Somewhere Over the Rainbow...

Here's why I love the Wizard of Oz. It's not a love story. Not really. How often do you see a movie that features a beautiful girl in her late teens (Judy Garland was 16 when she played the role) who is NOT in the process of falling in love with someone or having someone fall in love with her? And whose life is not defined by romantic relationships with others? And who actually instead is exploring the way she fits into the world as an individual? And who goes on a journey by herself, making new friends along the way, and comes to a new appreciation of the life she already has? That is a story I can wrap my head around!

There's a lot of talk in the feminist community these days about the Bechdel test. A movie passes the Bechdel test if it:

1. Has at least two named women in it
2. Who talk to each other
3. About something other than men

Unsurprisingly, there are VERY few Hollywood movies that pass this test, and barely any before the last 25 or so years. But the Wizard of Oz does! There are Dorothy and Aunt Em, who talk about family, safety, rules, etc. There's Glinda the Good Witch, who gives Dorothy advice on how to go about her adventure and how to find her way home. There actually is not a single scene in the movie where any character talks about romance or being in love or anything of the sort. It's very refreshing, given how it's pretty much impossible to make a movie these days that doesn't involve romantic attachments.

Of course, the movie is imperfect. Don't even get me started on the virgin/whore dichotomy stuff inherent in the good witch/bad witch motif. But for now, I'll just happily watch the Munchkins (actually played by little people - take note, Snow White and the Huntsman) being awesome, be in love with the idea of a "horse of a different color," and gasp at the appropriate moment when we land in Oz and Technicolor appears for the first time ever! Ah, nostalgia.