Let's make Villains Fabulous Again!

I mentioned in my first article of June about the big three archetypes of gays within Western fiction. The Villain, The Victim, and The Icon, I dislike all of these archetypes as Hollywood often relies solely on them. Cause it robs these characters of their humanity and reduces them to digestible figures that the culture at the time will accept. However, I don’t think we should abandon these archetypes, these stereotypes exist for a reason, in the cultural and political atmosphere of the time with truth in different degrees.

We can be monsters like Jeffory Dalmer or John Wayne Gacy. We can also be victims, like the millions who died during the Aids epidemic during the 1980s or people such as Alan Turing. We can also be the icons to inspire and even humanize us, such as Rock Hudson Steven Fry, and Alan Turning among others too numerous to mention.

The problem with Hollywood is that it is easier to get rid of all the shades of gray and present a black-and-white worldview of groups of people. It is simple for the average American audience to understand and doesn’t make them overthink. But I want to do something better, something fun that lets us explore the fullest range of being human.

One type of villain I love is the Disney villain, often coded non-het for the convenience of the audience of the time. However, they are not just big bads who try to torment the protagonists, they are having fun with themselves, They are larger than life and often overshadow the heterosexual protagonists. Everyone remembers Ursula/Scar/Gaston/Professor Ratigan cause they are a lot of fun. We love them because they are confident and powerful against the protagonists.

We have gotten too scared to make villains gay, we have them as protagonists, we have them as victims but we need more villains. We need more Pink Flamingos and more Disney villains like Ursula or Governor Radcliff. Let's make villains fabulous again!

I have yearned to make some cool villains like Mister Witt and Mr. Kidd from Diamonds Are Forever. As disgusting as they are in the culture of the time, I still think there is a place for that sort of villain. Here are some of my attempts.

Neon Red was a failed slasher short, combining Science Fiction VR, a poisoned love letter to internet culture, and a loving homage to 80s and 70s slashers. This story would see several terrible people getting murdered in ways reminiscent of slashers within the decades mentioned. The villain of the piece was going to be the embodiment of all the LGBT Twitter profiles who was just your average gay man/woman/trans person who wants to just act normal for once.

I am not sure how I would do this now. But I think there is fun to be with this villain, someone who is killing all the terrible people just to get them to touch some grass and free themselves from the stupidity of Twitter. Maybe the villain could have still leaned into that rainbow stupidity of LGBT Instagram with how they dress or perform. I am not sure, to be honest. Cause Neon Red is a project that I am unlikely to start again cause I am bad at writing comedy.

The other story premise was a dark satire of American Rom coms. Where the gay best friend realizes his irrelevance in the story after the female lead gets married to the male, kills the male lead, and holds the female lead hostage, ensuring that she will never get a man. That is a story I could do, I could have all the mannerisms that go into the gay best friend but twist it with the killer and hostage angle. The reader and I can have much fun with such a dynamic. Plus it is also a premise I haven’t seen in Hollywood or elsewhere.

I am very happy that gays have been allowed to live authentic lives in most of the world, I am glad that art has been allowed to reflect this attitude to an extent. But I think we don’t have to always be perfect little angels, let us be bad. We should be the villains of stories as much as we can be the heroes.

I want to see bad gays and good gays, normal and abnormal. So please, fellow indie writers and artists let's make some fabulous villains!

Please consider reading Black Masquerade: and Where Dreams are Lost both of which are 0.99$ each for Pride month at selected retailers.

Acknowledgments

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