Does a fictitious character that inspired countless women mean as much as one that exists? Can inspiration be found in someone we met when she was nine? And do men have to be aware of their reactions to women who refuse to conform? In the case of Wednesday Adams, the answer to all of these and more is yes.
This is the first time we have written about a fictitious character. Fem Friday has always been about women who have inspired other women and need to be celebrated. But some characters are cultural icons. When we talk about Wednesday Adams, it would be more appropriate to call her an iconoclast. An iconoclast is not only a person who strongly opposes generally accepted beliefs and traditions, but attacks them and even smashes them. And that is something that Wednesday specializes in.
Over the decades 14 different people have portrayed Wednesday on stage and screen. To focus on one portrayal could allow us to miss the mystique and wonder of Wednesday. Countless actors have played Darth Vader, Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Bond, and other iconic roles. We may have our favorite, but that is an individual experience in a larger world when we speak of a character as long running as Wednesday.
The Wednesday Origin Story: Rise of the Iconoclast!
August 26, 1944 Wednesday appeared in a New Yorker comic where Gomez is telling Wednesday in the caption, “Well, don’t come whining to me. Go tell him you’ll poison him right back.” The Addams family had existed in New Yorker comic strips for 6 years at this point. The family and the characters did not have names yet, but they were the beginning.
In 1966, when the characters were adapted for the first television show about them, the family and the family members needed names. Actress and poet Joan Blake, a friend of the creators, suggested Wednesday for the daughter because of the line from the nursery rhyme, Monday’s Child.
“Wednesday’s child is full of woe.” After 22 years of entertaining people, the 6 year old child had a name to go with the black dress and pigtails.
The Eternal 9 Year Old Find’s Gen X
In a time before the internet offering whatever we want to watch on demand, there were limited options for the latch key generation who had a television instead of adult supervision. In the Chicago area we had WGN, Channel 9, offering us reruns of child friendly shows. The late 60’s Addams family was one of those offerings. Across the country most people had a local channel on the UHF dial offering the same reruns.
Most of us were around Wednesday’s age when we discovered the Addams family. She made weird and dark funny for all of us. For little girls she would give some early lessons about possibilities that society would try to deny them as they grew into womanhood.
Her favorite hobby was raising spiders. Of all her spiders, her favorite was Homer who she wrote poems about. Her favorite doll was Marie Antoinette that, by her request, she had her brother guillotine. Like any six year old, she loves to paint pictures. In her case it was sometimes a tree with human heads. We got to watch a little girl who was obsessed with death, the macabre, and enjoys being miserable. But in that lane of being herself she is also good-natured, loved to dance, and had a distaste for torture, but only a slight distaste (poor Pugsly). She does smile, but only when she wants to. That last bit was critical to little girls to see in every incarnation of Wednesday. A resting Wednesday face is a real face and it is her face on her terms in her life.
The Timeless Impact On Her Fans
Wednesday has been a part of many generations considering her first appearance to the world was 80 years ago. Unlike the women we have written about, she is a work of fiction and imagination. So she never started a foundation, changed legislation, or fought for human rights that affected our plane of existence. But Star Trek fans love to tell me how Scotty inspired many to become engineers and Uhura inspired black women to be executives and officers demanding equal space.
I spoke to women and some non binary friends I have who are Boomers, Xers, Millennials, and Gen Z. In an online meeting and a few private conversation there were some recurring themes of inspiration.
The first was the aforementioned smile. She smiles when she wants to. In western culture we force smiles upon women that we do not put upon men. When a woman does not smile, we will not say her expression was neutral, we will say she has resting bitch face. I was told by multiple women her refusal to comply with this has given them an example.
Continuing in that vein, she is a bold and confidant young woman who accepts herself. Her interests are hers and it does not matter what anyone thinks of them. There is no need to hide her interests, be ashamed of them, or concern herself with her expressions not being feminine. This inspired some of the women I spoke with to be themselves and strive to not let the opinions of others dictate their passions.
There is no shame in being intelligent. Especially in the movies and the recent Netflix version women of many generations see her as an intelligent woman. They told me that when they were in middle school, high school, and even college and the adult workplace, this is not seen as a positive trait by male peers and even some female peers. To see someone who does not care that her knowledge base is seen as weird or unattractive has been an inspiration in herstory.
Wednesday Addams, for many women I spoke with, was the first non conformist they saw. Non conformity takes on many expressions, but in almost all of the expressions it takes, it is the mark of a strong and independent assertive woman.
