The picture so far
In recent years, an increasing number of commentaries have focused on the presentation of gender in animated villains — take, for instance, these articles from The Tempest, Screen Rant, and Feminism in India. More specifically, these commentaries have considered ways in which the villains don’t conform to traditional gender norms, while their respective protagonists often have much more heteronormative characteristics (if you’re interested in reading about this for yourself, take a look at the references and further reading section, below). Existing research (Li-Vollmer & LaPointe, 2003; Putnam, 2012) has highlighted a tendency for male villains to be feminised, while female villains exhibit more masculine characteristics. However, the analyses have so far mainly focused on visual aspects of how these villains are presented, rather than linguistic aspects. Examining how the language used by these characters breaks gender norms could help to give us a more complete understanding of this phenomenon: here, I look at a few ways in which Hades from Disney’s Hercules (Musker and Clements, 1997) is ‘feminised’ through his language use; in other words, how his character departs from what we might think of as standard or ‘hegemonic’ masculinity (see Milani, 2014).
A previous study by Li-Vollmer and LaPointe (2003) points out that Hades is already represented visually as gender-queer (for an overview of the field of queer linguistics, see Maree, 2015), with his relatively delicate facial features, darkly coloured eyelids (giving him the appearance of wearing makeup), slender hands and long robes. On top of this, they pointed out that certain behaviours Hades engages in emphasise his stereotypical femininity, from his general passivity (using his minions, Pain and Panic, or his indentured servant, Meg, to do his dirty work) to smaller mannerisms such as lifting his little finger when drinking. To determine whether Hades’ dialogue complements this feminised visual presentation, I look at all scenes in which Hades has a speaking role of two or more lines (see timecodes and a brief description of each excerpt below). Within these, I examine both the more obvious elements of Hades’ speech and the subtler features of stereotypically feminine language he uses.
Sounding girly: compliments and terms of address
One way in which Hades’ queerness is relatively obvious is his use of terms of address. This is possibly one of the most salient markers of his non-hegemonic masculinity and is best illustrated by comparing the terms of address he uses to the terms of address used by other male characters in Hercules. For example, in Excerpt 1, Zeus uses the terms “son”, “my boy”, and “my little Hercules” in reference to Hercules; Phil, Hercules’ trainer, frequently refers to Hercules as “kid” (Excerpts 6 and 8); and Hercules, in a scene where he saves two young boys (Excerpt 6), calls them “fellas”. While Hades does use some similar, perhaps more stereotypically masculine terms of address (“boys” and “guys” in Excerpt 8), the viewer may well notice his use of “sugar”, “sweetheart” and “babe”, especially as he frequently uses several endearments at once, such as “my little flower, my little bird, my little nut, Meg” in Excerpt 5 (below). The pun “nut, Meg” is particularly interesting as use of puns can be associated with camp talk (Harvey, 2000) and, by extension, queerness. This works in conjunction with the more general effect Hades’ use of endearments has on his presentation as a queer character.
While using these endearments to refer to another female character might not be violating any norms of masculinity, what is interesting about Hades is that he uses these terms fairly indiscriminately, calling Zeus “babe” in a scene near the start of the film (Excerpt 1) — a term of address perhaps not frequently used between two (heteronormative) men, but more often between a man and a woman, or between two women. (Hermes also calls Zeus “babe” at 01:12:18 and displays other gender-queer characteristics, which may be of interest to anyone engaging in further research on this film; however, compared to Hades, Hermes has a minor role, and although it is interesting and encouraging to see a potentially queer character on the side of ‘good’, it is largely overshadowed by Hades’ much greater presence in the film.) It may also be worth noting that he is the only character other than Meg, the female love interest, to refer to Hercules as “Wonderboy” (Excerpts 7, 8 – below,12 and 13). The cumulative effect of this is the queering and feminising of Hades, which is further strengthened by the kinds of compliments he gives, thereby creating incongruity and, for some viewers at least, probably a humorous reaction.
The compliments Hades gives seem rather different to the compliments given by other characters. Of all the other characters in the sample, only two give compliments related to appearance, and only on one occasion each — Zeus calls his infant son “cute” in Excerpt 1, and Meg uses the same adjective for a rabbit and a gopher she comes across in Excerpt 5 (although this is of questionable sincerity, especially since the rabbit and gopher are Hades’ minions in disguise). However, ‘cute’ can relate to behaviour as well as appearance, so arguably these compliments do not focus on appearance alone. The other compliments given relate to skill (in Excerpt 6, Phil calls Hercules “bad” as a compliment on his fighting ability, and Zeus compliments baby Hercules on being “strong” in Excerpt 1), character (Meg calls Hercules “honest” and “sweet” in Excerpt 8), or something the addressee has done for them (in Excerpt 1, below, Hera and Zeus call the presents they have received “lovely” and “wonderful” respectively, and Hermes calls the party thrown by Hera and Zeus “fabulous”). For these characters, the number of compliments in each category is relatively similar.
