While I think women play an interesting role in fiction to begin with, I have a certain affinity for the female villain. Villainy is seen as such a male dominated arena, violence and cruelty are almost unanimously associated with men and yet some of the most compelling villains in literature and media seem to be women. From characters like Maleficent to Cersei Lannister there is clearly something about women that challenge the stereotypes of femininity and practice moral duplicity that keeps an audiences attention. Knowing the plethora of female villains in literature, it is also important to note that not every woman is lauded or allowed to embrace anything but “goodness” often race and class play a part in that. White women tend to be the only villains who simultaneously present themselves as “evil” yet because of their association with purity and femininity aren’t ever actually treated like the villains that they are, I like to call this phenomenon the Lady Macbeth Archetype. 

Lady Macbeth Archetype

“Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty” 

Lady Macbeth (Act 1 Scene 5)

Lady Macbeth is the wife of the titular Shakespearean protagonist Macbeth. While the play is meant to be centered around Macbeth and his ill fated quest for the Scottish throne,one can argue that it is as much about his wife who seems to be the driving force behind his actions, going as far as to orchestrating and committing murder. The morally dubious female lead of Shakespeare’s tragedy stands out among the others. She is powerful, manipulative, and far more cunning with a capability for cruelty than arguably any other woman throughout the tragic play. When Lady Macbeth learns of the prophecy of her husband, she becomes an immediate advocate for removing any and all obstacles from their path. She does not need supernatural forces to urge her towards violence and underhandedness she is quite ambitious in that right all on her own. Despite this she is rarely treated as the despicable and conniving character. This trope of white women escaping responsibility for their actions doesn’t start and end with Lady Macbeth there are two modern day examples of this trope that can be attributed to Gillian Flynn

Amy Dunne

“I killed for you, who else can say that? You think you’d be happy with a nice midwestern girl? No way, baby! I’m it.”

Amy Dunne, Gone Girl (2014)

Amy Dunne is the alternately terrifying and according to some, empowering antagonist of Gillian Flynn’s book turned film Gone Girl. For the audience it is pretty easy to sympathize with golden girl Amy who is missing through the duration of the film when the other option is her stoic, alcoholic husband. The truth of their roles is much more complicated than this with Amy being revealed to be willing to hurt any and everyone in her own quest for revenge. She is violent, manipulative, cruel and uses every opportunity to get what she wants no matter the cost. Throughout the story the facade of innocence and purity is removed layer by layer to reveal a deeply disturbed woman who has used others perceptions of her in order to carry out her own agenda. 

Amma Crellin

“A child weaned on poison considers harm a comfort” 

Camille Preaker, Sharp Objects 

This next character is one of my personal favorite female villains, simply because her age and childlike docility function just as much as her whiteness does in shielding her from detection. Sharp Objects follows reporter Camille Preaker as she attempts to report and later solve the murders of two little girls in her small town of Wind Gap Missouri.  Amma Crellin is the thirteen year old half sister of Flynn’s protagonist Camille. While Amma is depicted as odd and does volley between two separate lives; the good little girl at home and the wild child with her friends, throughout the novel ultimately she is believed to be non threatening and innocent. As the story progresses it is clear that Amma’s projected innocence allows her to skirt certain social norms as well as gives her free reign of her own homicidal tendencies. It is also important to note that many of the people Amma is able to target are on the fringes of society whether racially, economically, or socially.

Delia Jones

“She could scarcely reach the Chinaberry tree, where she waited in the growing heat while inside she knew the cold river was creeping up and up to extinguish that eye which must know by now that she knew.” 

Zora Neale Hurston, Sweat

Delia Jones is the protagonist of Zora Neale Hurston’s short story “Sweat” as well as the first morally duplicitous black female villain I’ve discussed thus far. Delia is a laundress in 1920’s Florida, who is stuck in a loveless, abusive marriage with her husband Sykes. He berates her, beats her, and is known through their community as carrying on multiple affairs. Delia is a hard worker and a church goer who genuinely tries to do what is socially acceptable. This fact does not stop her from while not murdering her husband, making a conscious decision to allow him to die. She is not evil for the sake of being evil and uses violence in this way to escape a dysfunctional marriage so while she may not constitute as a villain in the traditional definition of the word she’s certainly morally dubious. Using a deconstructionist approach to establish a good and bad binary helps unpack this, while Delia is in many circles a victim and heroine she does not fit into the ideals of a “good” person. She’s also the only character we have discussed who isn’t financially supported and in this way her poverty deems to make her more “good” or authentic in some way.

How do race and class function in femininity?

When so much of villainy for women is associated with white women who manage to retain their femininity in spite of their actions the question becomes, how do characters like Amma, Amy, or Lady Macbeth change if they aren’t wealthy white women? If they were black? Media has given us very little representation in the female villain arena as far as black women, and certainly not any villains like Gillian Flynn who exist as villains for the mere sake of villainy. Our examples of black female villains are rarely nuanced nor do they seem to embrace their villainy in the ways that white women do, they aren’t really allowed to. Delia’s “villainy” was bore of necessity she isn’t allowed to simply be bad because it would neglect to make her a character you can root for, while the other women discussed committed these acts out of a desire while only being able to get away with their actions because they appear to model femininity. If Delia murdered for the own selfish reasons or as a source of petty revenge given her race and class standing would she be as “interesting” and loving pathologized as Amy Dunne or Amma Crellin? Unlikely. When historically women of color, specifically black women have been denied their femininity so frequently it is no wonder in media they are not given the freedom to be selfish and conniving and exist solely for themselves without a weeping backstory and a guilt ridden aftermath. Perhaps understanding the historical backdrop that has led to iconic thought provoking white female villains will lead to more nuance involved in non white villainesses.