Originally published May 19, 2016. Updated April 15, 2018.
6. The Ice Queen
Perhaps some kind of noblewoman or royalty, a divorcée or even just a high-powered career woman. The Ice Queen doesn’t care about your problems or your life: she just needs to get shit done. She’s emotionally closed off, reveals little about her personal life, and tends to reject the advances of her suitors. Usually, the Ice Queen is ‘thawed’ by a cheerful young whippersnapper, a love interest or protégée, and thus she becomes the Defrosting Ice Queen.
Notable offenders:
Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep): The Devil Wears Prada
Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher): Star Wars IV: A New Hope
Margot Tenenbaum (Gwyneth Paltrow): The Royal Tenenbaums
Subverting the stereotype:
In Avatar, Dr. Grace, played by Sigourney Wevaer, is a total Ice Queen when in human form, but as a Na’avi she is super chill.
7. The Femme Fatale
Exuding impossible levels of sexiness, the femme fatale’s purpose is to tempt and seduce the unsuspecting male protagonist and have him give up whatever it is that she wants or needs. Usually a chaotic neutral or chaotic evil character, the femme fatale will stop at nothing to have her wicked way with our poor, helpless male lead. Expect lots of gratuitous sex and boobies.
Notable offenders:
Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone): Basic Instinct
Jennifer Check (Megan Fox): Jennifer’s Body
Miranda Tate / Talia al Ghul (Marion Cotillard): The Dark Knight Rises
Subverting the stereotype:
In Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Jessica Rabbit is portrayed as the femme fatale character, but she ends up as a red herring.
8. The Bitch Incognito
One of my favourite female tropes and arguably one of the most complex on this list, the Bitch Incognito is – I believe – the only female character on this list, besides the Black Friend, whose motivation doesn’t depend in some way upon a relationship with a man. Although, having said that, the Bitch Incognito’s objective is often to obtain the affections of a man, but she does this through girl-on-girl backstabbing. The Bitch Incognito masquerades as the sweet, harmless girl-next-door, there to ally with and help the female protagonist navigate a new environment (she’s probably just moved town and started a new High School). The Bitch Incognito’s true intentions are revealed when she publicly humiliates the female lead, or steals her love interest. She’s often the product of an unhappy marriage.
Notable offenders:
Kathryn Merteuil (Sarah Michelle Gellar): Cruel Intentions
Regina George (Rachel McAdams): Mean Girls
Brooke (Claudia Lee): Kick Ass 2
Subverting the stereotype:
Rizzo has the potential of an Alpha Bitch in Grease, but takes a new path after her pregnancy scare. Both Cher (Alicia Silverstone) in Clueless and Elle (Reese Witherspoon) in Legally Blonde are popular, bouncy girls with a penchant for meddling in other people’s affairs, but unlike their counterparts listed above, they are genuinely nice people.
9. The (Sassy) Black Friend
Doubly unpleasant, because the Black Friend plays off both racist stereotypes as well as misogynistic ones. The Black Friend can range from comic relief to a fountain of advice for her white friend, the story’s protagonist. Her feelings and experiences are secondary, and she is generally written as a prop or a plot tool rather than a character. She is such a commonplace staple of Hollywood that she has become a parody in and of herself, and more often than not she is now seen as a subversion of the stereotype.
Notable offenders:
Dionne Davenport (Stacey Dash): Clueless
Maggie Bess (Rah Digga): Thir13en Ghosts
Charlene Morton (Queen Latifah): Bringing Down the House
Subverting the stereotype:
The Oracle in The Matrix series, while a peripheral character, ends up becoming integral to the entire construction of the Matrix itself, and dispels wisecracking for important, plot-significant wisdom and insight.
10. The Disposable Woman
Another particularly harmful trope, the Disposable Woman acts as a prop in the truest sense of the word, on the basis that her personality and characterisation truly has no bearing on the direction of the story, and she serves only as a motivation for the male protagonist. She is a mother, love interest or daughter. She is often the victim of a kidnapping or murder, spurring the protagonist into a revenge or quest narrative. She’s basically there to lead the man on a journey, and that journey – of either rescue or revenge – is the content of the movie.
Notable offenders:
Kimmy Mills (Maggie Grace): Taken
Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox): Transformers
Maximus’s Wife (Giannina Facio): Gladiator
Subverting the stereotype:
Mina Harker in The League of Extraordinary Gentleman is captured by a villain, prompting the rest of the League to lower their weapons. The twist is that Mina is a vampire, and she doesn’t need the League’s help to take a chunk out of her captor’s neck. The irony of this is that in Dracula, Bram Stoker’s novel from which Mina originates, she is the complete opposite to her League counterpart in terms of personality, and strikes a delicate balance between Damsel in Distress and Disposable Woman.
Kirsty Capes – Follow me on Twitter
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