Why We Need to Include Female Villains in Our History Books
Feminism demands that we treat women as fully human, recognizing our individual strengths and weaknesses
By Anita Sarkeesian and Ebony Adams
In the latter half of the 20th century, a gilded empire of excess and murder loomed. Cocaine formed the bricks, and blood was the mortar that held it fast. In the 1970s and ’80s, greed was good and ruthlessness was better. It was the undisputed era of the narcotics kingpin, and as a nation, we were in their thrall. Perched atop mountains of snow-white powder were ruthless, swaggering figures whose names we whisper: Pablo Escobar. “Freeway” Rick Ross. Nicky Barnes.
But one name should be included on this list that many people don’t know: the Colombian queenpin among these kingpins, Griselda Blanco. They called her the Black Widow, and with more than 200 alleged murders to her name, she was deadly.
There’s a reason La Madrina, the Black Widow, isn’t talked about in the same breathless tones as narco commanders like Pablo Escobar; a reason she’s the subject of made-for-TV movies (one that ran on Lifetime, another forthcoming from HBO) instead of big studio films. We have a cultural fascination that feeds on the thrill of real-life dangerous men, but Western…
