“She’s Got a Face Like a Hatchet”

Beauty as a trait has always had problematic influences on the representation of female characters in popular culture. Terry Pratchett, who recognizes the strong presence of stereotypes and patriarchal narratives in what he calls the consensus fantasy universe, subverts such detrimental narratives of beauty within his Witches novels. This essay analyses Terry Pratchett’s nuanced approach to the representation of beauty within the context of Discworld tropes such as Narrative Causality and Headology, which foreground metafictional discussions of narratives of beauty in his Witches novels.