Week 5: Redlands issues 1-5 (5)

 

Women in horror and fantasy stories have always had slim pickings. They could either be virginal objects, made to be prizes or devices with which an author can emphasize the horror they’re describing, or, be overtly sexual and demonized for having power and agency,

The portrayal of women in modern media is an oft-discussed topic. I think for a long time people thought the problem was the low quantity of female-driven stories, and while this was definitely a problem, addressing it only led to more stories about perfect, wholesome women, or women being demonized for their agency. The bigger underlying issue is the quality of female portrayal in the media. The attitude we have begun to arrive at is one of “it doesn’t matter that the main characters are women, they are allowed to falter, they are allowed to be immoral, and the story is still allowed to be about them.”

 The conversation has begun to come full-circle in Jordie Bellaire’s Redlands. Make no mistake, the witches of Redlands are evil, but the difference between them and the demonic witches of old is that Alice, Bridget, and Ro are not evil because they’re women with agency in a place of power, they’re evil because they kill innocent people. Their evil acts revolve around themselves, rather than ruining the lives of an abstract male populace. Furthermore, they’re allowed to have personalities and lives outside of their magic and evil acts. Ro’s devotion to Itsy and Alice and Bridget’s romances with Dani and Laurent respectively.

The witches, as well as the women of Redlands are fleshed out and fully realized, a far cry from their witchy predecessors.

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