I haven't been logged into MDL in a while, so I'm a bit late to reading this, but wow! I loved reading all the other people who responded to the questionnaire's responses! I filled the questionnaire out pretty quickly & didn't get to say everything I wanted to, but looking at it now, I didn't need to, as many others responses pretty much covered the other points I wanted to mention. I also enjoyed reading the comments as well, as there were points I never would have thought of & were well said!
I kept seeing a repeating theme in the article as well as the comments of how, specifically, women tend to favor/be attracted to male villains based on how attractive they are (vise versa for men towards female villains). This made me think about my own sexuality & how I do the same thing as well. Due to me being lesbian, I am almost instantly attracted to every female character I see, including female villains. However, I can only count on one hand the number of female villains I have found attractive & not hated, or felt annoyed by, by the end of the drama. As for male characters, seeing as I'm not very attracted to men (other than Gong Jun), I can list a hand full of male villains I ended up feeling a slight attraction towards (sometimes no attraction what so ever), not hating &, most of the time, felt bad for.
I saw a few people saying that the way we view villains isn't solely because of bad character writing, or that it would be unfair to blame everything on bad writing. To me, this is interesting, as I believe the main reason why I hate more female villains than men is because of bad character writing. It makes sense as well. How is it that straight women least hate the villains of the gender they're attracted to while a lesbian most hates the villains of the gender they're attracted to if not bad character writing? I feel as if most female villains lack the sort of heartbreaking backstory &/or motive for their actions compared to male villains. I find myself feeling more sorry for villains with a tragic childhood or event happening, especially if it clarifies their motive for the things they're doing. More male villains are given these types of heartbreaking backstories that leave the audience feeling bad for them & use the characters' story to justify a lot more of their actions. I left out straight men because I'm not sure if straight men hate female villains more than male villains more or not. Maybe this is another topic that can be researched, specifically to see whether sexuality effects how people view female villains vs. male villains. I think it would be interesting to see if people are attracted to, yet still hate rather than like the villains of the gender they're attracted to. This might help rule out or clarify whether attraction effects how people view villains based off of their gender.
There is only one drama where I felt attracted to, sorry for, & liked both the male & the female villain. That drama was The Devil Judge, & the villains were Kang Yo Han & Jung Sun Ah. I think a telltale sign about how the audience views female & male villains is the fact that many people would not consider Kang Yo Han a villain. This is somewhat understandable, as Kang Yo Han's motive throughout the series was revenge. (This next sentence contains a spoiler) However, this does not excuse all the things he did & was going to do like pushing a man from a building to his death, almost (literally seconds away from) electrocuting a man to death, blowing up a court room with people in it & more. Due to these few things, I would consider Yo Han a villain, but for his actions, not his motive. For people that haven't watched the show, I think this quote from a episode review title "5 Things From Episodes 5-6 Of “The Devil Judge” That Had Us Worried for Yo Han" by shalini on Soompi describes the two villains well:
"Sun Ah and Yo Han are sides of the same coin, but where [Yo Han] exercises his power in the name of vengeance and punishment, [Sun Ah] does so for glitz and more power. That difference in motivation makes one a villain and the other a (morally ambiguous) hero. The show posits Yo Han as devilish when he’s an avenging angel, while Sun Ah appears as sweet as honey but is cruel to the core."
While Kang Yo Han & Jung Sun Ah have their flaws & have moments where their actions don't add up based off of their personality & agendas, I feel both characters were very well written. They both had sad, heartbreaking backstories & motives that made sense for their character. They were both charming & mysterious in their own ways, & regardless of their opposite motives, it was satisfying to watch them knock out their targets together as a team & on their own. Watching them close in on one another was exciting, & I personally couldn't help cheering on Sun Ah as she pretended to be loyal to the 3 (disgusting) men left & dethroned the president. Although we got to see Sun Ah's emotion as she told her backstory & could see how her childhood shaped her into the woman she turned out to be, I do wish they showed more of Sun Ah's backstory like how they showed Yo Han's. It was hard not like & feel bad for Sun Ah, regardless of the things she did & why she did them.
The last & final thing I'd like to note is the fact that most female villains are just vengeful exes, attempted home wreckers, & petty love rivals who go about getting the main to love them all the wrong ways & get pissy when the main chooses the other person. Maybe the production team wanted those characters that way & to get under the audiences skin, but DAMN, stop being so stereotypical & at least give them a conscience & the ability to know when to stop. These types of characters are annoying & make the drama less enjoyable &, of course, make viewers absolutely hate them. I think so many people are sick & tried of these types of female "villains" that the moment a female character bats an eyelash at the ML we freak out & instantly hate them, even if they don't do anything else for the rest of the series.
Wow, that was an essay. There's so much more I'd like to say but I'm going to have to leave it at this. This took me almost 4 hours to write, omg! Hopefully my words came across well & make sense! Alright, time to go back to binge watching more dramas :)) !
