Witches & Media

How Witches are Portrayed Throughout Media

By: Liliana Ogden

The concepts of witches and witchcraft have been around forever. Even before the Salem Witch Trials, many societies had either practiced some form of witchcraft or at least heard of it. So you can imagine my surprise when I found out that the first witch movie wasn't released until 1964, even considering that the first movie ever made was in 1888. However, with modern-day media and different social media platforms, the popularity of witches, witchcraft, and witch history has exploded.

This blog will explore how witches have been portrayed in some of the most popular films and TV shows.

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Hollywood's Witch Stereotypes

This class's modern media presentations made me aware that "Hollywood" has its particular type of witch stereotypes. (By the way, when I write Hollywood, I mean how movies and TV shows portray witches. Hollywood is just my generic term, including both films and TV shows.) Witches in Hollywood have often been shown as ditzy, hyper-sexual, and evil but now are more likely to be portrayed as feminist heroes. For example, when I suggest ditzy, my brain instantly thinks of Bewitched. Although Samantha, the main character and female witch, is portrayed as determined, her character is often shown as being silly and even scattered-brained.

Furthermore, recently, many witch movies and TV shows have been hyper-sexualizing their characters or at least making them hyper-sexual. The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, a spin-off of Sabrina, the Teenaged Witch, is a strong example of how the plot focuses more on sex than the classic series. In addition, the main characters in The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina are supposed to be high school students. Finally, classic Hollywood almost always portrayed witches as evil. Whether it's the Queen Narrisa, the evil witch in Enchanted, or Wanda Maximoff, the newly troubled witch in Wanda Vision, Hollywood almost always makes the witch evil in some fashion.

Yet, in contrast with classic witch movies, modern Hollywood is now turning the chapter and is starting to portray their witches more like feminist heroes rather than the classic ditzy or evil and ugly witches. However, regardless of the witches' hero status, Hollywood still makes an effort to give them a dark backstory. I also observed that satanism seems more significant within witch movies and TV shows than in classics. Overall, it has been interesting to study the different Hollywood witch stereotypes.