Witchcraft & Witches in Hollywood or General Films

[starrflower]

I've noticed over the past few years on how witchcraft and witches in Hollywood or general films are portrayed. This is even seen in things like books and news. In Harry Potter, most witches and wizards are of old age (if not already a student at Hogwarts) and either practice dark witchcraft/wizardry OR "basic" witchcraft/wizardry- which I usually refer to as the building blocks of witchcraft/wizardry such as simple, quick spells. The Sanderson sisters in Hocus Pocus (1 & 2) are portrayed as greedy and egotistical witches, and can be seen as slobby and/or ugly. These are not the only films showing these kind of portrayals though. From Halloweentown to even Disney films like Brave, witches and wizards are constantly portrayed negatively in media, in physical and/or emotional terms.

I think these portrayals are casted because of the beliefs in medieval Europe on witches. These beliefs could have spread across the world, and possibly even to the United States, where about 600-800 films are produced & published annually.^[1] This spread in beliefs could have impacted how the United States production and publishing companies viewed witches and witchcraft, leading to the well-known films and books about witchcraft today. However, the United States is not the only location that could have been impacted by this. Harry Potter is not an American book or film series, and both versions were created entirely in Britain.^[2]

I personally believe we should try and fix these kind of stereotypes. Not just in witchcraft and witch portrayals, but all sorts of stereotypical portrayals. Racial stereotypes, ableist stereotypes, all sorts of things. If we avoid these stereotypes and add truth & knowledge to characters being put in these portrayals, we can help audiences better understand how others live and experience their lives.

However, I want to know your opinions! What do you think about the Hollywood and general films' portrayals of witches? Are there any other films or books you know that have these kind of portrayals, or maybe even go against it? I'd love to know!

Thank you for reading this. I know it might have been a little short (especially these last three paragraphs), but I'm still grateful you were able to read it and decided to. Again, thank you and have a nice rest of your day!


References
1. (February 2023) U.S. & Canada: movie releases per year 2022 | Statista
2. Russell, J. (19 November 2010) Harry Potter - Hogwarts and all - is Britain's top model.

[monsno_leedra]

For my own perspective I don't care one way or the other.

I'm 65 years old and have seen more renditions of how witches, warlocks, etc look over the years than I can count. Todays renditions are far removed from the Satanic stereotype that prevailed for so long. Even the idea of bumbling fools has been removed from the ideals of say HR Puff-N-Stuff and the witch Witchie-pooh. Even Bewitched and the so called evil mother-in-law conveyed via the character of Endora (Agnes Moorehead) was both old, but also attractive.

The idea of witches being old for many goes right back to the imagery of the three stygian witches (Graeae) from Hellenic (Greek) mythology. As to good or bad that to goes back to Hellenic influences and later Latin (Roman) influences. I suppose it could be presented in the idea of Agathodaemon or EudaeDaemons and cacodemon (or cacodaemon).

The idea of age is also quite common. In many modern covens, family traditions, groups a person has to be of adult age to be trained and accepted / embraced. That is pretty well established in traditional groups such as Asatru, Odinist, Wicca (BTW - Gardnerian - Alexandian - Etc) , Streghia, etc. Just because many neo-pagans / wiccans (self initiated / dedicated with no coven affiliations) want to be all inclusive doesn't really reflect what a vast majority believe.

All I'll say about dark workings or light workings is that is more a Wiccan thing than a general / traditional thing. To a great many magic holds no white / black / gray it's all intent and needs of the caster. What is black to one person is white or gray to another. Maleficent is a term applied by morality and ethics and both vary from culture, region, social class, spiritual influences, dogma, etc.

I suppose though the biggest issue is it's all personal perspective and objectification. There really is no uniformity in the Pagan community in how one is displayed / depicted. it's all individual choice and belief / perspective. Those physical traits not even touching upon Orthopraxy vs Orthodoxy and how many gods / goddesses one believes in or doesn't believe in.

[MaskedOne]

Harry Potter doesn't actually support your argument. Most witches in HP are students between 11 and 17. When you leave the realm of students, yes Minerva whose last name I never remember how to spell is an older woman but Tonks is in her twenties. Narcissa, Molly, Bellatrix are varying degrees of middle age. I'd guees that Amelia Bones was middle aged before her assassination but I could be wrong. Fleur was in her twenties by book 7. HP deals with a community and all ages show up at some point. I wouldn't really call a lot of the non-Dark Arts practitioners basic either. We know becoming an animagi is difficult but Minerva is one. Tonks is the only metamorphagus we've seen and she's an auror. There's an occasional habit of giving the Dark Arts too much credit in the HP fandom. Almost anything done by the Dark Arts that's worth doing in the first place doesn't need them. The Death Eaters didn't take Britain by being exceptional wizards overall. They took Britain because the Ministry was weak, Dumbledore wasn't a killer* and Voldemort personally was OP.

Outside of HP, Practical Magic didn't have any dedicated malevolent practitioners and magic crossed age lines. It didn't cross gender lines much but the cop's badge operating as a holy symbol against a malevolent spirit was hilarious. The Vampire Diaries/Originals/Legacy universe has witches in any age, race or gender and while they were frequently antagonistic in Originals, the Originals centered largely on a family of mass murderers. Witches screwed up rather frequently but Klaus Mikaelson spent most of his millennia long existence as a walking, talking endorsement for the death penalty. The Craft (original, I haven't watched the sequel) didn't even have any truly old witches. I'd peg the shop owner as middle aged and while several of the witches did go stupid with power, I'd argue that a lot (not all) of teenagers will do stupid and immoral things if you give them that type of power. There are other cases where magic isn't explicitly held by the ancient and/or the corrupt (Dr Stanger sorcerers for an easy case) but I'm lazy and I'm not gonna grab more right now.

* So Dumbledore probably couldn't have permanently put down Tom but I'm confident that had he decided in the 80s, "I refuse to lose another student to these cowardly picks without a fight," and gone headhunting for real, then Voldemort would have few if any marked servants left to call upon by the time he got his body back. I don't think the Ministry or the Death Eaters could have held stopped Dumbledore on a killing spree.