Don't Be a Bitch... You'll Make a Witch

In the short stories The Cinder Maid, The Baba Yaga, and The Wicked Stepmother there is one very obvious common thread. This is the presence of an evil stepmother who marries the man of the family after the mother either dies or is cursed. There are very few male characters in any of these stories and these men tend to be mostly absent from the story. The main characters are women and the main antagonists are women. In most of the stories, the mentor is also a woman.

                I found these stories a lot more interesting after our class discussion about how witches are generally removed from mainstream society. Witches tend to live outside of a typical family group and out of a patriarchal society. The best example of this is probably Baba Yaga, who lives with a servant in the woods, but has no husband or children to speak of. She is the antagonist of the story and seems to be feared by the society the main character inhabits. In The Cinder Maid, there isn’t a specific witch character, but the Cinder Maid herself uses magic to fool the prince. She is also removed from a typical family group, however this time it is against her will. Due to her being rejected from her family, she is able to access the power from the tree behind her house. In The Wicked Stepmother, the woman who possess magic is cursed and therefore, removed from her family. She cannot remain as a mother figure because she is a goat and is, therefore, replaced by, you guessed it, an evil stepmother. However, as a goat, she is able to provide for her children using magic.

                I find it interesting that all of these characters that live outside of what would be considered a normal living situation possess magic. However, I am most interested by the characters that deliberately do not have magical powers until after they are rejected from society. While the woman who becomes a goat may have powers prior to being a goat (how else would she become a goat?), it is not until she breaks her vow that she is able to provide for her children in supernatural ways. This is similar in the Cinder Maid tale. The Cinder Maid does not have powers until she is unable to attend a party with her family. These tales paint a woman living outside of society as a woman with power and influence.

                The casting of the evil stepmother is also fascinating to me. This seems like a deliberate choice to emphasize that a woman who chooses to live in a typical family unit, or invades a typical family unit, is one who is evil and ultimately loses. It seems that the trend in these stories is ‘Live beyond a woman’s typical role and become powerful. Live in a family unit and become loved by your children. But do not invade someone else’s family unit.’ While each stepmother in these stories is obviously evil, I also think maybe, in a effort to release woman from the patriarchy and empower them to live how they want to live, these stories are also informing women of where to do not belong, which may be a little counter-intuitive.