Practical Magic and Me
From boy to woman with a few things in common with a couple of witches
I watched the 90's film, Practical Magic for the first time the other day with one of my closest friends. The look on her face when I told her I’ve never seen it, or even heard of it, confirmed I’ve been missing out. I looked up the cast, saw it was about witches, and was sold.
Within the first ten minutes I was saying how much I wanted all the outfits and needed to know what hair products they were using — because I’ve literally never seen hair so beautiful as Sally’s and Gillian’s. What I really loved about the film, though, was the fact that I could relate to majority of the women characters. They were multi-dimensional and not complete archetypes of what women should be to society’s stereotypes.
In one scene Gillian, (played by Nicole Kidman), was dancing at a house party after running away from home with some guy she was in love with at the moment. She seemed free, happy, no inhibitions, and surrounded by fawning men. My friend pointed at the screen and said, “That’s you!”
I was puzzled, flattered, and refused to accept the claim of being as desirable and powerful as Gillian. But my friend insisted I’m beautiful, headstrong, and always being pursued by guys who don’t deserve my time. As the film progressed I…
