Chilling Adventures of Sabrina – Netflix’s reboot of the 90s cackle-com Sabrina the Teenage Witch – brings together a few contemporary cultural trends. One is nostalgia – it is born of the same universe, Archie Comics, as last year’s teen drama Riverdale. Another is plucky young people being pitted against the supernatural à la Stranger Things. And then there is the feminist power of witches.
On the cusp of her “dark baptism” coming-of-age ceremony, 15-year-old Sabrina Spellman (Kiernan Shipka, best known as Sally Draper in Mad Men) is half witch, half mortal. Torn between the two worlds, she uses her powers for feminist good. When her non-binary best friend is bullied by football players about whether “she is a boy or a girl”, Sabrina reports it to the (straight, it is assumed) white, male principal. He refuses to act – telling Sabrina: “You’re suggesting a witch hunt” – so she hexes him with spiders.
Witchcraft’s connection with feminism dates as far back as the first witch trials, once parsed as the persecution of women who defied the male establishment. The feminist movement reclaimed the sexist slur “witch”, with several groups in the US campaigning as Women’s International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell in the late 60s.
Witch called on feminists to align with other liberal causes to campaign for wider social change. (Other expansions were used, depending on the cause of the day, including Women Incensed at Telephone Company Harassment, Women Infuriated at Taking Care of Hoodlums and Women Interested in Toppling Consumer Holidays.) The witch was its central symbol, accessed – as one of its pamphlets explained – “by being female, untamed, angry, joyous and immortal”.
Some feminists are reclaiming the craft as well as the word. Like Witch, they are motivated by the greater good. President Trump and the #MeToo movement have reportedly mobilised a new generation of witches in the US, with mass hexings following Trump’s inauguration. The website Broadly reported on an antifascist spellbook drafted on Google Docs. This month, a coven met to hex the new supreme court justice, Brett Kavanaugh.
With its hip soundtrack, retro feel and intersectional feminism, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina reflects this millennial face of witchcraft. To support her friend, Sabrina co-founds – with the daughter of a Black Panther – a club “to topple the white patriarchy”: the Women’s Intersectional Cultural and Creative Association, or Wicca. And so feminism rides its third magical wave.
