Witches

As far back as I can remember, the idea of "Witches" fascinated me, there was such an allure about them, dark powerful women, who could cast a spell on you, for love, death, good and bad. It was as if I  wanted to become one, subconsciously for the power I felt as if they held.
Witches, in my opinion have always been the female equals, if not almost the more powerful female to the male, so it was interesting to me to hear a class discussion about the "gender" struggle between witches and wizards, and the "inequality" factor there is.
Ironically enough I read "Equal Rites"for class,  Esk, a young girl, it thrown into the position of becoming the new "Wizard", because Drum Billet, is soon going to die and has waited to long to find his male replacement. Also because the new born child was actually supposed to be a boy, but was apparently a girl.
The story is the struggle and rise of Esk, becoming and accepting her new given powers, and title. Though I thought the book was well written and I did in-fact enjoy reading this story, the discussions had in class left me wondering, as if all these "Witches", I once thought was so powerful, was actually all women fighting to over come their male "successors", or am I just at a place within life, and within this class is it actually is more of just a personal type of opinion deal. Granted yes "Equal Rites" was actually written for that purpose, if possibly I may have had a better overall feeling and outcome, with this read if I had gotten through the entire book with out a more biased class opinion.
With that said, I still personally find "Witches" to be powerful women roles, created to show and empower females, with the sense of being equal. strong, independent humans that have the ability to control their lives.

Archetypes of Women

A huge favorite in many movies types from, drama to fantasy has always been the simple plot, man saves the girl. You know, the pretty girl is captured, or in some sort of danger and the strong male heroine comes in and saves the day. Very rarely do we see something where the woman saves the day. 

From early on black and white films, to current horror movies we see in theaters today, the female 9 out of 10 times is the victim and needs assistance. 

Even in children's cartoons we had the typical archetype female, for example we have Scooby Doo, the beautiful Daphne need Fred to save her at most costs, granted we have the strong intelligent Daisy who tends to be one step ahead of even the boys. The show, and movie are a great example of not only the typical female archetype, but also that of the newer "stronger" woman, who does not always need the male figure to come in and save her. 

Even in books such as Twilight, we have Bella who just cant seem to keep herself out of all sorts of danger. She has the two strong male figures Edward, and Jacob who continue to fight for her and save her, what seems like day after day. Bella is your typical helpless girl, she can surly put herself in all sorts of danger, but can never see to get out alone. 

The Classical plot of boy saves girl, is a timeless tradition something readers and movie watchers for years to come will all forever find themeless getting completely wrapped up in.