During spring break, I went to see Oz, and in the middle of the film, I was struck by how oppressive it is to women. The movie starts of with James Franco(Oz) seducing women with his magic tricks. It is insinuated that he does this to many women, as he is part of a traveling circus. The women are portrayed as dumb and easily tricked by his magic, so much so that they fall in love with him. Franco's assistant even says that the last girl who worked with them quit because she had a broken heart. All of the main characters in the film are sexualized. They wear tight clothes, often baring much cleavage, and are wearing corset which I doubt are easy to breathe in. The "good witch" is mentioned many times as being extremely beautiful, and is placed on a pedestal because of this. She is seen, by the audience, as superior. All the women were also white, which I found interesting. Here is where I will place a SPOILER ALERT if you have not seen the movie.
The most appalling part was when Mia Kunis(Theadora the good witch) turns into an evil witch. She does this because she is heartbroken, as Franco told her they would be together forever, and then goes on to be with another witch. She sees this and is so torn apart that becomes the evil witch, and wants to kill Franco as her goal in life. She does whatever she can to do this. I hated this part because her evil is solely based on her apparent broken heart and this mans deception. I'm of course not saying deception is ok, but that fact that she changes her whole life and focuses only on getting revenge is ridiculous. This also lends itself to the stereotype of women being angry and spiteful if things do not go their way, or if they are broken up with. I did not at all expect to watch this movie and notice so many negative portrayals of women.
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