What Lets Female Villians Appear to Be More Dangerous Than Male Villains?

Essay from the year 2015 in the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 3,0, University of Paderborn, language: English, abstract: When watching movies or reading books, most villains we come across are men. It is quite unlikely that the main villain could be a woman. Mostly men are not only the villain, but the hero as well. It is an eternal battle: The good guy defeating the bad guy, trying to save the woman he loves. We are not able to picture it the other way around. A woman, fighting a male hero? This picture appeals to us as very unusual. But why is that so? Why do we always find the bad and the good character to be a man?