The Craft is a Feminist Film, and You Know It!
I want to try something a little bit different than usual today. I want to share with you an infrequently witnessed part of me: the completely earnest horror scholar. I may be a tad irreverent in my normal writing style, but deep down, I am still an English major who focused her study heavily on feminist theory.
Since it first hit theaters in 1996, there has been furious debate over whether The Craft is a feminist film. Some feel it is a relatable exploration of the difficulties inherent to being an adolescent female, but to others, it is a cardboard cutout – a trope-filled bit of fluff entertainment. To me, this movie is a fantastic representation not just of feminism, but of intersectional feminism. It is all about otherness, and how that otherness relates to the experience of being female. The movie is about Sarah Bailey, the new girl at a Catholic prep school who develops a complicated relationship with an outgroup composed of three social pariahs. Bonnie, Rochelle, and Nancy have been labeled as witches by their peers simply because they are different. With the addition of Sarah, they begin to practice witchcraft in earnest, and start to see real results with their magic.
I think The Craft hits the intersectional nail on the head with their portrayals of the four main characters (I only wish marketing did the same – if you’re not aware, the amazing Rachel True, who plays Rochelle has struggled for years to get credited properly for her role. Despite being one of the main characters, she is frequently left off billings while her white co-stars never suffer the same indignity). Sarah is dealing with the issues arising from her femaleness intersecting with mental illness in the form of depression, Bonnie is covered in burn scars, Nancy is from a lower economic class than the other students and has a tumultuous home life, and Rochelle has the added difficulty of being the only Black female in the school. Then we add the “outsider” religion aspect, and the girls are almost destined for unpopularity in a world that values homogeny. We spend most of the first half of the movie watching the four deal with a barrage of micro- and macroaggressions from the other students in the form of bullying, harassment, and the like. They are beaten down, they are unhappy, and they are itching for a little revenge.
Once they gain some mastery over magic, we get to watch as the women defy gender norms by exhibiting traits that are stereotypically considered masculine. They become confident, assertive, and even controlling at times. After an exchange between Rochelle and popular girl Laura Lizzie, in which Rochelle asks why she is always so unkind to her, and Laura replies, “Because I don’t like negroids,” Rochelle gets revenge by casting a spell which causes Laura’s hair to fall out. We then witness the power struggles that ensue within the group as each woman struggles to find her place in the resultant social hierarchy.
Eventually, Bonnie and Rochelle start to lose themselves, and try to use their power to blend in, and to become more conventionally acceptable and/or attractive, while Nancy becomes so overwhelmed with her newfound power that she lets it consume her entire being, eventually driving her a bit mad. See, she can finally fight back against all the people who have hurt her, and she’s been hurt a lot in her short life. I think the following exchange really illustrates this:
Chris: You're just jealous!
Nancy: Jealous? Jealous? You don't even exist to me! You don't exist! You are nothing! You are shit! You don't exist. The only way you know how to treat women is by treating them like whores! Well, you're the whore! And this is gonna stop! Do you understand! Do you understand what I'm saying? Hmm?
Chris: [frightened] I'm sorry!
Nancy: Oh, he's sorry! He's sorry, he's sorry, he's sorry, he's sorry, he's sorry!
[Nancy screams]
Nancy: Sorry, my ass!
[Nancy pushes Chris out a window and kills him]
The movie uses witches as a metaphor for female empowerment. While witches are typically viewed in Western society as power-hungry monsters, this movie presents them as real women who now have control over things that were previously so far out of their purview that once they become aware that they can do something about it, they go a little crazy with it. There is a noticeable shift in the power dynamics within their school, from the popular kids to the four. They then enter a cycle where the previously oppressed (the witches) seek to oppress others in an attempt to assert some of their newfound power. The only one of young women who successfully navigates her transition from oppressed to empowered is Sarah, who remains true to herself throughout, and never entirely loses her sense of compassion.
Look, the world is an ugly place for women most of the time. We have to constantly contend with stereotypes about our intelligence, our strength, our common sense, problem solving skills, hobbies, decision making abilities, and a million other things. Sometimes it feels like the entirety of our existence centers around two things: staying safe and trying to understand what is expected of us in everyday situations where no matter what we do or how we react, it will never be “right.” Frankly, it’s fucking exhausting. The Craft and movies like it give us the opportunity to escape our realities for a short time and imagine what it would be like for us to be able to ignore all of the conflicting expectations and inescapable traps that society has set for us. And this applies doubly for women whose realities intersect with any other marginalized groups. Sometimes we just want to imagine a world where we are allowed agency – even if it doesn’t always end well.
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