Should I change the sex of this villian?

[Chronitis]

So later down the line I plan to have a villain in my story that I was planning to be female. This is going to be an action heavy story as well be seen with the planned male villain before her. There are a group of heroic individuals that consist of males and females. Would it be wrong to have heroic go toe to toe with her in this superpower invested world? Or will be better to have just heroic female vs villainous female or heroic male vs villainous male or heroic male vs villainous female type of scenarios.

[SoFt]

I say mix it up. It's 2018! We've seen plenty o' ladies fightin' lads in the last decade and change, so if you're worried about a violation of good taste or something, I think you're fine. If you're askin' me, it's only an issue if:

• A heroic male gratuitously beats on a villainous female he's already defeated just for the hell of it, or
• The male character is established to be too old-fashioned to fight a female (mind you, this gives no reason why she won't just beat the hell out of him if he leaves himself open).

Other than that, and especially if the enemies are a good match for one another, "Let Them Fight" .

[grimnir]

Personally I see no problem with it.

If you're worried about someone calling you sexist, only letting women fight other women isn't going to help that. If you actually want to avoid that, just... don't have her gender be an issue.
Now, you could be trying to make a point, having a hero meet their villainous counterpart, but even then they don't have to be the same gender, just have similar backgrounds/motivations/etc.

[DiegoPalacios]

If you feel umconfortable portraying males fighting females, some animes managed some approaches that may help you.

In One piece: Ussop doesn`t punch or anything, he usually uses his slingshot to shoot trick missiles that incapacitate opponents in non-harming ways. So he is a more frequent candidate to fight females in the show.

In Naruto: Shikamaru use a shadow power that inmobilizes his opponents and relies on his brain to set up the conditions to trap his opponents.

[liquidlilium]

I pretty much agree^^

I just like to add that I might be a good to avoid a scenario where the villain being evil is tied to her being a woman. I'm not saying scenarios like that can't work, but it's been used in so many outright misogynistic stories that it can be difficult to write in a way that don't come across as uncomfortable and just kinda.. icky?

If you have a villain that can be genderswapped I guess it won't be a problem tho

[DiegoPalacios]

but it's been used in so many outright misogynistic stories that it can be difficult to write in a way that don't come across as uncomfortable and just kinda.. icky?

wow, i think i was lucky to not find those stories...."she is evil because she is a woman"?
what kind of writing is that??? "she has cooties, the cooties make her do eeevil!!!"

I can imagine an evil man who hates women or an evil woman who hates men in a story, but making someone`s biological sex as the reason for their evilness?, that is just bizarre.

[Samuraiflame]

As Batman says, the hammer of justice is unisex.

I think the only time people get unsettled about violence against women is when there's a clear power difference at play (and I don't mean superpowers). I'd say if they're both superpowered and on about equal footing, or the female villain is played up to be an even stronger threat than the hero, there shouldn't be any problem with them fighting.

[indagold]

Idk why that'd make a difference? We've had female villains since the dawn of history. I thought people want more female characters in media, not less haha!

[Rochrok]

I don't understand your concern. The gender of your characters shouldn't matter, just focus on the character of the characters. If your villain deserves a beat down, no matter the gender, then let them have the beat down they deserve.

[ashersz]

I dont see an issue. i would see more issue with oversexualizing the character but if she is a bad ass villian go for it!

[Rage_The_Dragoon]

As stated before it should not make a difference.

And one thing to add to that is. Don't hold back. what I've seen done regularly in the past that if you get a male vs female scenario (regardless of alignment),that the fight has a tendency to become softer towards the female characters in terms of getting less visible battle damage or ending the fight pre-maturely regarding a convenient-faint due to blunt trauma.

I'm not saying things have to go over the top in the other direction, but give your characters the respect they deserve. and deal with the situation as fitting as possible without compromising. if you're hesitant about a decision during a fighting scene try to visualize the scene in your head with one or both genders swapped and see if that changes the way you view the scene.

[spadesart]

Or will be better to have just heroic female vs villainous female

please no the catfight is a tired trope! i say go as planned, you should be all good if the fight scene is well balanced

[joe_galindez]

Klaus Starr from Preacher has a really good point about this. If you ever see a woman in a male-dominated job, it means she's had to work twice as hard to be considered half as good. If the job is dangerous that makes her at least twice as dangerous.

Shoot her first.

[liquidlilium]

Maybe I got exposed to it more since I used to read a lot of fairy-tales and other older stories since I was a kid?
Not that it doesn't exist in more contemporary fiction sadly.

Ofc, it's usually not along the lines of "Oh no, her ovaries pumped her full of evil female sex hormones! Now she's a supervillain!"

More something like "Her fragile female brain couldn't deal the pain of a miscarriage, now she's a sinister succubus turning tricks on the streets and murdering babies!" or "A queen leading a nation? She must be a witch fighting the natural order and bringing her kingdom to ruin!"

It's usually more subtle of course and sometimes it's not really an issue of a misogynistic writer but just a really poor one. The miscarriage scenario for example could work without being horribly sexist if the woman doesn't snap because of her "female brain" but because it's simply the last straw after an lifetime of abuse and misfortune.

[Chronitis]

succubus turning tricks on the streets and murdering babies

That sounds like a very inappropriate story for kids.

[DiegoPalacios]

Not that it doesn't exist in more contemporary fiction sadly.

At least is less frequent. But is still sad.

The tendency to underestimate women caused people to underestimate the need of a solid characterisation for female characters.

This also created a tendency to make girl shows of lower quality. Of course there are exceptions, but is still a problem.

[rahnyjae]

Don't Hold Back is exactly what I was thinking. Like if your hero and villain fight like The Punisher, they should both get messed up like The Punisher. The biggest thing I look for in and love about fighter characters (especially female ones because of what Rage mentioned above) is if they're taking as many licks as they're giving, especially when their opponents are more than capable of giving just as hard as he or she gets. I root more and/or respect more those characters, protag and antag, who get their butts handed to them and still keep fighting more so than characters who do every flashy move in the book and never get touched or even break a sweat.

[Chronitis]

Really? I remember when I watched the winx club, it seemed like some pretty good quality to me.

[DiegoPalacios]

I said there were exeptions, and while i still think is a problem in some cases, i know people are taking steps to make girl shows a lot better.

[liquidlilium]

I'm pretty sure I saw that scenario in a comic or possibly poorly written crime fiction.
I might've read it as a kid but it was probably intended for an older audience.