If Glinda's the villain, then so are we

Do they (Glinda haters) have brains or knowledge? Don't make me laugh!

I’ve loved Wicked (and love is an understatement) since I was fourteen, and the movie coming out has just revitalized my dormant obsession. No matter how many times I see it, the stage version or film version, I’m always left noticing something different or thinking about something new. This week, when I saw it in theaters for the third time, Glinda got me thinking about how the way we’re raised affects our instincts and motives, especially when it comes to social justice.

There’s been an online debate (here’s one post of many) about whether or not Glinda is a villain. My initial reaction is one of ??!! as Glinda’s character is a huge part of what makes this story so complex and wonderful—so there’s my bias for you—but I get people thinking this at first. She’s shallow! She’s self-centered! She cares more about her own ambition and is willing to betray her moral compass to get what she wants! Right? Right? Or is it more complicated than that? (No need to respond; that was rhetorical.)

Some Broadway actresses choose to portray Glinda that way, as shallow, mean, petty, interested only in popularity and nothing else. But Ariana Grande didn’t. She gave us a Glinda with a conscience, a character that wants to be good, except she doesn’t know that being good and appearing good are two different things. Not yet. Elphaba helps her start to learn.

But why does Glinda think that way to begin with?

It’s clear that Glinda was raised in a luxurious world absent of hardship, a world where she is the center of everyone’s orbit. Most importantly, though, she’s raised to believe she can get her way if she just performs the right social cues and manipulates or networks with the right people. She does, often, get her way by doing this, therefore reinforcing it. She has a good heart, but this goodness is inhibited by the need—ingrained in her presumably since childhood—to be perceived well by others.

But the hat scene! You might be saying. It’s her only real moment onscreen of true meanness, yes, but you have to remember, she’s chained to other people’s perception of her. She gives Elphaba the hat because of peer pressure, and as she turns away, you can see on her face already the flicker of remorse, before any consequences have arrived, before she “got her way” by getting the training wand.

This is a part of why the Ozdust ballroom scene is so powerful. In this moment, Glinda (Galinda here, yes, I know) doesn’t swallow her conscience for the sake of her image. She openly rejects what she’s “supposed” to do, and rejects the peers who pressured her earlier, to actually do something good. Of course, she’s Glinda and everyone loves her, so this moment of defiance doesn’t cost her like Elphaba’s (grander) moment of defiance will cost her everything later.

But, still, it’s the beginning of Glinda’s character arc, the start of Elphaba stretching her perspective and helping her grow out of the self-centeredness she’s been raised to clock as goodness. Defying Gravity, however, comes before Glinda’s totally out of that character-development-chrysalis. To go with Elphaba would have required a rapid unraveling of everything she’s ever known, everything she’s been taught to be. And throw in the fact that she’s abruptly faced with what she always wanted—Morrible’s acceptance and tutelage, the possibility of being popular and making “good” on a grand scale—and she’s got a tough decision that, at that point in the film, she’s not equipped to make.

Should she have stood up for her friend against the Wizard and Madam Morrible? Should she have actually done something to help Doctor Dillamond instead of changing her name in a show of performative activism? Sure. But a worldview you’ve had your entire life can’t be shed that easily, especially in a sudden moment of decision, even when social justice demands it. How many times have we, when faced with a choice between the right thing and our comfort, chosen ourselves over others?

This is why Glinda is such a brilliant and complicated character. She’s real. We all want to believe we’re Elphaba, but would you really have gotten on that broom? Probably not.

When it comes to human beings, nothing’s as simple as good and evil. People contain both, and the potential for both, with those potentials getting cultivated or starved based on their circumstances. As Glinda says in one of the most iconic lines of the whole story: “Are people born wicked, or do they have wickedness thrust upon them?”

This line captures one of Wicked’s main takeaways: people are complicated, and it’s not as easy as you would think to categorize someone as a villain or a hero. So, to all you Glinda villainizers out there: as Elphaba says, get stuffed.