I kept seeing a repeating theme in the article as well as the comments of how, specifically, women tend to favor/be attracted to male villains based on how attractive they are (vise versa for men towards female villains). This made me think about my own sexuality & how I do the same thing as well. Due to me being lesbian, I am almost instantly attracted to every female character I see, including female villains. However, I can only count on one hand the number of female villains I have found attractive & not hated, or felt annoyed by, by the end of the drama. As for male characters, seeing as I'm not very attracted to men (other than Gong Jun), I can list a hand full of male villains I ended up feeling a slight attraction towards (sometimes no attraction what so ever), not hating &, most of the time, felt bad for.
I saw a few people saying that the way we view villains isn't solely because of bad character writing, or that it would be unfair to blame everything on bad writing. To me, this is interesting, as I believe the main reason why I hate more female villains than men is because of bad character writing. It makes sense as well. How is it that straight women least hate the villains of the gender they're attracted to while a lesbian most hates the villains of the gender they're attracted to if not bad character writing? I feel as if most female villains lack the sort of heartbreaking backstory &/or motive for their actions compared to male villains. I find myself feeling more sorry for villains with a tragic childhood or event happening, especially if it clarifies their motive for the things they're doing. More male villains are given these types of heartbreaking backstories that leave the audience feeling bad for them & use the characters' story to justify a lot more of their actions. I left out straight men because I'm not sure if straight men hate female villains more than male villains more or not. Maybe this is another topic that can be researched, specifically to see whether sexuality effects how people view female villains vs. male villains. I think it would be interesting to see if people are attracted to, yet still hate rather than like the villains of the gender they're attracted to. This might help rule out or clarify whether attraction effects how people view villains based off of their gender.
There is only one drama where I felt attracted to, sorry for, & liked both the male & the female villain. That drama was The Devil Judge, & the villains were Kang Yo Han & Jung Sun Ah. I think a telltale sign about how the audience views female & male villains is the fact that many people would not consider Kang Yo Han a villain. This is somewhat understandable, as Kang Yo Han's motive throughout the series was revenge. (This next sentence contains a spoiler) However, this does not excuse all the things he did & was going to do like pushing a man from a building to his death, almost (literally seconds away from) electrocuting a man to death, blowing up a court room with people in it & more. Due to these few things, I would consider Yo Han a villain, but for his actions, not his motive. For people that haven't watched the show, I think this quote from a episode review title "5 Things From Episodes 5-6 Of “The Devil Judge” That Had Us Worried for Yo Han" by shalini on Soompi describes the two villains well:
"Sun Ah and Yo Han are sides of the same coin, but where [Yo Han] exercises his power in the name of vengeance and punishment, [Sun Ah] does so for glitz and more power. That difference in motivation makes one a villain and the other a (morally ambiguous) hero. The show posits Yo Han as devilish when he’s an avenging angel, while Sun Ah appears as sweet as honey but is cruel to the core."
While Kang Yo Han & Jung Sun Ah have their flaws & have moments where their actions don't add up based off of their personality & agendas, I feel both characters were very well written. They both had sad, heartbreaking backstories & motives that made sense for their character. They were both charming & mysterious in their own ways, & regardless of their opposite motives, it was satisfying to watch them knock out their targets together as a team & on their own. Watching them close in on one another was exciting, & I personally couldn't help cheering on Sun Ah as she pretended to be loyal to the 3 (disgusting) men left & dethroned the president. Although we got to see Sun Ah's emotion as she told her backstory & could see how her childhood shaped her into the woman she turned out to be, I do wish they showed more of Sun Ah's backstory like how they showed Yo Han's. It was hard not like & feel bad for Sun Ah, regardless of the things she did & why she did them.
The last & final thing I'd like to note is the fact that most female villains are just vengeful exes, attempted home wreckers, & petty love rivals who go about getting the main to love them all the wrong ways & get pissy when the main chooses the other person. Maybe the production team wanted those characters that way & to get under the audiences skin, but DAMN, stop being so stereotypical & at least give them a conscience & the ability to know when to stop. These types of characters are annoying & make the drama less enjoyable &, of course, make viewers absolutely hate them. I think so many people are sick & tried of these types of female "villains" that the moment a female character bats an eyelash at the ML we freak out & instantly hate them, even if they don't do anything else for the rest of the series.
Wow, that was an essay. There's so much more I'd like to say but I'm going to have to leave it at this. This took me almost 4 hours to write, omg! Hopefully my words came across well & make sense! Alright, time to go back to binge watching more dramas :)) !
Here's the link to the Soompi review I got the quote from: https://www.soompi.com/article/1476227wpp/5-moments-from-episodes-5-6-of-the-devil-judge-that-had-us-worried-for-yo-han