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Hero or Villain?

Hero or Villain?

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The hero or villain…often depends on perspective.   So much of what we believe and hold to be truth is passed down to us from our parents, grandparents, friends, siblings and the stories we are told.  The beauty in story is that it helps our brains conceptualize, and our emotions connect and therefore we remember and internalize the information in deeper more meaningful ways, especially when we see ourselves reflected in the story.   As a kid, I loved, I mean LOVED the movie The Wizard of Oz.  I loved the music, the vibrant colors and of course, Dorothy’s sparkly shoes. I’m fairly certain it was this movie that was the impetus of my love for, and some say, addiction to beautiful shoes.    I thought the Wizard was a truly benevolent man who found himself in a foreign land and did his best to help the people of Oz, and even in his flawed attempt at being the Great and Powerful Oz, ended up being kind and helping each one of Dorothy’s troupe and even though he wasn’t able to get Dorothy home, he tried his best and was endearing.   As I watched The Wizard of Oz year after year, I started to see the Wizard differently.  I began to realize he wasn’t who I believed him to be for so many years.  I saw through his tricks, the illusions and that he was a fraud…but even then, I didn’t see him a straight up BAD person, just one who tried to make his way in a foreign land and WANTED to be good, but had somehow lost his way…   and THEN I saw Wicked.  If you haven’t seen Wicked, it’s the Broadway musical, based on the book, Wicked, published in 1995, written by Gregory Maguire and is the prequel or origin story of the two witches in the Wizard of Oz, Elphaba, The Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda, The Good Witch.  Wicked shows us how these two young women meet at Shiz University and how their unlikely friendship develops.   If you’ve seen the Wizard of Oz, but have never seen Wicked you might still believe that Elphaba was the villain, and that the Wizard was the hero.  However, throughout Wicked, we learn about Elphaba, and all that happened to her.  Elphaba is an incredibly kind, compassionate, and caring young woman who, even while ostracized, bullied and tormented daily due to the color of her skin, uses her incredible magical powers to fight for justice for all who were being oppressed and silenced in Oz because they were “different” and challenged those in power.    At the end of Wicked, we learn the traveling salesman who had an affair with Elphaba’s mother, gave her the green elixir and put all these wheels in motion, had indeed, become, the Wizard of Oz.   The Wizard, was nothing more than a traveling salesman who landed in Oz, had no magical powers of his own and who, manipulated Elphaba, and everyone around him into creating the façade that he was “The All Knowing and Powerful Oz”.  Through his manipulation and conditioning, he created a world where everyone in Oz believed he was powerful, magical and benevolent.  He surrounded himself with those who would consistently tell him what he wanted to hear and who would reject and even harm, anyone or anything that challenged this paradigm.  The sycophants in the Wizards inner circle had positional power due to their proximity to the Wizard and because of their own insecurities, and desire for power, ensured everyone in Oz had just enough fear to remain compliant, while also trying to endear themselves to the Wizard by playing the role of blissfully happy, non-independent thinking citizens of Oz.  We also learn that the Wizard tricked Elphaba by making her think she was saving the monkeys, when in reality, the spell she used, made the monkeys sprout wings, thus creating his own flying spy network so the Wizard could keep watch on all the citizens of Oz.   So, why this walk down my childhood movie memory lane?  Well, the parallels between the Wizard of Oz and what I have experienced time after time as an Executive Woman, are incredibly similar, and I bet for many of you, too.   How many times have we started a new job, or been promoted and during the “honeymoon phase” we see our new boss or co-workers as kind, compassionate, benevolent and as someone who truly cares about our growth, success and well-being?  In our efforts to show them we are worthy, we jump through hoops, we believe them, we work late, we come in early, we skip lunches, work through weekends and do absolutely anything possible to show our value.    As time passes, we often ignore the subtle signs that perhaps they aren’t the person we thought they were. We turn a blind eye to the blatant signs in front of us.  We tell ourselves that they “didn’t really mean to embarrass me in that meeting”, or that they simply don’t understand how hurtful or degrading it is when our male co-worker gets promoted based on his “potential” while we, as women, have to wait until they are convinced of our merit before we are even ...
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