo. Elphaba is born with a genetic mutation where the color of her skin is green. So, she spends the duration of her childhood being bullied and isolated by her peers because of this. Glinda acts as Elphaba’s foil in the film. Glinda is the stereotypical golden girl, the beautiful blonde that wears pink and is adored by her peers.

The story of Elphaba being isolated and othered sounds all too familiar don’t you think? It can very easily be compared to the racial experiences of black people. And more specifically, black women. Throughout the entirety of the film, I cannot unsee Elphaba as a black woman. Even her hair is styled in micro braids. I recently discovered that Cynthia pushed for her character to have braids to honor her identity as a black woman.

It’s so interesting how deeply Cynthia connected to Elphaba’s character because as a dark skin black actress, she certainly has experienced the cruelty of colorism. While the film was being promoted, I remember seeing people troll her online and saying that she’s not beautiful, something that is spoken FAR too often about dark-skinned black women. It reminds me of the awful reaction the general public had when a dark-skinned black actress was announced to take on the role of Juliet alongside Tom Holland for the play version of Romeo & Juliet.

Elphaba’s experiences directly mirror the oppression and discrimination dark-skin black women face. That feeling of otherness is reflected so powerfully and poetically because of Cynthia’s personal connection to the story as a black woman.

Back to the film, Elphaba reaches adulthood and enrolls at Shiz University where she meets Glinda and much to their dismay, they are paired as roommates. It’s important to note that Glinda is immediately repulsed by Elphaba because of her green skin. She even offers to help her change her skin tone once she becomes a sorceress. HA! You’ll understand why that’s funny if you watched the film because Glinda is terrible at practicing magic.

Anyways, Glinda and Elphaba's relationship begins with genuine dislike for one another, but that quickly changes. Elphaba is suddenly convinced by her younger sister, Nessa, that Glinda is a GOOD person after she plays matchmatcher and helps Nessa score a date with Boq, the munchkin boy.

It is ironic to me that Glinda was considered the ‘good’ witch when nothing about her character is inherently good? She is shallow, classist, and completely motivated by self. While Nessa believes that Glinda matched her and Boq together out of the kindness of her heart, what she does not know is that Glinda acted based on her own personal gain.

By redirecting Boq’s affections towards her onto someone else, she can focus on getting closer to whom she actually desires, Prince Feyero. And as an extra bonus, she will be viewed as a compassionate person who was considerate enough to find the new girl (who also happens to be in a wheelchair) a date to the ball.

Glinda’s lack of self-righteousness continues to shine through when she lends Elphaba the black witch hat as another token of her inherent kindness. Elphaba wears the witch hat to the ball only to be humiliated by her peers. Glinda herself says that the hat was hideous and so she gives it to Elphaba to be cruel. This is of course before she learns of Elphaba’s advocacy to have Glinda be included in her sorcery lessons with Madame Morrible.

One of the most emotional scenes in the film for me to watch was Elphaba’s solo dance at the Ozdust ball. In spite of feeling utterly embarrassed in front of her peers, she chooses to stand her ground and dance like nobody’s watching, a direct act of defiance towards the social hierarchy and vanity that the Land of Oz thrives on. Glinda eventually joins in with Elphaba and mimics the dance, her own way of showing solidarity and companionship with Elphaba.

At least, that’s what viewers are supposed to believe. It is important to point out that once again, Glinda’s selfishness comes to the surface here. She is not acting out of simple compassion and wanting to show her support for Elphaba as a friend, if that were the case, she would not have given Elphaba the hat to embarrass her in the first place. Instead, it is only after she learns of Elphaba’s recent act of kindness, does she decide to act out of nothing more than white guilt. She feels ashamed that she gets to benefit from Elphaba’s advocacy while all she can offer in return is humiliation.

Some may view this scene as Glinda showing empathy towards Elphaba, but I would have to wholeheartedly disagree. This may sound harsh but Glinda is not capable of being empathetic towards Elphaba.

What some fail to understand is that empathy and sympathy are two separate emotions. Empathizing means being able to understand the feelings of someone else because you yourself can RELATE to that experience. Sympathy is simply feeling sorry for someone and does not require you to truly understand what they may be feeling. All you know is that you feel bad for them.

