Table Of ContentThe New Witches
The New Witches
Critical Essays on 21st Century
Television Portrayals
Edited by Aaron K.H. Ho
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina
This book has undergone peer review.
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Names: Ho, Aaron K.H., editor.
Title: The new witches : critical essays on 21st century television
portrayals / edited by Aaron K.H. Ho.
Description: Jefferson, North Carolina : McFarland & Company, Inc.,
Publishers, 2021 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021019769 |
♾
ISBN 9781476679150 (paperback acid free paper)
ISBN 9781476642888 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Witches on television. | Television programs—United
States—History—21st century. | Television programs—Great
Britain—History—21st century. | Feminism. | BISAC: PERFORMING ARTS /
Television / Genres / Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror
Classification: LCC PN1992.8.W58 N49 2021 | DDC 791.45/677—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021019769
British Library cataloguing data are available
ISBN (print) 978-1-4766-7915-0
ISBN (ebook) 978-1-4766-4288-8
© 2021 Aaron K.H. Ho. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
Front cover image © Shutterstock / Ironika
Printed in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
To Melissa He
Acknowledgments
Layla Milholen at McFarland has been wonderful to
work with and I appreciate her guidance on this book
greatly. I learned much from the contributors with
their w ide-ranging expertise. It has been a thrilling
ride and I could ask for no better company.
vi
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments vi
Introduction—“That’s how I like my witches”: The New Witches
on 2 1st-Century Television
Aaron K.H. Ho 1
Intersectional Politics and History:
Race, the #MeToo Movement and the Witch
“This is a reckoning”: Intersectional Feminism and the #MeToo
Movement in Charmed
Katherine J. Lehman 10
From Witchcraft Activism to Witch Hunt Sentiments:
The Changing Political Landscape in American Horror Story
Johanna Braun 28
R e-Remembering the Past: Hauntological Feminist Memories
of Salem in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
Brydie Kosmina 41
Good Witch, Bad Witch: Identities and Ethics
Declawing the Jungle Cat: Caging Feminine Power on the
CW’s The Secret Circle
Charity A. Fowler 56
The Witches of the West and the Boundaries of Goodness
Lindsey Mantoan 73
“When witches don’t fight, we burn!” Monstrosity and Violence
in American Horror Story: Coven
Emily Brick 87
vii
viii Table of Contents
The Witchy Body: Sexualities and Disabilities
Condensing the Palate: Queer Representation and
Heteronormativity in Charmed
Samuel Naimi 100
Queerness and Historical Sadomasochism in Salem
Tanner Alan Sebastian 111
Teenage Furies: The Rape-Revenge Genre in American
Horror Story: Coven
Christine R. Payson 126
Witches with Disabilities on 2 1st-Century Television Programs
Aaron K.H. Ho 139
Disembodiment of the Witch: Ecofeminism,
Digital Humanities and Beyond Blood
The Literal and the Metaphorical: Othered Voices in Salem
Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns 158
“The world never did help a smart girl”: Disembodied
Digitalization, the Open Access Library and BuzzFeed
in The Magicians
Natalie R. Sheppard 172
Beyond Blood: The Negotiation of Biological and Chosen
Families in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
Alissa Burger 187
Appendix: 2 1st-Century Television and Streaming Programs
with Witches 203
About the Contributors 205
Index 207
Introduction
“That’s how I like my witches”: The New
Witches on 2 1st-Century Television
Aaron K.H. Ho
Sabrina: I want freedom and power.
Prudence: He will never give you that. The Dark Lord. The
thought of you, of any of us, having both terrifies him.
Sabrina: Why is that?
Prudence: He’s a man, isn’t he?
—1x2 “The Dark Baptism”
Rewatching Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018–2020) for the third
time, I am still awestruck at the scene above, not because Sabrina and the
Weird Sisters have banded together in solidarity to combine their powers
to humiliate four entitled, misogynistic, transphobic jocks, magically trap-
ping their manhood in birdcages; not because the artful scene blends a tri-
umphant tone with humor, disquiet, and foreboding; not because the scene
is empowering to viewers, especially women and minorities, who have been
bullied before; not because the scene offers the satisfaction of revenge on the
misbehaved boys; and not because they pass the Bechdel test of two pow-
erful young women not talking about heterosexual romance but instead
they are exchanging information and sharing knowledge. The scene’s power
comes from all those elements, but the most striking of all, to me, is the
almost 1 6-year-old Sabrina’s cocksure proclamation of desiring both power
and freedom in the c oming-of-age series. It is rare to see on the small screen
a confident and ambitious woman, and rarer still to witness a girl with the
same qualities. In this sense, Sabrina isn’t the common fictional teenager.
Most fictional teenagers—from Harry Potter to Spiderman—doubt their
abilities, reject at some point their powers, and question and s econd-guess
their actions; Sabrina revels in power. Even though Sabrina has a half witch,
1
