Changing the Way We Look at Female Villains
A.K.A. a woman doesn't need a man to make her bad
A few weeks back I sent you a post on creating compelling villains. This is a follow up I wrote to that blog. I think this is at least as important and something too many writers don’t pay enough attention to.
I don’t know about you but I am usually disappointed by how female villains are portrayed — even the best of them. I often love seeing how they act with agency and power. I love that more and more are written as complex characters, rather than two-dimensional prop pieces.
What I don’t like is their backstories
Why is it that so many female villains’ stories or backstories still revolve around men? The origin stories of even the best of them are too often based on how some man has wronged them or been taken from them.
Maybe it’s laziness. The pathology of male villains is not consistently based on harm done by a woman. Their backstories tend to be more varied with more complexity and nuance. Women are less often given that respect.
Maybe, though, it’s more than laziness. Women are still fighting to gain equality in all spheres of life. We still hit the glass ceiling, we still pay pink tax and are often paid less than a man for the same work. Female actors and directors still struggle for equality in the film industry. And men still write most of what gets produced in Hollywood.
Among those men, Joss Whedon is well known for writing strong female characters in general, among them Drusilla from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, however, even he created her with a backstory dominated by a man — Angel, who drove her insane before turning her into a vampire.
From comics to novels to television to movies, female villains’ past and present lives tend to be determined by how a man has in some way been the major formative influence in their lives.
Here are just a few examples
· Harley Quinn — most recently seen in Suicide Squad was the Joker’s psychologist. He made her love him, corrupted her, and turned her into a villain.
· Regina Mills — the evil queen from Once Upon a Time was a sweet girl whose mother killed her lover before they could elope. Why? So she will marry the king — another man.
· Hela — Thor and Loki’s older sister from Thor: Ragnarok was discarded and banished by Odin.
· Maleficent — from both the first movie by the same name and now Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, was betrayed by King Stefan before he came to the throne.
· The Bride — in Kill Bill I and II sought revenge for Bill’s murderous rampage at her wedding to another man, including an attempt to kill her.
· Alex Forrest — from Fatal Attraction is obsessed with Dan Gallagher, a man with whom she had a one-night stand.
Compare to these Male Villains
· Jack Torrance — from The Shining was driven mad by evil spirits.
· Voldemort — from Harry Potter was raised in an orphanage where his unusual abilities made him outcast.
· Thanos — from the Marvel Universe watched famine kill huge numbers of people on his home world, Titan.
· Loki — from Thor and other Marvel Universe films (and comics) was the least valued son of Odin, growing up jealous of his brother, Thor. The nail in his coffin was finding out he was adopted and was actually a Frost Giant.
· Saruman — from The Lord of the Rings, in his arrogance, believed he could spy on Sauron from afar. Sauron seduced and corrupted him.
· Darth Vader and Kylo Ren — from Star Wars were both seduced by the dark side of the force.
There is a very strong pattern of creating rich and complex backstories for male villains and falling back on the old trope of, “A man done me wrong” with female villains, even when those who write them otherwise make them strong, compelling characters.
There are notable exceptions to this reliance on using men to justify women’s villainy
· Miranda Priestly — from The Devil Wears Prada is motivated by power, success, and the need for control. This is a product of the cutthroat fashion industry in which she has made her career. The book was written by Lauren Weisberger.
· Alma Coin — from The Hunger Games is a power-hungry woman who shares many of the same traits as President Snow. This series was written by Suzanne Collins.
· Jeanine Matthews — from Divergent, penned by Veronica Roth, knows the truth about the factions and is motivated by the belief she must prevent a return to the outside world.
Note that these books are all written by women. For the most part women write women better. That just makes sense, given that we write with a deep understanding of a woman’s inner life. Men not having that advantage does not excuse their relying on the outdated idea that women’s backstories must revolve around a man.
Having said that, I am not implying that they never should do so. It happens in the real world, so it should happen in our stories. Just not most of the time.
We see storylines in which a male villain’s pathology was triggered by a woman as well
· Norman Bates — from Psycho, who was emotionally abused by his mother
· Magneto — from X-Men, whose mother was killed by Sebastian Shaw. However, this is richer than a simple murder, with it really being about Shaw using brutal methods to bring out his powers. I’ll still count it.
These kinds of stories are valid and should be be written for both sexes. They reflect something that happens in real life. But they are only a small part of the myriad of reasons someone goes wrong in life. There are so many other possibilities to draw on. Writers do so for male characters, they should do so for female characters as well.
All villains need complex, rich backstories
I wrote about this in a previous post. You can read about it by following the link below. Everything I wrote in that post applies equally to both sexes.
How to Create Compelling Villains
If you want to write female villains well, write them as people first and women second. I don’t mean this in the sense of giving their female aspect second class status. Women are as complex as men. Both sexes have complex motivations and their backstories should reflect that.