Let's Talk About..."Bewitched"

Ok. Remember watching "Bewitched" and "I Dream of Jeannie" on television? Remember Aunt Bea on "The Andy Griffith Show?" I couldn't get enough of any of those shows back in the day.

Samantha, a witch, could clean the house with a twitch of her nose. She could transport to Paris, call her parents, call Doctor Bombay, and turn people into animals in a snap. Jeannie, a genie, just had to blink and anything she wished for appeared. How great was that?

They were the most powerful women on TV in the 60s and early 70s.

Or were they?

Samantha and Jeannie were gifted with magical abilities and yet both were told not to use them by bumbling men. And they "obeyed!" What was that telling young people?

The message to young me was clearly, "Listen to your husband, even to your own detriment." Didn't we learn from those shows that men's egos, status and abilities were inherently greater than women's? Even if it was obvious they weren't? Jeannie even had to call Major Nelson "Master." How messed up is that?

We learned, among other things, to ignore the obvious. Primarily, that Darrin and Major Nelson were not as smart as Samantha and Jeannie. Even when they weren't using magic.

Despite centuries of life and unlimited talents, these sitcom women still did all the housework and domestic duties, often without magic, catered to the men, and didn't work outside of the home.

Remember how Darrin would let Samantha know he was bringing home his boss, Larry Tate, for cocktails with about five minutes notice? She was expected to drop everything and provide drinks, snacks and look good all at once. It took magic to make that happen. But no one questioned that he had such unreasonable expectations to begin with.

But you know what? At the same time, Samantha regularly came up with brilliant ad campaigns to save Darrin's career without witchcraft. Even without supernatural powers, she still outsmarted the male characters. It is worth noting that Darrin had no compunction about claiming Samantha's ideas as his own.

Remember, these powerful yet submissive characters were in sharp contrast to Aunt Bea, the nurturing homemaker, or Samantha's nosy neighbor, Gladys Kravitz, who took care of her husband Abner, complained, and watched the Stephens' house, presumably because hers was so dull.

So, growing up watching these women taught me that women have to sooth and boost men's egos and cajole them for "permission" to be you. That is crazy. Isn't it?

Thank goodness for Samantha's mother Endora, who called it like it was, and vocalized what we were all thinking about Darrin's ineptness and unsuitability for her daughter. Endora also made a huge impression, decrying traditional domestic roles. A welcome funny female counterpoint.

So, we came away from the 60s in a bit of a quandary only to be bombarded by those sitcoms' successors "Charlie's Angels" and "The Mod Squad." Still powerful women under the thumb of men. But now magic wasn't required.

What is the takeaway? Has that ingrained cultural female subservience ended 50 years later? Have we learned from those characters? What did that early "feminism" teach us young girls?

"Tradwives" aside, I believe that despite the early imprinting of stereotypes, these shows, as cringy as they may be, opened a path of empowerment and acceptance. Let's hope we have come a long way because you know what they now say about the patriarchy.