Do y'all really not get Wicked?

A Rant

Looking “holding space for the lyrics of defying gravity” right in the eye

Again, I have been reduced to yelling unproductively at my phone. Embarrassing, I know. So in the hopes of salvaging what remains of my pride, I have decided to dump my feelings here with the belief that I could fully get them off my mind. I saw Wicked and was able to turn my critic brain off long enough to really enjoy it. Admittedly, this is largely due in part to how much I love the music and the story. I saw it on broadway in 2022 and thought it was brilliant. Unsurprisingly, I still like it on screen.

I’m also someone who was raised online and was eager to see the public reactions to the film so I hit my usual scrolls, optimistic in what I would find. This optimism was misplaced. I forgot we are post- “being for real” as a country. I won’t say post critical thinking because I’m convinced people are going out of their way not to get it. Really I just have one question: Do so many people really not understand what Wicked is trying to say or is everyone pulling my leg?

The premise of Wicked is what if the wicked witch of the West was actually good and the good witch Glinda was actually bad. It’s essentially a fun thought experiment for people who just really enjoy showtunes. It’s goes to great lengths to point out the goodness of Elphaba, down to her sacrificing her own happiness for animal rights. It also hones in Galinda’s spineless cowering in the face of a corrupt system and her initial bullying of Elphaba for her LITERAL skintone. The movie goes to GREAT LENGTHS to highlight these characteristics in each lead more so than the stage play does. Instead of Galinda being a run of the mill coward she’s actually just racist now and hilariously so. She changes her name in the way you would expect to hear a questionable speech at a performative protest. Her friends “don’t see color” (thank you Bowen Yang you were perfect). People this is NOT subtext.

So why then am I seeing so much soft girl, uwu, “When you’re doing you best to help but you’re misunderstood” sympathy for Galinda? Why am I seeing, “Maybe Elphaba should have been calmer to help her cause like Galinda said and went about helping the right way?”. I’m sorry, should Elphaba have pulled herself up by her bootstraps more to be one of the good ones? Like I thought we were past respectability politics as a means of freeing the oppressed or maybe I’ve just been in an echo-chamber for too long and we’ve just made no social progress since 2014. The wizard had already started rounding up animals and putting them into cages, how would joining him in doing more of that free those same animals? What about open bigotry, bullying, and performative allyship screams caring or genuine. We never see a single moment from her that shows her as anything other than guilty or self-serving. The film intentionally gives her very little wiggle room in that regard. Maybe this will change in part 2 but for now I have to say, I’m concerned you guys. Really.

While I don’t think we all need to agree on everything, there used to be a time where we could look at media and see the immutable as just that. Where a shared understanding of the text existed so that varying opinions could be built on the same solid foundation. Where we could get into the nuances of a piece of media in a way that made discussion worth having. However, if we can’t even understand the basics of what a piece of media is so obviously trying to say, then we’ve well and truly lost the plot. And this happens with so much media. The explosion in “ending explained” content for what is pretty straightforward media, points to that. “Maybe the curtains are just blue” or maybe they reflect the dour mood in english classrooms now that the people have given up on using metaphors.

I’m also concerned with the bigotry apologia of it all. I know we are about to enter a time of overt oppression, elections all of the world speak to that. As well as the refusal of most of our governments to do anything about an ongoing genocide. But, seeing this cultural shift reflected all the way down into pithy, little think-pieces about a movie is a real eye opener to just how severe things are. If anything, the realization that I can’t have one little thing I can be naive about, that maybe none of us can, is a real bummer to put it VERY lightly. One of the worst parts of dealing with racism or bigotry is just how exhausting it is. You can’t fight for anything effectively. You’re left explaining your own existence. You take more time away licking your wounds than you should and I really don’t want that for any of us. There are things we have to do.

It goes without being said but go and watch Wicked part 1. Yes, the lighting of the film has you thinking every other scene takes places at 7 a.m. but it’s still worth the watch. But please watch it with the context of the casting of a black Elphaba (something the broadway show has never done principally) and the emphasis on portraying VERY modern forms of bigotry, in mind. Pretty please with cherries on top.

---