“Wicked” is revolutionary media. Change my mind!

“Where I'm from, we believe in all sorts of things that aren't true...we call it history.” - Gregory Maguire

My face after seeing Wicked in theaters

First of all, I’m absolutely astounded that the film industry, which is dominated by the ruling class, would invest so much time and money into art that is this explicitly political.

No, I’m not talking about bourgeois politics. I’m not talking about the insufferable song-and-dance that red and blue teams across the globe put on to pacify the masses every year. Wicked is explicitly political in how it portrays the distribution of power throughout a society, specifically in how people behave when their perceived power is threatened by something that simply can’t be beat.

The use of the phrase “perceived power” is intentional, by the way. It’s not about how much power you actually have, it’s about how much power people think you have. It doesn’t matter if you can’t actually back up the things you claim to be true. If you’ve scared people into giving you their trust because you’ve managed to assuage their bad feelings, they won’t dare to ask you any questions. In fact, they’ll actually do exactly what you say, because you did them the ultimate service of granting them physical or emotional peace. It will never occur to them that they’re being misled and manipulated every step of the way. And doesn’t that work out just so deliciously for you, the talentless shell of a human who fully understands the power of social currency and its usefulness, because you’re so obsessed with controlling the conditions on which the masses base their realities on?

It’s a capitalist overlord’s wet dream. Everyone is so focused on culling the influence of “filthy animals” and “nasty women” that they never stop to think about why they have such strong allegiance to these statements. The masses exist in a masterfully crafted, all-encompassing illusion, but they’re unable to realize this fact because it’s all they’ve ever known. They’ve never been pushed to think bigger. It’s extremely difficult to burst a bubble that you don’t even know you’re in.

That is, unless you’re Glinda.

Glinda knows everything there is to know about bubbles. She herself is a bubble personified. Sweet and petite and airy and light and smiling. The only inconvenience a bubble poses is that it prevents the person inside it from hearing the challenges of outsiders. But that’s not so bad, right? Why should Glinda be questioned? After all, she’s a good witch. Certainly, there are much more wicked witches for us to be concerned with.

Somehow, I managed to escape consuming any iteration of Wicked for my entire 25 years of life. And you know what? I’m happy it turned out this way, actually. Everything happens for a reason, and in its own time.

Seeing Wicked for the first time, in this moment when I’m no longer letting the horrors of the world continue without critique and am finally tapping into the unbridled power of my emotions that I’ve always been taught to stifle, feels like some sort of cosmic alignment. It’s as if the guardians from above are giving me a sign that I actually need to lean further into this whole “social currency and attention manipulation are the empire’s strongest weapons” thing. If I needed to deliver instructions for this cursed game of capitalist hell that we’re all forced participants in, Wicked would serve as an impeccable visual aid.

Wicked shows us what happens when you dare to prioritize the sanctity of life over vain and petty affairs. Wicked explains what happens when parents don’t emphasize to their children that the word “no” will not kill them. Wicked shows us how experiencing trauma and abuse, especially when you are young, warps your entire perception of reality. Wicked asks us to marvel at a lion cub locked in a cage to clearly portray how powerful institutions don’t benefit from animals being able to speak for themselves.

It depicts how the empire’s most sought after weapon will always be surveillance, because the more you study something, the easier it is for you to understand and ultimately control it. It reinforces the notion that, in the empire’s eyes, what you are led to believe is happening is more important than what’s actually happening. It makes you realize that the empire’s ability to spin a narrative is quite literally all they have.

But, it also makes you think about how powerful the statement “we deserve each other” is. It demands that you consider the ramifications of only prioritizing romantic love and a single partner, rather than prioritizing platonic love (aka community building). Wicked shows us what it means to really see a person for who they are, which is simply a summation of all of their experiences up until the point of judgement. It shows us that a fulfilled life is not an end goal, but rather a process.

Every choice Elphaba made was informed by her process. As someone who was the target of literally everyone’s vitriol from the moment she exited the womb, it was in fact she who was the most equipped to act as the arbiter of justice. This was a fact Elphaba was well aware of, and her opponents hated this about her. They despised and reviled her, because her very existence challenged their notion of what it meant to be human. The grand wizard sought to destroy Elphaba to avoid confronting the fact that the personal is, and will always be, the political.

The things that happen to us only serve as lessons and guidance for what lies ahead. The dynamics, events and media that we bear witness to play crucial roles in what we come to think we understand about the world. Basically, propaganda is everything, and it affects you regardless of if you’re aware of the impact it has. The person who controls what people see controls everything. You must consistently ask yourself: “Who is in control?”

This is why, despite all of the violent, churning structures forcing us to conform, we must loudly and equivocally choose to defy gravity every single day. It is only through the bravest assertion of our ability to do something deemed to be impossible that we realize what we’re actually capable of achieving. It is only then that these oppressive structures will have to reckon with what we are: a product of violent, colonial circumstance that has every reason to be full of a particular fervor, rage and general thirst for vengeance.

You’re not crazy, you’re just fucking awake. You’re not fear-mongering, you’re just making observations. This is not a party, it’s a hurricane. Understanding the gravity of our conditions is the only way we don’t get swept away with the storm.

Choose defiance. Choose divergence. Choose resistance. All with fervence.

With love,

Your G.F. x