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The AfterEllen.com Huddle: Our favorite wicked queer characters

With Halloween just around the corner, who is your favorite wicked queer character from television, film or books?

Miranda Meyer: There is absolutely no textual evidence for counting her here but I do what I want: Maleficent, original version. And Nancy from The Craft.

Valerie Anne: Yeah, I was going to go with everyone in The Craft. The Practical Magic girls were queer too, right? (It’s possible I’ve gayed up all my favorite movies…) Actually, I’m pretty sure all witches have a little bit of lady lovin’ in them (or a lot, if you’re Willow/Tara).

Kim Hoffman: I am obsessed with how utterly wicked Drew Barrymore was in Poison Ivy. I always viewed her character as bisexual or sexually fluid, and dangerously manipulative. All her wicked ways begin to fuck with Sara Gilbert’s character Sylvie (who Ivy calls Coop), who has every reason to be deeply fascinated and threatened by her. The scenes are so hypnotic, Sylvie’s gaze fixated on Ivy’s lips, swinging on a rope above a ravine. I love all of it.

Ali Davis: So many wicked queer characters to love! Theodora in the original version of The Haunting isn’t evil, but she sure is wicked in other ways. (That’s also an amazing horror flick, by the way. Don’t let the black-and-white fool you.) I also love both wicked girls in Heavenly Creatures, for all the wrong reasons. But I think my favorite has to be Mrs. Danvers from Rebecca. OK, yes, she’s terrifying and murderous. But from another point of view, she’s just being loyal. You know how you’d want your bae to act after you’re gone.

Natasha Negovanlis: Everyone from All Cheerleaders Die.

Chelsea Steiner: Miriam Blaylock aka Catherine Deneuve in The Hunger, the bisexual vampire queen who seduces both David Bowie and Susan Sarandon. The movie is a cult queer classic, and plays a prominent role in everyone’s fav queer YA book The Miseducation of Cameron Post. And I would be remiss if I didn’t include the (squee!) CANON bisexual baddies of Batman Rogue’s Gallery: Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn.

Jenna Lykes: I’m going to go with my first crush-Faith from BtVS. I like my wicked characters to be less “pure evil” and more “damaged and misunderstood with a heart of gold.” And I just realized that perhaps Faith was never stated as explicitly queer in canon, but come on. Just watch that dance scene at the bronze with Buffy and try to argue it.

Elaine Atwell: First of all, Faith is queer as hell and Buffy/Faith is the only fan fiction I have ever deliberately sought out on the Internet. (Do NOT go down that rabbit hole, by the way. There is a ton of Buffy/Dawn shit that is disturbing as anything.) And secondly, I want to go with Elphaba from Wicked, but the book version. Because I have seldom been as heartbroke as I was when she and Glinda got so close to falling in love, but we’re torn apart by the sociopolitical realities of Oz/the nature of good and evil.

Dana Piccoli: Mona Freaking Vanderwaal. Now, I consider Mona to be omni-sexual, and no one on this earth can convince me that she is not in love with Hanna Marin. What a perfectly wicked character. I think what makes a wicked character different from a purely evil character is that they find ways to make you understand them, even sympathize. Mona is Pretty Little Liars most perfectly crafted character.

Who are your favorite wicked and queer characters?

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