The Witches’ Road: A Radical Feminist Perspective on Illusions of Empowerment

Drawing Parallels Between the Witches' Road and Patriarchy's Deceptive Paths

*Caution: Spoilers Ahead*

I thoroughly enjoyed the Marvel mini-series Agatha All Along. Beneath its supernatural elements I found an exploration of how concepts appearing to be a path to one’s own objectives can ensnare and exploit women to instead primarily contribute to the male desires, however deep or superficial. This theme emerges in the final episode, where the truth of the Witches’ Road is revealed as a subconscious creation by Billy, born from a desperate bid to escape harm and seek answers to his own questions of identity. The entrapping illusion mirrors patriarchal structures that are marketed to women as paths to empowerment yet ultimately reduce those women to resources for male-driven agendas.

Much like the Witches’ Road, which promised the witches glory but led only to detriment for all but one, forms of patriarchy such as pornography, prostitution, gender ideology, and commercial surrogacy lure women with illusions of freedom, identity, and power. The Witches’ Road itself was unknowingly shaped by Billy’s interests—his Ouija board, a Lorna Wu poster, a Wicked Witch figurine—all symbols tied to his quest for self-discovery. Another telling piece of his room decor, a “Trans Lives Matter” flag, reflecting his longing to piece together a self-identity where one feels absent.

Agatha, perhaps also unknowingly, served as a ‘handmaiden’ to Billy’s desires, allowing the witch-women to be used as a method of attaining Billy’s goals once they were of no use to her. Agatha, historically, is no ally to women; she has spent centuries luring and sacrificing other witches to sustain her own power and, for a time, the existence of her “made from scratch” son. Agatha’s role as a 'handmaiden' to Billy’s desires reflects how women are sometimes complicit in these systems, drawing other women into paths that ultimately harm them.

The lyrics of The Ballad of the Witches’ Road capture the dangerous allure of this path:

“Seekest thou the road to all that's foul and fair
Gather sisters fire, water, earth and air”

These lines reflect how these industries present themselves as both foul and fair, blending danger with allure and promising women identity, power, and freedom. Like the witches who answered the call, women today are encouraged to embrace harmful paths as ways to reclaim their sexuality, only to find themselves reduced to commodities, with their value ever-decreasing in a transactional world.

“I stray not from the path, I hold death's hand in mine
Primal night, giveth sight familiar by thy side
If onе be gone, we carry on, spirit as our guidе”

The reality is that the harms done under these forms of patriarchy have led to death and suffering for a growing number of women and girls on this path, yet the lure remains. Women caught up in these industries face exploitation and harm masked as empowerment, enduring trauma that follows them even after they’ve escaped these paths.

When Agatha finally tells Billy, “The ballad was the trick. The song doesn’t mean anything, it never did,” she reveals the underlying deceit: society tricks women into following these paths under the guise of empowerment. The Ballad of the Witches’ Road was a haunting call that lured witches to their demise, much like the seductive marketing language used to present these industries as empowering choices for women. These paths continue to ensnare women and girls because society upholds them, offering them as routes to empowerment and thereby perpetuating the abuses they cause.

The final verse of The Ballad of the Witches’ Road drives this point home:

“The road is wild and wicked, winding through the wood
Where all that's wrong is right and all that's bad is good
Through many miles of tricks and trials, we'll wander high and low
Tame your fears, a door appears, the time has come to go”

These lyrics reflect that women are encouraged to push past their hesitations and follow these empowering paths. Just as the Witches’ Road twists wrong into “right” to ensnare its travelers, society disguises pornography, prostitution, gender ideology, and commercial surrogacy as feminist choices. But these roads do not offer power, only the illusion of it; they are prisons that trap women in cycles of exploitation.

Radical feminists recognize that liberation lies not in navigating these twisted paths but in dismantling them altogether. Just as the Witches’ Road required the latent power of the witches who walked it, so too do patriarchal industries depend on women’s labor, bodies, and identities to reap benefits. Tearing down these illusions clears the way to valuing women as whole beings, free from deceptive promises that lead only to serving male interests.