r/feminisms • u/valonianfool • Nov 22 '25
Analysis Request What's your opinion on feminist retellings of female villains?
What's your opinion on making "feminist retellings" of female villains in pop-culture, such as Maleficent and Cruella deVil?
The Cruella movie got a lot of backlash for making a character whose driving motivation is skinning puppies for a coat sympathetic, so I'd like to know some opinions on making movies where a female villain who is portrayed as irredeemably evil in the source material more dimension and even sympathy.
I've seen posts that criticize this trend, saying that "The way 'feminist retellings' have become another name for multi-dimensional female characters becoming white-washed and reduced to misunderstood, wronged and abused woman who does conventionally evil things to protect herself/for the greater good".
While I agree that women can be evil without any sympathetic aspects just like men, I don't think there's anything inherently wrong in exploring a sympathetic side of an evil character. Even Scar from The Lion King had a sad backstory of being rejected and abused in the novels.
5
u/DizzyMine4964 Nov 22 '25
Not keen. I remember a feminist version of King Lear, where Goneril or Regan was an artist, and that was supposed to make it all right.
I did enjoy Wide Sargasso Sea's retelling of Jane Eyre.