the villainy of black women

There is a reason why films such as ‘Black Panther’, series such as ‘Scandal’, ‘Being Mary Jane’ and ‘Harlem’ are so popular. They showcase the multi-faceted side of being a Black woman. We are neither characterised nor caricatured by being Black, there is space to be human, vulnerable, good and bad.

Yet, when I think of villainous Black women within the context of white television, I realised I couldn’t think of any.

Besides Vanessa Williams's character in Ugly Betty, I couldn’t think of a Black female villain in mainstream programming who was given this opportunity. Now maybe I am wrong and please let me know if there are others that I’ve just happened to forget, but I feel as though this isn’t a coincidence.

Mainstream media praises white actors when they play villains, think about Heath Ledger playing The Joker or Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada.

This comment is not take away from their skills, but to represent that playing a villain doesn not change how they are perceived by their audience. It merely adds an edge. It showcases the breadth of their craft.

But Black women rarely have this opportunity. The fact Vanessa Williams is a light-skinned Black woman isn’t lost on me. There is flexibility in her image which means she can play with fire, but not get burned by being typecast-

Thinking about the Black female villain a bit further, I thought about it in the workplace context too and realised there is a reason why we don’t show up as villains. Because most non-Black people think we are villains in some way anyway.

This doesn’t have to be in the extreme, but it is ever exploited, not least in the context of the office.  Even when we are victims we quickly become the aggressor when faced with weaponised white women’s tears. The worst is thought of us and because we are not given the same range of feelings as non-Black women, the assumption is that at our core we are base.

In my article, The Especially Damaging Effect of Exploitative Femininity on Black Women, I wrote, “the Black women stereotype provides the perfect cover for the “good girl” because she knows that most grievances brought by Black women are ignored.” Our social value has been determined and we are always working against that stereotype.

In a commercial and TV setting, a Black woman is allowed to be funny and sassy as they call it, but if she witty and cutting then she stands no chance of being liked or even accepted. As long as we couch our remarks in the traditional Black currency; humour, we can get away with a lot.

I watched some of Selling Sunset Season 5 and the behaviour of some of the cast and irrespective of the whether it is scripted or not, the personas they have created are truly awful. Yet, they still have endorsements and deals and books, despite being so.-called villains. I am yet to see a Black reality star who was a villain go on to have further success. They have to be sweet and ham it for the cameras because heaven forbid, we anything besides sassy and funny.

Playing the jester, even in the workplace is usually the easiest way for Black women to avoid drama. Laugh at the inappropriate jokes with an accompanying eye roll. Get in on the gag and humour our colleagues and speak in Ebonics even when we don’t.

I am not really saying that we have to be villains, but society is so far from allowing us the depth of feelings and to be multi-faceted, that it is no wonder so many of us suffer from burnout and depression. Who can constantly live under a microscope while also having to swallow their feelings when they are frustrated?

I can’t do anything about how we show up in films, but I am fighting for us that we are seen in the workplace, that we are heard and that we no longer have to play this accepted role in order to be deemed worthy to be there.

We know that all of us aren’t direct and loud and we know that we aren’t all funny and most importantly, we don’t need to be and this is what needs to change.

Not us. The world’s view.