Manhood from the Wizard of Oz

Wizard of Oz, 1939

I received this from a man in our men's group and found it interesting about one of the most influential movies of all time:

Subject: LIONS AND TIGERS AND BEARS

Men:

Growing up, ever so long ago, the Christmas season was the time of year when the networks, a mere three of them at the time, would roll out the annual Christmas movie selection. We would have to look through the newspaper to see when the movies were going to be shown and actually plan ahead to watch them. (You young bucks, who can download any movie, any time, cannot possibly relate to this. You are spoiled.) Watching these movies was an event of the season that we looked forward to each Christmas. There were several that I recall most vividly: “It’s a Wonderful Life” with Jimmy Stewart, “Miracle on 34th Street” with Natalie Wood, and a perennial favorite, which you could even catch in the off-season if you were lucky, “The Wizard of Oz.” The latter was particularly memorable because millions of adolescent boys developed a crush on Dorothy as she sat on a hay baler alongside her dog Toto singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” As we watch Dorothy encountering difficulties and facing great danger, the spirit of our emerging manhood would begin to rise as we contemplated ways we could rescue her from her plight.

Much to our collective chagrin, however, no man or manhood figure arises along the way to protect Dorothy from the devices of the Wicked Witch of the West—in fact, it is quite the opposite. I don’t normally cast myself as a film critic, but I will do my best, even though, as Professor Marvel would say, I speak in the “vernacular of the peasantry.”

Along the Yellow Brick Road
Dorothy’s three companions along the “yellow brick road” are a great picture of 21st century manhood—or lack thereof. The opening scenes of the film sets the stage for these pusillanimous personalities, where Auntie Em, clearly in charge of the farm, threatens to fire the three field hands if they don’t get their work done. She is also the only one willing to confront Elmira Gulch, who owns half the county. Auntie Em, however, is a storm trooper compared to her husband, Dorothy’s Uncle Henry. Uncle Henry, a/k/a “Mr. Passivity,” helps Elmira Gulch put Toto in the basket so she can deliver the poor pooch to the sheriff (who has almost certainly received illegal campaign contributions from Elmira). Later, along with the farmhands, Uncle Henry locks Dorothy out of the storm cellar while a “twister” bears down on her.

After Dorothy’s unscheduled landing “somewhere over the rainbow” on top of the Wicked Witch of the East, she is declared the “heroine of Munchkin Land.” Unimpressed by her newfound notoriety, Dorothy just wants to get home. As the story goes, Dorothy sets out to find the “Wonderful Wizard of Oz” because he is purportedly the one who can tell her how to get back to Kansas and her family. The way there, for those who have not seen the movie, is along the fabled “yellow brick road,” named so because, as you may have guessed, it is paved with yellow bricks. The Wicked Witch of the West is after Dorothy for killing her sister from the east. She also desperately desires a pair of designer “ruby slippers” that came off of the feet of the Wicked Witch of the East after she died from the blunt force trauma of a house falling on her, slippers that suddenly appear on Dorothy’s feet. Dorothy is in grave danger, but she does have the right shoes for the occasion.

Along the way, Dorothy meets her three companions, the Scarecrow, who scares no one; the Tin Man, who does nothing; and the Lion, who fears everything. Each of these characters is presented as a product of his own natural flaw: no brains, no heart, and no courage. Scarecrow, having no brains, can’t make up his mind, and the crows laugh in his face—the picture of INDECISIVENESS. Tin Man got caught in a rainstorm and is now just an “empty kettle,” frozen in time—the picture of VICTIMHOOD. Lion, who is “born to be a sissy, without the vim and verve,” declares, in song, that there is “no denying, I am just a dandelion, a fate I don’t deserve”—the picture of EMASCULATION.

Off to See the Wizard
Urged on by the determined Dorothy, the four forlorn travelers arrive at the Emerald City where they soon discover the Wizard of Oz to be anything but helpful. The “wonderful wizard” demands that they bring him the broomstick of Wicked Witch of the West before he will give them any help. In attempting to meet the Wizard’s demands, Dorothy is captured, and her three companions finally gather together a bit of collective testosterone to help Dorothy escape captivity in the Witch’s castle. In a manner reminiscent of “The Three Stooges,” the trio bungles the rescue and are captured along with Dorothy, only to be saved because Dorothy’s inadvertently tosses of a bucket of water on the Wicked Witch of the West, who melts away into the pavement like a scoop of ice cream falling off a cone on a hot summer day. Instead of lopping off heads of the Wicked Witch’s soldiers and demanding reparations and lifetime servitude, Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion all stand there passively, looking on while Dorothy receives the accolades of the soldiers who shout, “Hail to Dorothy, the Wicked Witch is dead.” Dorothy, a 12-year-old Kansas farm-girl, saves the whole lot of ‘em.

The Wizard of Oz, who is clearly a match for Dorothy’s three companions in the areas of debility and impotence, turns out to be a fraud as well. He self-servingly, and quite falsely, describes himself as a “very bad Wizard” but a “very good man.” The Wizard’s goodness is supposedly demonstrated by his presentation of an honorary degree to the brainless Scarecrow, a testimonial watch in the shape of a heart to the still empty Tin Man, and a medal for courage to the very uncourageous Lion, none of which awards are meritorious, and all of which mean nothing. This guy doesn’t even know how to operate a hot-air balloon. Dorothy has to rely on the Good Witch Glinda, who instructs her how to use the ruby slippers to get herself and “Toto too” back to Kansas because her companions were a bunch of wimps who couldn’t even drag her out of a field of poppies. Color them PATHETIC.

Fighting the Failed Life
Today’s culture nurtures men who approach life as indecisive victims of circumstance—weak and laden with fear. These type of men walk down the road of their existence chanting “Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh my!” and then wrap themselves into a fetal position, resigned to a passive response every time challenges or adversities come their way. This mental defeat is brought about by a cultural juggernaut of false philosophies and the corresponding refusal to accept the divinely-designed, unique roles of men. Manly virtues are demeaned, and the unique capabilities of courage, honor, and perseverance that men are designed for are suppressed and even punished. This prevailing norm of expectations and demands upon men fosters ignorance, self-pity, and the debilitating attitudes of fear and despair, resulting in a malaise of purpose and significance—destroying any semblance of true manhood as God intended.

So exactly, what does this dispatch have to do with Christmas? I don’t know. I just got all agitated and decided to send it.

Harper sends

Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
1 Corinthians 16:13