In 2009, Obama was in the White House, Labour was in government, Elphaba had already been defying gravity for six years on Broadway, and in the film He’s Just Not That Into You, we were asked to suspend our disbelief that Ginnifer Goodwin isn’t a complete goddess.

Unlucky in love, she must be coached in men by f*ckboy bartender, Justin Long. Early on he tells her she’s not the exception, she’s the rule, so if a guy is “treating her like he doesn’t give a shit, he genuinely doesn’t give a shit. No exceptions.”

Low and behold, by the end of the movie, Justin Long is taking Ginnifer in his arms and saying, “You’re my exception.”

Being picked out as the exception is intoxicating. For those of us socialised as little girls, being told you’re “not like other girls” can be the first time we ever feel powerful. It can feel like the price of entry, both in romantic love and politics. This is true even for those of us who come to identify as lesbian, queer, gender non-conforming or trans.

Twenty years after its Broadway debut, the world is, once again, Wicked mad.

Perhaps the enduring power of Wicked, is that it exposes a universal truth about conservativism and women in power. Glinda is more conservative than her best friend, Elphaba. She believes in the system, she’s famously “Popular,” more classically feminine, and understands how to charm those in power. Elphaba is the more talented, yet Glinda is the one who attains political power while Elphaba, the radical, is villainised, dehumanised for the colour of her skin and literally hunted down.

Whether in Westminster, Washington, or the magical land of Oz, women are faced a choice. Are you a Glinda the Good or a Wicked Witch?

In other words, make the system work for you and be held up as the exception, or challenge oppressive structures and face character assassination. The intensity of the character attacks on Dianne Abbot and Angela Rayner can feel like something akin to decrying the Labour MP and Deputy Prime Minister as witches.

In Western........

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