Bearing Children, Burying Childhood: An Allegory of Reproductive Rights in The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article argues that MGM’s 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz allegorizes both cultural and political responses to teen pregnancy in the 1930s, a decade which not only saw other movies address similar woman’s rights issues, but also saw legislation which eased restrictions on abortion. Part of the film’s universal appeal is its ability to represent unmarried, pregnant women from all economic brackets as well as provide a “choice” of whether to abandon or maintain what the movie directly identifies as “childhood,” or one’s “inner child,” but which seems to represent what could more accurately be called a “child within.”