I saw the first two-thirds of the story as more driven by her sociological background than feminist intentions. As a piece of speculative fiction, I thought it worked very well, and I broke off in laughter several times (I was also reading this out loud – it’s very conducive to that.)

Cat C.: As you have noted, in that era, any woman even suspected of being not of the natural order (loud, outspoken, opinionated) would have been branded a witch. Whether she was using the word “witch” self-reflexively, we will never know, but using the term for any woman with a quirky magical talent works fairly well, I think. Today, we have many women reclaiming all sorts of terms, in order to change their meaning. Indeed, the connotations are important when we consider who is saying it – a minister accusing a woman of being a witch, and a woman calling herself a witch, have two very different dynamics, after all!

I could relate to the bit about the subway, too, like Randy said. The stress and frustration that come to a head when you realize, nope, I’m really not gonna get on this train, is a unique sensation. Really gets that blood pressure spiking :0)

I didn’t care for the fact that words and ideas around “feminist” and “witch” were linked. To make a sweeping generalization, a lot of outspoken and intelligent women throughout history have been branded witches or heretics or what have you, and been tortured and killed (or in today’s political arena, skewered for wearing pantsuits instead of something more “feminine”…). I think that the author unconsciously played into a lot of those old negative stereotypes and superstitions by calling her character a “witch,” and I think that she damaged her message by doing so. Her character didn’t strike me as much of a witch (her power just kind of fell into her lap, no rituals or effort involved) so I don’t think that the word “witch” was necessary to understand what was happening in the story. Plus the theme of “the wicked witch is dead! (or has no powers left!)” is really overdone in literature.

Please note that I am not super up on feminist theory or the history of the witch trials, so please feel free to correct me if my assumptions are incorrect.

I understand intellectually that the story hinges on the fact that she was wishing black, and the Woman Power wish was white. I could also see an argument that human nature, and American society, is such that change for the better tends not to occur until the status quo becomes too painful or sufficiently undesirable for those who maintain and profit from it.

And I quite liked her wish on the Church, and her solution to newspapers, and would love to see that extended to online and television news and pundits today. So she started to win me over with these examples.

I can also see that this was an honest character portrayal. People naturally tend to be rather focused on themselves and their immediate environment, and to portray her as being altruistic and wise in all her thoughts and choices, especially before she realized her wishes came real, would have been false. Having had a few bus and ferry doors slammed in my face, or watched them drive right past me, I can totally empathize with the character’s angry wishes about the cabs, for example, and so this does a good job of connecting me with the character, making her believable.

But nonetheless, imagining this in the context of a piece meant to inspire thoughts and discussion on feminism, I wondered if it might not backfire somewhat. While I found the story itself charming, again, I found the character rather unlikeable, especially for the first two thirds of the story. And if she is meant to represent feminist ideals, or to be a pro-feminist voice, then might any perceived selfishness, or the perception that her approach to other social problems were somewhat misguided, then be used by readers to rationalize that her feminist stance might also therefore be selfish and misguided?

And just to be clear, I am not saying feminists are selfish and misguided, I’m saying might someone who wishes to believe so or is battling cognitive dissonance in accepting feminist principles not find just as much justification in this story to support their anti-feminist views as a pro-feminist might find the story positive for having raised the issue at all?

And I wondered if one point of the story was that even a woman selfish and relatively privileged should see the bond she has with all other women and wish for them to be empowered?

Anyway, I imagined this story more as preaching to the choir than converting anyone who didn’t already feel as she did.

But again, strictly looking at it as a piece of speculative fiction, it is a wonderful story.

Anyway, this is just first (rambly) impressions, open to revision upon rereading the story or other additional input. Feel free to tell me all the ways in which I am entirely incorrect and ill informed