That is quite literally how white guilt can be interpreted. It is being able to recognize that people of color spend their entire lives experiencing racism, poverty, oppression, and feeling bad because you know that this is wrong, but you do not understand what that feels like so all you can offer is your pity and ashamedness. Also, white people cannot empathize with an experience they actively benefit from.

The same can be said about Glinda. As a wealthy and conventionally attractive blonde woman, she is at the top of the social strata that Oz seems to be built on. She does not understand what it’s like to be othered, embarrassed, and excluded for being different. So, she does not dance with Elphaba to advocate against the system that alienates her friend, but only out of shame for playing a part in it.

The dance scene also really hit close to home because it reminded me of the resilience of black women. Our ability to turn lemons into lemonade and dance through our pain is one of our greatest strengths. However, this resilience is also something that is extremely exhausting. Society loves to admire black women for their strength but lack the decency to understand WHY we have to put on a brave face all of the time. We keep pushing forward and advocating for ourselves, because literally no one else will.

Again, it is interesting that Glinda is the face of goodness when nothing about her character closely resembles that. But you know what character does? Elphaba. Her compassion and empathy cannot go unnoticed in this film which are traits that closely relate to how I see black women. We are constantly advocating for injustice and change in society. Unlike Glinda and the rest of her peers, Elphaba is the only one that springs into action after Dr. Dillamond is wrongfully imprisoned and silenced, the start of Oz’s plans to criminalize animals and strip them of their rights.

And once again, Elphaba extends another branch of her kindness to Glinda when she asks Glinda to accompany her to visit the Wizard. Unfortunately, Elphaba quickly realizes that the wizard is not the powerful being that he presents himself to be. In fact, he cannot do magic at all, therefore he has no real power. The reason Madame Morrible and the Wizard took a sudden interest in Elphaba is because they want to use her powers to keep Oz under control. The first part of their plan being to frame animals as a threat to humans and disempower them.

Elphaba see’s the injustice in this and actively refuses to help this cause. It’s not long before she is being hunted down by palace guards to face punishment for her defiance.

And of course, it is Glinda that insists Elphaba comply with the Wizard’s demands and make things right. Elphaba refuses and continues to figure out a way to escape from the palace. As the guards come closer to apprehending Elphaba, she asks Glinda if she will join her to which she silently declines, leaving Elphaba alone to fend for herself.

It is at this moment that I was reminded of why black women often cannot rely on white female allyship. White women have a long pattern of choosing the WRONG side of history. Instead of using their privilege to advocate for injustice, white women often choose to stay silent. And that is because being submissive has always benefited them.

Why would Glinda choose to side with Elphaba? She knows that if she continued to comply with the Wizard’s rule, it would lead her one step closer to becoming the glamorous sorceress she always dreamed of being. Glinda already has everything she wants and stands to gain more. There would be no benefit if she were to side with Elphaba, and since she is an inherently selfish character, Glinda does what she does best, choosing her own ambition over the greater good of society.

Once more, reaffirming that Glinda may be the ‘good’ witch but she is not inherently good. Elphaba is good, but her selflessness and integrity is being villainized. Everyone in Oz now sees HER as wicked for openly rejecting a fascist system.

I can’t help but wonder if things could have turned out differently had Glinda decided to go with Elphaba. Could the both of them together have actually been able to make a genuine change in Oz? Since Glinda is naturally persuasive I imagine that she would have been able to convince at least a few if not ALL of their peers to stand with her and Elphaba against the Wizard.

Now THAT would have been a true testament to sisterhood and female allyship.

But atlas, that is just not what this film is about. When I search up the themes of Wicked, the first thing that pops up is friendship. Truthfully, there are so many themes in Wicked that I can spend all day analyzing. Instead, I will just say that friendship plays such a microscopic part in what this film truly represents.

To base the story of Wicked on that alone significantly dampens the incredibly nuanced themes that makes this film and Wizard of Oz alike, so prevalent to pop culture and the present socio-political climate.

Wicked is NOT the female empowered friendship duo film that was being promoted in theaters. Instead, one could say it’s a cautionary tale about the frailty of white female allyship as well as the dangers of possessing free will in a system that profits from your blind obedience.