Why is Wicked considered feminist?
I often see it talked about as feminist, especially in comparison to other revisionist versions of Oz like Oz the Great and Powerful. But looking at it critically, outside of centering a woman, it feels very anti-woman and anti-female empowerment to me.
Even taken on its own, it's not particularly friendly to women; the only good woman is Elphaba (who is also the moral center of the universe), all others are at the very least self-absorbed if not evil. The only women with power have it because of their proximity to men; even Elphaba only has magic power because of where her father comes from. Even on the evil side, the woman with actual magic power plays second fiddle to the powerless man because charisma or something. Wicked's Oz simply isn't a world where a woman can stand on her own, she always has to be pulled up by a man. They're also all involved in messy love triangles that tear apart friendships and bring ruin to them.
Then, comparing it to the source material, it's utterly disempowering. Literally, in the case of two of the three main witches, who aren't even allowed to have magic. The three witches, who were all originally rulers of parts of the country in their own right and earned their titles by their deeds, only have their titles because of their relationship to a man (Nessa inheriting the governorship of Munchkinland, the Wizard declaring Glinda "the Good" and Elphaba "the Wicked", and Elphie's only connection to the West is that it's where her heartthrob lives and he gives her a castle to hide in). Glinda is completely destroyed, to the point that Wicked-only fans think she doesn't deserve magic, which was her defining attribute for a century. Dorothy is turned from a little girl who will let nothing stop her from returning home to her family, who pushes others to achieve their dreams, into a brainwashed pawn. The movie version even vilifies her by implying that she considers the melting a triumphant moment, instead of an accident like in the original and almost every other adaptation.
IDK, it just seems to me that Wicked is not only not more feminist than most versions of Oz, it's significantly less feminist than the original, but that isn't widely recognized.
