Alice in Wonderland and the Feminine

In Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland,  Alice develops her “muchness” and the courage to choose her own path.  This comes out of a descent into the Unconscious, i.e., falling down the rabbit hole and dealing with the figures in the Unconscious.

Towards the end of the movie, she uses a magical sword to successfully conquer the evil Jabberwocky; this seems to be the equivalent of the heroic young male fighting the dragon and coming into manhood.

Although I think this is one of better movies made in a long time, and does what movies should do  (portray a reality that can only imagine), I have some problems with the masculinization of Alice’s journey.  The book was originally written by a male (Lewis Carroll) and the director is a male (Tim Burton).

I think the dominant theme (and need) in this culture is the emergence of the sacred feminine — I would hope that it would not come with sword, but with a mentality that unifies with compassion rather than separates with a sword.