The Point:Something Wicked This Way Comes

Recasting the Empowered Woman

Why are powerful women so often portrayed as dangerous, mad, or monstrous?

This panel brings together artists, scholars, and cultural critics to interrogate the persistent demonization of women who wield agency, intellect, or independence. From Shakespeare’s witches and Medea’s fury to contemporary media portrayals of “difficult” women, we’ll examine how stories—on stage and off—have long served to contain or punish female power.

Through the lens of theater, history, and lived experience, this dialogue will challenge dominant narratives and offer space for reimagining what empowerment, legacy, and collective survival might look like when women are no longer cast as villains in their own stories.