There were some people that gave an insight that I did not expect. Neurodivergent people told me that she is an iconoclast because they see her as one of them. They told me that she does not like to be touched, she seems to not understand social cues of others, and her face having little expression is apparently a trait many of them resonate with and loved seeing represented well in many of her incarnations on screen. They told me that many times when someone in that last category is portrayed in movies it is always sympathetic and not cognitive or emotionally stable. But in the case of Wednesday it is the protagonist who is fully capable, aware, and intelligent. They want to see more representation like that and it is important to them.
Fashion. For many of the women I spoke with, seeing Wednesday at a young age was their first exposure to a goth aesthetic. Fashion is more than just what we like or what is popular. It is a part of our expression. As the month progresses we will speak more to modern goth culture. But for many women, being a woman in Goth culture is very empowering, Wednesday (and her mother) were seen as an early gateway to an aesthetic and culture that meant and means a lot to them.
Finally, there is the dark side. For some of them they found peace in that. There were confessions of being into things that other see as dark, macabre, and morbid. Maybe even a little disturbing. Many of the people I spoke with who leaned into this sometimes offered disclaimers, but I get it. Kink, death, spiders, serial killer biographies, and other things that are considered taboo by society hurt no one. One person’s joy and jam is another person’s disgust and Wednesday showed us her disgust for things considered “normal” often.
The Male Gaze
I did talk to some men about Wednesday. With one exception it did not go well. I got to hear opinions about if they would date or could marry someone like Wednesday. Then there were the ones that told me goth women are hot and they wished she had more goth ink because that is hot. These are progressive white adult males talking about a character that in all but one portrayal is a minor. Think about that for a moment. They tell me feminism matters and Kamala is awesome and then tell me the datability and fuckability of a minor. We are no longer friends.
There was one man, a father of a daughter who I spoke with. He told me how much he loved the Addams Family movies and his daughter had just turned 13 when Wednesday premiered on Netflix. They sat down together as father and daughter and enjoyed every episode. He is Mexican and he loved that Ortega and this Addams family was like his family. He loved that his daughter got to see a strong, independent, Latina at an age when that can make a difference. She is beginning to have classmates ask her if she is an “illegal”. They make jokes about deporting her and consumption of missing pets. This young lady and my friend live in the town I grew up in. That is upsetting. He tells me this bullying over her race is the beginning of her entire life from his and his wife’s experience. Ortega gave his daughter something important. He was not expecting that and he did not know Netflix was going to add that to the mix, but he teared up as he told me how grateful he was for his daughter to see strong Latina women not only represented, but represented in one of the most popular shows when it aired. He was emphatic in telling me that I do not understand how important this is. And he is right. I do not understand. I was at his daughter’s Christening when she was a baby and told an Episcopal Priest I would take my role as godfather seriously. And as we get closer to election day I am concerned for her safety in my hometown. I have renewed my commitment as her godfather, but it may be more like a Vito Corleone than what the priest intended.
The Wednesday Effect
I know a few women in Goth culture. I wrote about my Cuban Goth friend Catalina in a prior Fem Friday, “Siouxsie Sioux and the Unrelenting Banshee Challenge a Creature“. This is not directly related to Wednesday but she represents some of the things women and a father expressed to me. A strong Latina woman, Goth aesthetic, fearless and fiercely herself, and would not comply to societal norms to appease others.
But with Wednesday, I will stick with my early childhood exposure of her and the impact it had on me. Wednesday Addams and Jodi Foster‘s character in The Courtship of Eddie’s Father came into my life at the same time. They needed to happen at the same time so I could have a repetitive message. Little girls were my peers and my equals. They did not have to dress a certain way or like certain things to be a girl. They could be a girl, dress how they wanted, like what they wanted, and smile and not smile when they wanted. None of this was threatening to me at a young age.
Eventually bad peers and bad churches would erode my resolve and conclusions that women are fully equal and it would be decades before I would find that childhood innocence that contains more wisdom and truth than misogyny does.
Tell Me Your Wednesday Story
What do you love about Wednesday? How did she inspire you? What would you like to see more of in pop culture that Wednesday brings to the table?
I know she prefers to be vilified, but like her, I’m stubborn, single-minded, and obsessive. But those are all traits of great writers. Yes, and serial killers.
Support Gen X Watch!
We rely on readers like you to continue our work. A few moments and you can make a difference:
1. Share this story with a friend and leave a comment.
2. Tip me! I need your support!
3. Become a Members Only Patreon! In the Patreon I will have unfiltered rants, exclusive content, podcasts (with closed captioning), and more.
Thank you for your support and taking the time to read this.
Stay Totally Awesome! Stay true to you!
Leave a Reply