why did they give this line to the villain
Because they often give the villain the lines that are socially subversive but true, in order to get them past the censors.
Which is incidentally what makes villains often far more relatable than heroes.
I’m reminded of something Tim Curry said on voicing villains. “The fact is though, that bad guys are often much better written than the good guys, and they’re kind of irresistible because they’re so much fun!”
All true but it’s even more than that. There is a long-established precedent in media, from books to films to comics, and more, in which the villain speaks the inconvenient truths of what is wrong with society. And it’s considered permissible because the narrative can eschew what the villain says as ridiculous or even perverse.
Sometimes this is especially insidious, as in the case with Cruella, because even though Cruella is wrong in THAT specific context/example, there is truth to the patriarchal standard of marriage sometimes being abused in favor of men’s pursuits, at the expense of women’s happiness.
But since a “bitch” (a very weaponized gendered slur originally used by straight men) said it, we can laugh her off as “crazy.”
This is embedded in other forms of problematized social identity/issues: there is an entire history, for instance, of what is called “queercoding” in villainy, so that LGBT identities can be present in the narrative, but are less threatening to a straight cisgender audience because, again, if the message gets too threatening, the villain and the message both can be written off.
And don’t even get me started on things like “the angry black woman” whose rage is WHOLLY justified, but we laugh her off as insane and disruptive to social peace.
I think everyone knows why I reblogged these comments to my Loki blog.
icyxmischief 