Villainous Female Characters in Television

ABSTRACT This research aims to add to the existing literature and discussion on the portrayal and representation of female characters, as stereotypes and gender-roles are still projected on female characters in today’s television industry. An interesting perspective on this discussion will be shown, as this research centres around villainous characters, which also plays into societal views on when a woman is perceived as a villain. For this research, a deeper look into the police procedural genre will be taken, as the series The Blacklist will be used as an example for analysation. Therefore, the research question for this research is: How are female villains portrayed in the procedural series The Blacklist?. To analyse the portrayal of female villains, three main concepts were selected to gain knowledge on different aspects of the villain, namely monstrosity, transgression and morality. Three female villains from The Blacklist were selected based on perceived threat, storyline and screentime: Scottie Hargrave, Kate Kaplan and Tatiana Petrova. A content analysis was used to analyse the most important episodes that featured the three villains, to establish meaning to the three main concepts and to see if similar patterns from the literature occur in the series. The results showed different villainous archetypes for each character that was analysed and each archetype contained at least one stereotypical aspect for women. Scottie Hargrave appeared to be most similar to the dangerous, powerful and beautiful woman, due to her siren-like appearance and high status that creates fear. Kate Kaplan showed characteristics of the monstrous mother and the monster-among-us, due to her need to protect Elizabeth Keen as if she was her daughter and her ability to be overlooked and blend in. Tatiana Petrova can be compared to revengeful woman and the villain that is struggling to survive, which becomes clear through analysing her past and how it has affected her. After analysing the three female villains, it became clear that each villain represented a different stereotype for woman, which could be found in all three main concepts. In conclusion, this research contributes to the discussion on gendered representation and could provide a starting point for where improvements could be made for female characters in general.