"Witch" Shoe Fits? - An Exploration of Power & Authority Through Fashion

  

     Most people are familiar with the classic movie, The Wizard of Oz (lines from the movie like, "Follow the Yellow Brick Road," or, "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore," or, "I'll get you my pretty!" still work their way into normal, everyday conversations). More specifically, most people are able to associate a particular shiny, red pair of heels with this film - Dorothy's ruby red slippers. These shoes are so iconic, in fact, that one of the pairs (several pairs were made for the movie) is displayed in the National Museum of American History. Clearly these shoes hold a special place in American pop culture, but why? I mean, they're just a pair of flashy shoes, right?
     
      Dorothy's ruby red slippers end up being her means of returning to Kansas, but this magical power isn't revealed until the end of the movie. Up until this point, Dorothy only knows that these shoes elicit both admiration from the Munchkins of Munchkinland as well as hatred from the Wicked Witch of the West. The bottom line with these shoes is this - they hold great power; what

exactly that power is isn't revealed until the end of the movie after Dorothy clicks her heels three times while chanting, "There's no place like home." Clearly, these shoes are far from being just a mere fashion statement. Here you have this ordinary, "plain-Jane" girl from Kansas who is tired of her dull life on the farm and wants to find a faraway land "somewhere over the rainbow." Evidently after wishing to find this faraway land, she is whisked-away in a tornado into this magical Land of Oz. Almost immediately after she blows into Oz, she is dubbed its heroine because her
house coincidentally lands on and kills the tyrannical Wicked Witch of the East. The Munchkins of Munchkinland rejoice because their tyrant has been killed and now this simple Midwest girl is their leader. But wait! To make this leadership official, Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, zaps these ruby red slippers off of the dead feet of the Wicked Witch of the East and hands them over to Dorothy.  Now, Dorothy has the power to rightfully rule over the Munchkins. And, yet, no one ever questions the morality of how this power is obtained.

          Sure, the Wicked Witch of the East is evil and treats the Munchkins terribly, but Dorothy essentially kills her to obtain the power as ruler. Instead of questioning if this is the right way to go about the "passing of leadership," Dorothy simply accepts the role and slips on the ruby-colored heels. She realizes that these heels hold great power and distinguish her as a leader, and she relishes in this idea (as shown in a snazzy song/dance number performed for her by the Munchkins). The concept of using fashion to discern whom holds power over others relates
to the societal workings of France before the French Revolution.

         Before the middle class took over society and heavily influenced the fashion scene, the Bourbon royalty and the aristocracy of France donned extravagant clothing that distinguished them from the lower classes. Just as Dorothy uses her ruby red slippers to set herself above the Munchkins, the French royalty used brightly-colored, expensive fabrics to show their superiority above the middle and lower classes. However, the middle class, or the bourgeoisie, eventually gained the momentum to start a French Revolution in 1789. They wanted to do away with the aristocracy, but not its fashion, for they felt that the fashion was what held the power. This is similar to the Wicked Witch of the West's desire to kill Dorothy because while she wants to eliminate the new ruler of Munchkinland, she doesn't want to harm the shoes because they hold all of the power. Even today, on the other side of the rainbow and over a hundred years after the French Revolution, people still allow fashion to exercise incredible power in society.

           As stated by German philosopher Immanuel Kant, "[F]ashion is not properly a matter of taste (for it may be extremely antagonistic to taste), but a matter of mere vanity in order to appear distinguished, and a matter of competition in order to surpass others in it." (Idea for a Universal

History with a Cosmopolitan Intent in The Critique of Judgement) Kant is pointing out the blatant fact that people use fashion to basically "one-up" each other. If a girl has the newest Prada bag, then clearly she must be better than the girl who couldn't even afford a Prada wallet. Granted, the girl with the newest Prada bag won't become the ruler of France or Munchkinland, but she will become a "ruler" in the small society of say, her high school. Even when looking at a larger scale, fashion indicates power and authority. A CEO of a huge company is expected to wear expensive, tailored-suits because that helps show people that he is in a position of power. If he wore sweatpants and a t-shirt to a meeting, his staff and coworkers certainly wouldn't see him in the same authoritative light. However, I feel that people shouldn't allow fashion to have such power over them.
     Although I understand that fashion will always exert some type of power in society, I don't think people should be bound by it; nor should they feel that it indicates how powerful or important they are. In the essay, Fashion, Identity, and Social Actors, by Laura Bovone, she references French philosopher, Gilles Lipovetsky, "The unconditional admiration for upper-class styles and the connection between clothing and social hierarchy disappear together with the inner hierarchy of our personal wardrobe and Sunday dress." In other words, it's what on the inside that counts.

Ethical Questions to Ponder:

• Why do you think people place such an importance on clothing and overall appearance?
• Why might the author of the Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum, have chosen a pair of shoes to represent incredible power?
• Because the bourgeoisie chose to take on the fashion of the upper class, rather than create their own style, do you think that undermines their title as revolutionists?
• Do you have a specific article of clothing that you wear to feel powerful? Why does that specific article of clothing make you feel this way?