I have to admit that being a bad girl has always intrigued me. As a child my role models were the likes of Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Demona, and Scorpina from Power Rangers. Have you ever seen the movie "Masters of the Universe?" I thought the bad chick in that movie was THE coolest ever. I don’t even remember her name, but I thought she had really cool eyeliner and awesome red lipstick. I don’t know what it was that drew me to these evil women. Perhaps it was their confidence, their sense of power, their mischeivious playfulness, or maybe just their choice of makeup! Who knows. But one thing I did know was that I wanted to be just like them.
I suppose my earliest memory of playing a bad girl in my youth was my ninja turtle years. There are no female evil doers in Ninja Turtles! You may be saying. And you would be right. So I invented them. Sadly I was just a little kid and had no real imagination at the very young age I was at, so I was limited to turning my barbie dolls into evil doers. Namely, Shredder’s girlfriends. The fact that they were twice his height was also something I didn’t seem to think about. Also, that I gave him more than one girlfriend was beyond me, but the man had a whole harem. They didn’t seem to mind it though, they were always sharing each other’s clothes and gossiping about this and that and going to the mall together. I don’t remember much about what Shredder’s girlfriends did except to have far too many pool parties and change their clothes all the time. Actually that kind of behavior fits a villain’s girlfriend very well if you think about it. And Bruce Wayne’s too for that matter. Hm…
The next villainess I can recall would have to be Scorpina. In the original Power Rangers there was a beautiful Asian woman with scarlet red lips and long fingernails and yellow spandex if memory serves. I thought she was the most beautiful woman in the world and I wanted to be JUST like her. It actually worked out perfectly as my two siblings had a bad guy they could fight against. Me. I sauntered all over our sister’s basement like I was a supermodel, because after all, I was the beautiful Scorpina! I used corny catchphrases, I cursed those Power Rangers for always meddling my plans! I showed off my martial arts skills! I was the coolest villain EVER! Yup. Scorpina gave me a love of red lipstick that I’ll never truly forget. Even though I never wear it. In fact lipstick as a whole is overrated if you ask me. Sure it’s lovely to look at, but as I was to learn in later years, it’s a real pain to put on. Maybe that’s why I’m not a super villain. I’m not willing to wear the lipstick…
After Scorpina came Catwoman and Poison Ivy. Catwoman came first and I found myself playing her against my sibling’s Batman and Robin. We were all pleased with that outcome as they once again got a villain and I got to be totally wicked awesome. At least that’s what I thought. I wore my black stirrup leggings and a matching turtleneck and some of those cheap two dollar gloves you get that never keep the snow off and are soaking wet the instant you make a snowball. I pranced around everywhere, jumping on furniture and stealing play jewelry. Once again I felt like the coolest person in the whole world. Once I was introduced to Poison Ivy it was much the same thing, only that was in my later years so I was no longer dressing the part. It’s just as well as I really didn’t own a green turtleneck anyway. In retrospect I must say that turtlenecks are hideous inventions. Particularly the long sleeved turtleneck t- shirt. They are something you find on matronly second grade teachers with apple motifs on their jumpers, not on anyone else. Stirrup pants by the way, are a similar evil, only they should not be worn by anyone, apple motif or not. Ever. I mean it.
One of my later villains that I idolized, and perhaps idolized the most would have to be Demona from Gargoyles. She…was…my…IDOL. I wanted to be like her, look like her, talk like her, everything. Despite the fact that she was a blue skinned winged creature with a lizard like tail who turned to stone during the day and had massive psycholgical issues…Still she was SOOOO cool! I immediately hogged her whenever we played Gargoyles as kids. My sister and friend were always jealous but I was just bossy enough to get my way. I always tried to emulate her cool scream/growly thing as we swooped around our backyard. My sister informed me that I sounded like a moron but I decided she was just stupid and jealous and that she really had no idea how utterly cool I sounded. We would leap from our cherry tree and flap our arms like wings and whenever it was "daytime" we’d pose in the coolest positions we could think of and moments later awaken with much in the way of sound affects. I’m sure the neighbors thought there was a bunch of dying cats in our hard what with all the racket we made. Oh yes, Demona was the coolest they came. She could do sorcery and fly and had fangs and was really strong. You simply could not beat someone like that. I drew endless pictures of her, all quite crappy and primitive. I fantasized about being her for Halloween somehow, something I still haven’t figured out how to make work to this day. To say I was obsessed was an understatement. This obsession was to last me for years until they eventually quit running the show and I could start the slow meandering path to maturity. I still haven’t made it very far on that path might I add. Even now I still think Demona is one of the coolest villains ever created. I just don’t go around screeching in my backyard pretending to be her anymore. :D
What is my point of bringing up all the villainesses I’ve admired? I have no idea. I just realized I’ve admired a lot of them and I wonder if I should be worried…Still, I am a law abiding citizen, I don’t wear red lipstick or black jumpsuits or date evil men with scars on their faces who wear purple and have vendettas against rats. At least none that have come out of the closet about it anyway…So have I come out the worse for idolizing villains? Well gosh I hope not! If it has I blame the media!