Sandra Spickard Prettyman

Women, leadership, and power revisiting the Wicked Witch of the West

By examining the cultural images present in the popular musical Wicked, cultural norms and biases toward women in leadership and women’s leadership practices are explored. The discussion rests on conceptions of male and female leadership ‘styles’, how power is obtained and utilised within organisational settings and how resistance and reproduction play key roles in how women as leaders are accepted.

Moving Is Like Making Out: Developing Female University Dancers' Ballet Technique and Expression through the Use of Metaphor.

This qualitative study explored the use of metaphor within a somatic context as a means to bridge the divide between technique and expression in two undergraduate advanced intermediate ballet classes. Data included surveys, classroom observations, student journal responses and student work, as well as surveys and journal responses, one year after each course. Findings indicate that the metaphor ‘moving is like making out’ helped female students simultaneously realize their expressive and technical potentials through associations with meaningful personal experiences. Students discovered ways to think about their body in relationship to ballet movement and ballet technique became less about the labor involved in ballet and more about creating opportunities to experience pleasure in movement. Ultimately, students were able to formulate their own metaphors and used their imagination to establish personal connections to movement. These findings suggest the power of metaphor, and broader somatic approaches, as tools for ballet educators to help students transcend the dualism between technique and expression.

MEDIA REVIEW of Wicked

Everybody knows and “loves” the story of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, that childhood favorite that pits good against evil. The movie, based on the original book by L. Frank Baum, brings to life characters who continue to enchant and haunt Americans of all ages. Many of us watched this battle between good and evil play out every year on our television sets, and for many it was not only a yearly viewing, but a special family event that in many cases revolved around specific traditions like staying up late and being able to eat and drink special treats. Through this yearly viewing, many of us learned lifelong lessons about good and evil, especially as they relate to women and femininity. The story, as characterized in the movie, depicts the Wizard as all-powerful; Glinda as sweet, good, and beautiful; and the Wicked Witch of the West as just plain evil, not to mention ugly and scary. However as viewers, most of us “simply” watched the movie, taking in these lessons about good, evil, and women’s roles, without questioning or critiquing. We never questioned the assumptions we held about these well-known characters and what these assumptions could tell us about ourselves and our world. However, such a critique is important because, as Giroux (1999) argued, the media:

Book Review of Prom Night: Youth, Schools, and Popular Culture

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