The Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz may refer to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, 1900 book by L. Frank Baum, or any of its numerous adaptations, the most famous being the 1939 film version The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland. It may also refer to the character of the Wizard in this book.

While it could hardly be called a feminist story, The Wizard of Oz does feature a plucky young woman, Dorothy, as its heroine. In both the book and the famous movie, Dorothy lives on a farm in Kansas. Her home gets caught in a tornado and transported to Oz, a fantastic land, where it lands on and kills the Wicked Witch of the East. She is told that only "the Wizard" could get her back to Kansas, and thus she embarks on a series of adventures, with her famous sidekicks: the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion. Balancing the generally admirable character of Dorothy are the witches who rule the four kingdoms of Oz--two "good witches" of the North and South and two "wicked witches," of the East and West. The Wicked Witch of the East is dead, but her sister fills in admirably as an extremely stereotypical female villain.

The famous 1939 movie plays with gender stereotyping in a way the book does not--in particular, the Cowardly Lion (as portrayed by Bert Lahr) has a swishy style.