Why are women scarier?

[GlitterUnicornsAndAllThatJazz]

I'm playing a game on the PS atm and it's basically a horror story in a game.

One of the most terrifying parts is called "the lady's quarters" and its this creepy shadowy boudoir with mannequins and a terrifying woman as the enemy.

It got me thinking about how growing up in all the fairytales I read, the scariest "enemies" were women. I was scared of malificent (sp?) from sleeping beauty, many of the witches in Russian folklore, the witch in the original little mermaid.

Even in modern horror stories often the female baddies are just so much creepier than the male ones.

Does anyone agree? But why is this?

I think it also has something to do with the fact that men are, in history, often the real villains - both in personal situations (due to physical strength and abuse) and political (due to military/feudal position). As a woman (or peasant of either sex), you didn't need escapist stories featuring that sort of baddy. It was very real and terrifying.

The story value comes in subverting normal everyday values to something fantastic and other. Women who both don't conform to maternal/peace weaving stereotypes, and who exercise power in some way other than physical/military strength definitely fulfill this.

Magic, poison, gossip, dealing with demons, disguise, treachery, spying, sneaking, blackmail, seduction, are all 'women's' weapons and far outside the brute-force sphere of men's very real historical power.

Another analysis-free observation on Disney - I found Mother Gothel a very interesting villain. A fantastic representation of an abusive relationship where the victim doesn't realise it is abusive and the abuser, despite their selfish reasons for maintaining it, does still love the victim as much as they're capable of it. Complex stuff.

And for all the inversion of ideas of motherhood, which is of course fine because Gothel is not actually Rapunzel's mother.

The hegemonic idea of the 'good woman' outlined in 19th c lit is basically the inverse of the female villain.

Good young women are pretty, quiet, domesticated, obedient. Any cleverness they may have is devoted to being virtuous. Completely sexless.

Good married women (no good unmarried women) are caring devoted mothers, beautiful, virtuous, stay in their homes, sexless. Oh, and usually they're dead. 19th century lit is full of angelic deceased mothers and wicked stepmothers.

You could argue that times haven't changed much - see the TV adaptation of Nigel Slater's Toast.

Women who don't confirm to that are scary. That's why female villains are sexy and clever complicated - because the 'ideal' woman is sexless and dim and boring.

It goes against the assumption that women show more solidarity with other women?

it is all to do with monstrous femininity and training women to be pure and obedient.

The modern day version of this trope is of course the career woman / the bitch boss.

Narnia, Dark Materials, Working Girl, Fatal Attraction, Lion King 2, etc etc. The career woman is seen as lacking in maternal instinct, the female leader is power hungry and manipulative and is often set against the benevolent male leader.

Little girls learn subconsciously that bad things happen to women who lead and that powerful women will be disliked.

I think the question isn’t “why are women scarier” but “why are women portrayed to be scarier in fiction when they’re so obviously not in real life?”

It goes against the assumption that women show more solidarity with other women?

In my experience, the cultural expectation is that women are all jealous spitting back stabbers who view all other women as competition.

I think this is why Sex and the City did so well (one reason, anyway). It was just so nice to have a mainstream story where women were actually friends, and it resonated with many, many women because, well...most of us rather like other women who are on our wavelength.

It is interesting how many adults still see the pretty = good and ugly = bad as so believable. Quite a dangerous belief in many cases.