30 Day Awesome Women Meme, Day 1
Oct. 16th, 2010 02:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
featherxquill1. Someone you've loved since you were little
~ Endora ~
Endora is one of the characters I have loved since I was a little girl. Along with The Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz, I credit her as my 'first favourite witch'. I used to dress up as her and pretend to cast spells on my brother. I used to tell anyone who would listen that I was a witch. My mother has a letter I wrote to her when I was about seven in which I claim that I will die because she took away my 'magic hat' that gave me my 'life force' (she took away the hat because I trashed my bedroom and wouldn't clean it up). So that obsession with witches? I guess you could say it never went away.
Endora is awesome. She's powerful, and formidable, and also cheeky, with a impeccable sense of mischief. The thing I loved most about her as a child was how bright and bold she was, I suppose, and how much fun it would be to be a witch (especially one who was always playing tricks on people). As an adult, I love her attitude. I love her feminism in a time that hadn't quite made it to feminism yet. I love that her problem with Darrin isn't so much that he is mortal, but that he wants her daughter to give up her magic. I love how protective she is of her daughter's heritage and culture, and how she absolutely never gives up the fight. I love that she is certainly a flawed character - petty and selfish and sometimes downright cruel - but that we always get the sense of how much she loves her daughter, and later grandchildren (with the exception of one episode which I absolutely hate and think was totally OOC for her). I love that she is separated from/has an open relationship with her husband. They weren't allowed to say 'divorce' on American television in the 1960s, but it is quite clear from both direct speech and innuendo that Endora and Maurice did not live together and had no desire to, although they occasionally flirted or became jealous of each other's lovers. And it's clear they both had lovers. A powerful, multi-layered older woman who obviously has an active sex life? What is not to love about this character?
Add to it that both the character and the actress have become an icon for the queer community (fabulous and proud of what she is! yeah!), and that just makes her legacy even more wonderful.
Extra tidbit: a fabulous interview with agnes on the Bewitched set. Seriously, I'm petty sure I want to be just like this when I grow up. She's so blunt and opinionatedno wonder I picked her for Muriel's PB, hm?
2. Someone you discovered recently
3. A leader
4. A mother
5. A fighter
6. A goddess
7. Someone funny
8. Someone bitchy
9. Someone sexy
10. A writer
11. A singer
12. An artist
13. An actress
14. An athlete
15. Anyone you like
16. A woman of colour
17. A woman with a disability
18. A lesbian, bisexual, transgenderd or genderqueer woman/individual
19. Someone you'd love to have teach you
20. Someone you'd love to get drunk with
21. Someone you wouldn't want to cross
22. Someone you'd love to be for a day
23. A woman from traditionally male arena (politics, science, medicine, military, etc)
24. A woman over 50
25. An activist
26. A woman from the past
27. A woman of the future
28. Someone you once disliked but now admire
29. Someone from your own life
30. Anyone you like
~ Endora ~
Endora is one of the characters I have loved since I was a little girl. Along with The Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz, I credit her as my 'first favourite witch'. I used to dress up as her and pretend to cast spells on my brother. I used to tell anyone who would listen that I was a witch. My mother has a letter I wrote to her when I was about seven in which I claim that I will die because she took away my 'magic hat' that gave me my 'life force' (she took away the hat because I trashed my bedroom and wouldn't clean it up). So that obsession with witches? I guess you could say it never went away.
Endora is awesome. She's powerful, and formidable, and also cheeky, with a impeccable sense of mischief. The thing I loved most about her as a child was how bright and bold she was, I suppose, and how much fun it would be to be a witch (especially one who was always playing tricks on people). As an adult, I love her attitude. I love her feminism in a time that hadn't quite made it to feminism yet. I love that her problem with Darrin isn't so much that he is mortal, but that he wants her daughter to give up her magic. I love how protective she is of her daughter's heritage and culture, and how she absolutely never gives up the fight. I love that she is certainly a flawed character - petty and selfish and sometimes downright cruel - but that we always get the sense of how much she loves her daughter, and later grandchildren (with the exception of one episode which I absolutely hate and think was totally OOC for her). I love that she is separated from/has an open relationship with her husband. They weren't allowed to say 'divorce' on American television in the 1960s, but it is quite clear from both direct speech and innuendo that Endora and Maurice did not live together and had no desire to, although they occasionally flirted or became jealous of each other's lovers. And it's clear they both had lovers. A powerful, multi-layered older woman who obviously has an active sex life? What is not to love about this character?
Add to it that both the character and the actress have become an icon for the queer community (fabulous and proud of what she is! yeah!), and that just makes her legacy even more wonderful.
Extra tidbit: a fabulous interview with agnes on the Bewitched set. Seriously, I'm petty sure I want to be just like this when I grow up. She's so blunt and opinionated
2. Someone you discovered recently
3. A leader
4. A mother
5. A fighter
6. A goddess
7. Someone funny
8. Someone bitchy
9. Someone sexy
10. A writer
11. A singer
12. An artist
13. An actress
14. An athlete
15. Anyone you like
16. A woman of colour
17. A woman with a disability
18. A lesbian, bisexual, transgenderd or genderqueer woman/individual
19. Someone you'd love to have teach you
20. Someone you'd love to get drunk with
21. Someone you wouldn't want to cross
22. Someone you'd love to be for a day
23. A woman from traditionally male arena (politics, science, medicine, military, etc)
24. A woman over 50
25. An activist
26. A woman from the past
27. A woman of the future
28. Someone you once disliked but now admire
29. Someone from your own life
30. Anyone you like
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no subject
Date: 2010-10-15 03:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-15 04:10 pm (UTC)She's a perfect Muriel, too. Excellent choice. (And that reminds me -- I have to catch up on the latest Muriel/George. I'd made it to about the sixth entry before RL took over, but I'll sneak back over there today.)
no subject
Date: 2010-10-15 04:40 pm (UTC)Enjoyed this post a lot. I was wild for Bewitched when I was a kid! Shared the Endora-love, too. She was properly witchy - not trying to stay in the closet and act safely Muggle, like Samantha.
So... have you ever written Endora/Minerva?
no subject
Date: 2010-10-18 01:28 am (UTC)And I have to admit, when I picked Agnes for my PB for Auntie Muriel in an RPG, and made Muriel a Slytherin, that icon of yours might have had something to do with it *g*
I haven't written Endora/Minerva, no, but I did write Ednora/Rita this one time (http://community.livejournal.com/ritaskeeter_/2954.html).
no subject
Date: 2010-10-15 04:45 pm (UTC)And she'd be perfect as Auntie Muriel. I loved the Muriel-goes-to-hoggywartyxmas post you did with her.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-16 07:37 am (UTC)Out of curiousity, was the OOC episode "Witches and Warlocks Are My Favorite Things" when she, Hagatha, and Enchantra try to kidnap Tabitha?
no subject
Date: 2010-10-18 01:32 am (UTC)Everyone seemed so OOC in it. Like taking a person's child away from them wasn't a big deal or anything. And as for Endora being one of the ones who wanted it to happen? WTF, seriously. It made me angry that the writers did that to her, because that is so not her in any other episode.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-18 01:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-18 01:53 am (UTC)Seriously.
Can I also say how much I hate the whole 'Daddy saves the day' aspect of the episode, too.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-16 02:33 pm (UTC)"She has a quality," Agnes says unemotionally. "Charm, warmth, intelligence. Of course, you know she plays herself. When I was an ingénue, we were always characterizing."
I can so see her expression as she says this, I absolutely adore this woman. So free with her words and thoughts, I just love it. ♥
no subject
Date: 2010-10-18 01:50 am (UTC)