Where Are All The Creepy Women?

Last December, The New Yorker declared 2023 ‘The Year of the Female Creep’, tracing a trope of ‘vaguely menacing wallflowers’ lurking in literary fiction.These include the protagonist of Emma Cline’s novel The Guest, an interloper who drifts around the Hamptons, and the narrator of Jen Beagin’s Big Swiss, who anonymously transcribes sex-therapy sessions and becomes obsessed with a patient in her recordings.It’s a thrill to read them, not only because they’re masterfully crafted, but because they occupy a space that’s been devoid of women for too long: creepy characters.This week sees the release of Ripley on Netflix, a sleek new noir adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s classic thriller The Talented Mr.Ripley, made famous in the 1999 film starring Matt Damon, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow.The remake has already divided critics, but the thing that unites fans and sceptics alike is the irresistible creepiness of the story’s titular conman.

In every incarnation, it’s Ripley’s memorably malicious talents that prove most compelling.

This quality was understandably also credited to Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) in Emerald Fennell’s 2023 hit, Saltburn.Quick was an archetypal ominous outsider, infiltrating an aristo-family with murderous consequences – and fantastic dance moves.His perspective on the cusp of the action made him uniquely capable of telling the tale, too, like Charles Ryder in Brideshead Revisited (a comparison drawn in Saltburn itself) and Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby, who describes himself as ‘within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled’.Although they’re less creepy outsider and more conflicted onlooker, these characters are just as compelling and complex.FIND OUT MORE ON ELLE COLLECTIVE Throughout television history, we’ve seen countless male antiheroes, addictively watchable in their complexity, from Walter White’s descent into villainy in Breaking Bad to the moral ambivalence of Tony Soprano.The only woman counterpart who’s fully broken into popular culture is Villanelle, the homicidal psychopath and glorious antiheroine of Killing Eve, masterfully portrayed by Jodie Comer.With sartorial flair (recall that pink Molly Goddard tulle dress), gleeful murderous rampages and an astonishing roster of accents, Villanelle cemented her place in the collective consciousness and proved – in a very extreme sense – that women can be creeps too.

And deeply entertaining in their creepiness.Killing Eve Villanelle Makeup Bag It almost goes without saying that Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who was the head writer on the first series of Killing Eve, has also done a lot for transgressive women on screen.‘I have a horrible feeling I’m a greedy, perverted, selfish, apathetic, cynical, depraved, morally bankrupt woman who can’t even call herself a feminist,’ declares the titular character of Fleabag in the first episode of the televisions series.Her despair was deeply validating, but it also offered a glimpse into the dark interior life that characters like Ripley actually enact.

If it sounds like I’m a closet creep, I’m not.I just want to see women playing characters that you almost can’t stand to watch, yet can’t look away from.We’ve had powerful figures (Kerry Washington in Scandal, Robin Wright in House of Cards) less-than-likeable leads (Hannah Horvath and the girls of Girls) and a host of flawed characters and conniving villains.But there still aren’t many enthrallingly sinister women on screen.Those who come closest are in films, like the protagonist of the adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, or the con artist at the centre of 2020 dark comedy I Care A Lot.Oddly enough, both of these characters are played (brilliantly) by Rosamund Pike, highlighting another issue in the sparse realm of the creepy woman – a lack of diversity.

One promising development is coming in the shape of an HBO adaptation of Beagin’s novel Big Swiss.

Jodie Comer is set to star as Flavia, aka Big Swiss, the patient with whom the transcriber, Greta, becomes obsessed.Gradually, the two women’s lives become intertwined in a story that will make for great television.Bring it on.ELLE Collective is a new community of fashion, beauty and culture lovers.For access to exclusive content, events, inspiring advice from our Editors and industry experts, as well the opportunity to meet designers, thought-leaders and stylists, become a member today HERE.News Related – Up to 40 Tory MPs ‘set to rebel’ if Sunak’s Rwanda plan doesn’t override ECHR Asylum seekers travel in an inflatable boat across the English Channel, bound for Dover on the south coast of England (Photo: Ben Stansall/AFP) Up to 40 Conservative MPs are poised to rebel over Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda deportation policy as they question ministers’ commitment to the scheme.

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Where Are All The Creepy Women?

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