Harker: Why I think Charmed made me feminist

My dad always jokes that I was born a liberal; he thinks it must have been some kind of mix up since he’s pretty much the poster boy for the Republican party. For a while I thought I must have taken after my mom, but that was mostly me insinuating my own views on someone who never spoke about theirs. My wake-up call to that actually came at the latest primary election when my sister informed me that my mom had voted for Trump, after my mother made my sister swear she wouldn’t tell me.
So this has made me start to wonder where I could have gotten these ideals from and made me ask the question, “Why am I a feminist?” I don’t think I’ve ever really made a case for either side of the nature versus nurture argument, but if I had never been exposed to something like this and it doesn’t come from my genes, how could I ever be so strong in my convictions at such a young age?
Well, where else could I look to but television?
Confession time: I used to have a very real obsession with the old T.V. show, Charmed. My best friend used to own every season on DVD, and I used to spend entire weeks in the summer binge-watching.

If you’re not familiar with Charmed, it’s a show about three sister witches who go through all sorts of battles and crises, fighting demons, finding love and working together as a family. It’s pretty awesome.
I had almost forgotten about the mystical life of the Halliwell sisters until I started watching old reruns on TNT every morning. One thing that struck me was that when I was younger and watching the show, I never realized how blatantly feminist it was.
Granted, it’s a T.V. show, and an older one at that since it started its first season in 1998 and ended in 2006. But the whole basis of the show is a magical, matriarchal line of these very independent women. Most of these women had children (all daughters), but none stayed married for long. The show does explore a number of different romances throughout its eight seasons, but the real love it showcases is that between sisters, mothers, daughters and friends.
Now that I’m older and seeing this in a new light, the women of the Halliwells’ ancient family tree bear striking parallels to the women of Herland, a novel from author Charlotte Perkins Gilman. A race of ultra-strong superior beings whose focus in life is their children’s growth and development, only with a little more magic and a few more men.
Overall, I can’t ever answer the question of whether I liked Charmed because I am a feminist or whether liking Charmed made me a feminist. What I do know, however, is that being exposed to something so centered on the love between women had a real influence on me and how I live my life today. I hope everyone gets the chance to watch this show at some point, so that they also have the opportunity to be exposed to something as mystically feminist as their magical world.
Jessica Harker is a third-year communications student and the IC’s Editor-in-Chief.