When you picture a magician, what comes to mind?

Is it a fictional character like Steve Carrell in The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, or Edward Norton in The Illusionist, or Adrien Brody in Houdini? Or is it contemporary real-life magicians David Copperfield, Criss Angel, or David Blaine?

One thing you more than likely will not picture is a woman. But, perhaps it’s time we did…

Women were the earliest sorceresses, muses, and practitioners of magic. They dealt cards in parlors, they tricked audiences, and they entertained. One such woman was Adelaide Hermann, who rose to fame in the late 19th century. Starting off first as an assistant to her magician husband, Alexander Hermann, she took over the show after his death. Nicknamed the Queen of Magic, she proved to audiences, night after night, that a woman’s place was in the spotlight, not in the shadows.

Yet for some reason, men have primarily represented the world of magic. The brief glimpses of women in films about magic paint them as minor or supporting characters, or the damsel in distress. At best, they’re the stage assistant, done up in overly sexualized outfits, adding little, to no fervor to the performance.

Even the recently released film, Now You See Me 2 couldn’t get it totally right. The movie’s poster was mocked on social media for its glaring lack of women. It featured a sole female, Lizzy Caplan, promoting people to rename the film Now You See Men 2.

Caplan told Refinery29 that while preparing for her role in the film, she tried to find female magicians to talk to with no avail. “There are so few of them,” she told us. “Not only are their numbers small, but the vast majority of them have to incorporate this overly sexualized thing, which is really strange.”

Once a woman successfully makes a name for herself in the magic business, she is often faced with a series of choices on how to be perceived. There is an ongoing controversy within the industry itself because women are not sure how to be participatory in magic without capitalizing on sex. The common question seems to be, How can I be a female magician without doing a sexualized performance? And the answer, like a magic trick itself, is not obvious. These are gray areas of the magic industry that only women have to deal with. Read more..

http://www.refinery29.com/2016/06/113081/female-magicians-illusionists