Hades, however, gives seven compliments related to appearances (“looking good” and “nice dress” in Excerpt 1, “you look fabulous”, “you look like a fate worse than death” — which in this instance is complimentary — and “lovely hands” in Excerpt 3, and “what a dish” and “what a doll” in Excerpt 6), whereas he only gives three sincere compliments relating to skill (“a stirring performance” and “I was really moved” in Excerpt 6, and “fabulous little actress” in Excerpt 9, although the latter also refers to Meg’s appearance with the adjective ‘little’, demonstrating the pervasiveness of Hades’ focus on appearances), both of which concern the ability of other characters to deceive. Although he does give one compliment concerning someone’s character, calling Zeus a “fun guy” in Excerpt 13, he only does this out of self-preservation. So, it is obvious that the majority of compliments given by Hades relate to appearances. Since previous studies have found that women tend to compliment each other on appearances, whereas men’s compliments focus on possessions or skill (see Coates, 2004, p. 99), this could help to further feminise Hades.
Sounding tentative: hedging, tag questions, and mitigating directives
While Hades’ dialogue contains some more obvious indicators of gender queerness, it is also worth considering how this is conveyed through the style of his speech as a whole. There are a number of ways in which Hades uses features of stereotypical women’s language (for a list of these features, see Coates, 2004, pp. 107-108), including hedges. Hedges (words or phrases that express uncertainty, such as ‘sort of’ or ‘perhaps’) are used frequently by Hades even in situations where he has more power than those he is addressing and so could speak much more directly if he wanted to. For example, when talking to Meg in Excerpt 5, he says, “I thought you were gonna persuade the river guardian to join my team for the uprising, and here I am, kind of river guardian-less” (hedges underlined). Meg, on the other hand, uses no hedging devices in this scene despite being the less powerful character. Her dialogue is straight to the point, made up of only declarative sentences, whereas Hades uses three interrogatives and two tag questions (where a question is added to the end of a statement using a phrase like ‘isn’t it’ or ‘right’). While Hades is trying to get information out of Meg and his minions in this scene (justifying his use of interrogatives) he also uses tag questions in places where he has complete authority and doesn’t need to invite agreement, such as when he tells Meg what her punishment is going to be: “So, instead of subtracting two years from your sentence, hey, I’m gonna add two on, okay?”
Other male characters also hedge and use tag questions, but the context tends to be different. For example, after rescuing two ‘children’ (actually Hades’ minions in disguise) in Excerpt 6 (below), Hercules says, “Well, just try to be a little more careful next time, okay, kids?” This has the pragmatic force of a directive, telling the children what to do, but the threat to the children’s negative face (their need not to be infringed upon — for an overview of face theory, see Culpeper & Hardaker, 2018, pp. 461-465) is lessened or mitigated by the tag question ‘okay’, hedges ‘little and ‘just’, the verb ‘try’, and the familiar and friendly term of address ‘kids’. Hercules is also using tentative language in a position where he has more power (being an adult talking to two children, although it is perhaps worth mentioning that Hercules is still only a young adult, so might find wielding this authority awkward or unnatural), but he does not ‘own’ the children as Hades ‘owns’ Meg, so there is more of a need for him to respect the children’s negative face needs, compared to Hades, who hedges and uses tag questions in contexts where respecting Meg’s negative face needs is not required.
Another marker of Hades’ non-hegemonic masculinity is his use of directives. Aggravated, explicit directives such as bald imperatives (simple commands that use no extra politeness strategies) are typically more associated with masculinity, while mitigated directives that avoid threatening the addressee’s negative face are associated with femininity (Coates, 2004, pp. 94-96). While Hades does use bald imperatives, especially when addressing Pain and Panic or when directing the Titans, he frequently mitigates his directives in situations where he shouldn’t need to. In some cases, such as in Excerpt 8 when he says, “I’m sorry. Do you mind running that by me again? I must have had a chunk of brimstone wedged in my ear or something,” it is possible these mitigated directives are mock politeness rather than genuine, but on other occasions this explanation can’t be so easily applied. For example, in Excerpt 7, he says, “We simply need to find out WonderboyFFs [weakness]”. In context, this seems to have the pragmatic force of a directive, even though it is worded as a simple statement; this is supported by Meg’s reply, “I’ve done my part”, with which she refuses to obey Hades’ implicit command. As Meg is his servant, Hades should not need to mitigate his directive. Despite this, he does use several mitigation strategies (phrasing his command as a declarative, using the hedge ‘simply’, and using the inclusive first-person pronoun ‘we’ to imply a proposal for joint action). Meg, on the other hand, frequently uses bald imperatives when addressing Hades, such as in the same excerpt when she says, “Don’t even go there.”
A similar dynamic is present when Hades converses with Hercules in Excerpt 9 (below): Hades has more power in this situation as he has Meg to use as leverage, but again he mitigates his directives, saying, “So I would be eternally grateful if you would just take a day off from this hero business of yours”. Here, Hades uses the declarative form, the hedge ‘just’, and the polite phrase “I would be eternally grateful” (this is not the only use of polite lexis by Hades, either: he uses “regrettably” in Excerpt 1 and “Do you mind” in Excerpt 8) as mitigation strategies. In the same excerpt, on the other hand, Hercules tells Hades to “Stop it!” and “Let her go!” This gives Hades a sense of deferring to other characters, even when he has more situational power than them, which may well affect the audience’s perception of him: Coates (2004, p. 90) draws attention to the finding that sentences containing tag questions are more likely to be attributed to women than men, for example. Hades’ use of tag questions, as well as more tentative language in general, could therefore help to construct him as an effeminate, gender-queer villain, even if viewers might not consciously recognise this.
