Top 10 Clichés of Female Villains

You know the saying: age before beauty? Well, that doesn’t sit right with some villains, who will seemingly go to extreme lengths to restore their youth and vitality. If you see a female villain look at herself in the mirror, there’s a chance that this sort of vanity will be a driving force in the narrative. Given how superficial the motivation is, it will unfortunately often make the character come across as rather sloppy or short on substance. We do occasionally find a standout villain who tries to handle this selfish want with grace and subtlety. Mother Gothel, anyone?

While female spellcasters have certainly been given the heroic spotlight as of late, there’s no escaping the image of the classic crone bent over a cauldron dedicated to causing all kinds of mischief. Chances are if your main antagonist is a witch, then you’re going to end up with either a beautiful woman who seeks to entrance unsuspecting souls, or a crazy hag with a face as ugly as sin, wanting to turn you into soup. We’ve had some great witches across the years in all forms of media, though it could be argued that the trope is a little overdone.

Thankfully, we’re finally seeing more and more women take center stage on the big screen, especially in the action/adventure genre. Of course, there’s still a long way to go, since Hollywood has a long, long history of female villains or henchman meeting their end in what normally amounts to a high octane cat fight. Not to say girl vs. girl battles can’t be thrilling and creative; there have just been far more of the former. Pluck out any generic blockbuster from the last decade or so and chances are the resident femme fatale loses in a fight against one of the female leads - be it in spectacular fashion or in an overly sexualized bit of male wish fulfilment.

Ah, the seductress. The age-old cliché that’s taken on many new guises over the years. With sex being a powerful and intoxicating motif, in the hands of a villainess it’s often used as her ideal weapon of choice. In some cases, it’s used to expose and ensnare the feeble minds of male characters and as a result, highlights just how much of a mastermind the temptress really is. Other times... it’s obviously there simply for the sake of showing sex on screen. This not only has the potential to demean the villain, but also push the negative stereotype that any female who embraces her sexuality must be evil in some way.

Granted, we’ve seen a surge in male interpretations of this particular type of villain in recent years, but more often than not the role of crazed stalker belongs to the ladies (at least, on-screen). Fuelled by a desire to follow, harass and/or dominate their chosen target, stalkers are always at risk of coming across as paper thin in terms of development, to the point where they may be dismissed as unrelatable, mindless psychos. There are too many examples of failed attempts to name, but credit should be given to the one villainess that pretty much got everything right; Alex Forrest in “Fatal Attraction.” Goes to show that even the most disturbed of stalkers can still have a little gravitas!

Heaven forbid a woman should dedicate themselves to a full-time career. While they don’t tend to be on the murderous side of things, sharply dressed women in the world of business are still frequently presented as having hearts of stone with no morality to speak of. Don’t expect to see them interacting with children, caring about their families or even have a loving partner in their lives - it’s all about work, work, work. And as we all know, a lack of a romantic interest and only focusing on your trade make you practically overqualified to become a villain. Sigh.

Envy is an interesting thing; it’s such a potent human emotion that it can act as an incredible driving force for a character. It’s just a shame that when it comes to female villains, its potency is often wasted on the more frivolous aspects. We can kind of excuse it if the setting is that of a high school and the characters aren’t mature enough to deal with it, but it becomes downright ridiculous when we see supposedly competent ladies lose their minds and risk everything just because the protagonist is superior in some superficial regard.

Money can’t buy you happiness, but apparently it does make you an ideal candidate to become a villain. Popular girls also tend to occupy this space, (xref) but they don’t tend to go as far with their crimes compared to the ladies who reside in ivory palaces. If they are spoiled to ridiculous degrees, you may end up with the quintessential daddy’s girl who believes herself untouchable because she’s grown up in such luxury and privilege. There’s also the chance they’ve grown so accustomed to the wealthy style that they believe themselves objectively superior to all others. When dealing with dames such as these, you know all manner of trouble is bound to follow.

Moms are often depicted as kind, caring and nurturing to their children throughout their lives…unless they aren’t related by blood, in which case there’s a chance the woman in question could secretly be a murdering maniac or a heartless manipulator. Yep, there’s no quantifying the number of times the stepmother has taken on the role of villain in popular media. Whether they prize their own children above the other members of the family, or just seem to have a genuine hatred for their husband’s existing kids, we’ve pretty much come to expect that any kind adoptive mother has some kind of sinister intention.

Jealousy towards female protagonists may still be a common trope, but when it comes to dealing with their former flings…it’s essentially a female villain feeding ground. And it’s one that notably that tends to spit out more awful characters than ones with any kind of depth to them. Oh sure, we still have our Fatal Attractions and Basic Instincts, but in exchange we’ve also seen a slew of poorly developed caricatures that by themselves lessen the credibility of the archetype due to their inability to let go of past love interests. That’s not villainy, it’s just sort of… sad.