Week 05 Witches

I read Black Maria for this week. There are several prominent female characters even though not all of them poses powers they all paint a different picture of women with power. First, there is Mig. As the young protagonist represents possibility. She can handle magic but is not overcome with the with a desire to use it. She consistently voices her wish for equality and has no baggage of the past. The other women and men are constantly fighting with the traditions of the past and struggling to either hold on to them or let go.

There is also her mother, who has no powers. She is known for being morally strong. She always desired to do the right thing. Her good intentions were manipulated and she was probably the most oppressed character. It was an interesting twist that she was being oppressed by another woman to uphold cultural standards of woman.

Then lastly there is Black Maria herself. She had lots of power with magic and she used it to gain power socially. She knit lies and guilt to get everyone under her thumb. Even tho this woman in power isn’t seen as a good person, she doesn’t show power by flying around on a broom or eating people. Instead, she represents a woman of power who manipulated the existing cultural models. The author used traditionally female things that are normally seen as weak or submissive and used it to show how even that could be forced into a bit of power. She had everyone take care of her, and acted helpless to maintain control. She also used gossip, a traditionally frivolous and “womanly” thing and used it to great advantage. The other women, Mig and her mom, have to fight those traditions to be free of Black Maria’s power.

Because it was set in the 90’s, a lot of the traditionally female things like wearing skirts or baking seemed outdated then and ridiculously so now. It was fun to have a story that showed how women fighting other women for their freedom. It is like an external exploration of the conflict of the past and future cultures that many women have to explore for themselves.