Why does any of this matter?
The gender queering of villains is a problematic trend precisely because it (consciously or otherwise) conflates gender transgression and villainy. Linguistic analyses of animated villains, especially those whose visual depictions are transgressive, help to shed light on how implicit biases are being communicated to viewers, especially the young children who make up much of the target audience for these films. This is currently a gap in research on gender queering and villainy: filling it could help us not only better understand this phenomenon in animated films, but also bring attention to the need for this trend of pitting gender-queer villains against heteronormative protagonists to end.
Excerpts
| Excerpt number | Timecode | Description |
| 1 | 00:03:17-00:06:26 | Hades attends the party thrown in honour of Hercules. |
| 2 | 00:07:10-00:07:53 | Hades berates Pain and Panic for not telling him the Fates have arrived. |
| 3 | 00:07:54-00:10:27 | The Fates reveal the future to Hades. |
| 4 | 00:10:28-00:10:48 | Hades announces his plan to turn Hercules mortal. |
| 5 | 00:37:06-00:39:10 | Hades finds out Hercules is still alive. |
| 6 | 00:43:08-00:49:06 | Hades sends the Hydra after Hercules. |
| 7 | 00:51:32-00:53:45 | Hades offers Meg her freedom if she can find out Hercules’ weakness. |
| 8 | 01:03:43-01:05:17 | Meg refuses to help Hades hurt Hercules. |
| 9 | 01:07:40-01:10:30 | Hades convinces Hercules to give up his strength in return for letting Meg go. |
| 10 | 01:10:40-01:11:52 | Hades releases the Titans. |
| 11 | 01:14:42-01:15:06 | Zeus discovers Hades is behind the attack. |
| 12 | 01:17:13-01:19:11 | Hades flees after his plan to take over Olympus is thwarted by Hercules. |
| 13 | 01:20:25-01:23:08 | Hades is defeated by Hercules and falls into the river of death. |
References and further reading/viewing
Chatterjee, Meghna. (2020, September 21). The problematic representation of queer masculinity in Disney films. Feminism in India. https://feminisminindia.com/2020/09/21/problematic-representation-queer-masculinity-disney-films/
Coates, Jennifer. (2004). Women, men and language: A sociolinguistic account of gender differences in language (3rd ed.). Pearson.
Culpeper, Jonathan. & Hardaker, Claire. (2018). Politeness in interaction. In J. Culpeper, P. Kerswill, R. Wodak, A. McEnery, & F. Katamba (Eds.), English language: description, variation and context (2nd ed., pp. 457-468). Macmillan.
Giunchigliani, Mallory S. (2011). Gender transgressions of the Pixar villains (Publication No. 1507252) [Master’s thesis, Hawaii Pacific University]. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.
Harvey, Keith. (2000). Describing camp talk: Language/pragmatics/politics. Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics, 9(3), 240-260. https://doi.org/10.1177/096394700000900303
Helmsing, Mark. (2016). “This is no ordinary apple!”: Learning to fail spectacularly from the queer pedagogies of Disney’s diva villains. In J.A. Sandlin & J.C. Garlen (Eds.), Disney, culture, and curriculum (pp. 59-72). Taylor & Francis Group.
Kogod, Theo. (2020, October 9). Maleficent & 9 more Disney characters you never knew were queer-coded. Screen Rant. https://screenrant.com/disney-villains-maleficent-queer-coded-lgbtq-gay/
Letts, Will. (2016). Camp Disney: Consuming queer subjectivities, commodifying the normative. In J.A. Sandlin & J.C. Garlin (Eds.), Disney, culture, and curriculum (pp. 148-160). Taylor & Francis Group.
Li-Vollmer, Meredith. & LaPointe, Mark E. (2003). Gender transgression and villainy in animated film. Popular Communication, 1(2), 89-109. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15405710PC0102_2
Maree, Claire. (2015). Queer linguistics. In P. Whelehan & A. Bolin (Eds.), The international encyclopedia of human sexuality (pp. 1047-1051). Wiley.
Milani, Tommaso. (2014). Theorizing language and masculinities. In T. Milani (Ed.) Language and masculinities: Performances, intersections, dislocations (pp. 8-33). Routledge.
Musker, John. & Clements, Ron. (Directors). (1997). Hercules [Film]. Walt Disney Pictures
Putnam, Amanda. (2012). Mean ladies: Transgendered villains in Disney films. In J. Cheu (Ed.), Diversity in Disney films: Critical essays on race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and disability (pp. 147-162). McFarland and Company.
Valero De Urquía, Beatriz. (2020, June 4). Wait a second, are all Disney villains gay? The Tempest. https://thetempest.co/2020/06/04/entertainment/disney-villains-gay-queer-coding/