Charmed Women Kick-Ass

I am constantly watching reruns of Charmed on Tv and dvds. It’s my favorite television program of all time. It all makes sense when I think about it, that I started off being a pre-teen and adolescent loving the Spice Girls, a group that coined the term girl power. And then I began watching Charmed, a tv show about three magical sisters who every episode end up literally saving the world and many “innocents” from demons. Individually and as a collective, they have proven time and time again that as three charmed witches, they are stronger and more powerful then the demonic world, which incidentally consists of mostly men, epitomizing true Girl Power. Gonick writes in her article about Girl Power and Reviving Ophelia, that “in the music industry, for example, Girl Power has been called the new buzzword to connote the phenomenon of the emergence of young female starts whose popularity can compete with and surpass their male counterparts” (Gonick, 8). The women on this show do just that in the world of the show, to where when watching it, one has no interest in seeing men, because the women prove to be strong and powerful in traditionally masculine areas, satisfying that balance.

They are not catty, and exemplify genuine female friendship and love for one another as sisters, and highlight not only their power as stronger women, but also their strength that stems from the love and loyalty to one another, something that is not exemplified enough for women in pop culture. This show, like girl power, highlights the three womens’ individual strengths and qualities. In addition to them being extremely close and succeeding when they are together, the “Charmed Ones” have just as much success in their own personal and professional lives, outside from being a witch. And let’s not forget that besides the nonstop fighting and movie-like storylines each episode, the success of a tv show like this that lasted for 8 seasons, “can be attributed to their representation of power, beautiful, young women” (Gonick, 8). These Charmed women, are gorgeous to look at and to watch kick-ass. Debbie Stoller wrote that characters like these women, “all share a common strength: the ability to leap over sexist stereotypes in a single bound… These shows are hinting that there’s a wellspring of untapped Girl Power out there, with the potential to change the world if it could only be released” (Gonick, 9). I love reading this, and seeing that me watching these kinds of shows, and continuing to watch Charmed as an adult, has a positive understone to how I’ve turned out.  Because in fact, I do think of myself as an advocate for women’s right, and a feminist. Besides enjoying girl power music and telvision shows, I was raised by two moms, which may have had something to do with innate desire for everyone to have equality, and therefore makes sense why I take pleasure in seeing powerful repsenation of females on telvision.