Woman in Black

Come to me... if you dare!

For the Susan Hill novel and related works, see The Woman in Black.

Where the Woman in White marks a mysterious but important character and the Lady in Red indicates the sexy yet morally questionable one, the Woman in Black is almost always scary and menacing.

While black in itself is a pretty common colour to find in Real Life's clothing, particularly among Goths and similar cultural movements, there is still something unsettling to a woman in all-black garb, especially if she's an Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette. Extra points for red or dark lipstick and/or Femme Fatalons.

Strangely, the more skin the outfit covers, especially if it's a long dress, the more ominous the woman will become. Stripperific clothes seem to somewhat dim the effect of black, but don't outright negate it, as seen with Black Bra and Panties.

Not only does black outline the body even more than red, there are also all the ideas associated with the colour itself, such as death, night, evil, great danger, or refusal of sexuality (that one particularly if the clothes hide the whole body). Thus, it's a rare woman who can actually wear an all black outfit and not be at least an Anti Heroine.

Strangely, the trope is more the polar opposite of the Lady in Red than that of the Woman in White in terms of concepts. In fact, the Lady in Red brims with offers of quenching one's lust and gratifying sex, whereas the Woman in Black clearly conveys that desiring her is outright dangerous or forbidden or a free ticket to certain death.

As can be assumed, this trope is mostly associated with The Vamp, Femme Fatale, Magnificent Bitch, Vain Sorceress, Manipulative Bitch, The Baroness, or, in some extreme cases, a female Complete Monster.

Not to be confused with the Little Black Dress which is more a fashion item in itself than an indicator of character. (Usually) Compare Lady in Red, Woman in White, and Man in White.

Examples of Woman in Black include:

Anime & Manga

Comic Books

Newspaper Comics

Film

  • Michelle Pfeiffer in Batman Returns and Wolf.
  • Kim Basinger in The Real McCoy and L.A. Confidential.
  • Madame Giry in The Phantom of the Opera.
  • Lana Turner in Madame X (1966).
  • Anne Parillaud in the original Nikita (1990).
  • Sophie Fatale, O-Ren's Dragon from Kill Bill. She wears a black, high-collared jumpsuit thing that the narration says makes her look like "a villain from Star Trek".
  • Rocky Horror Picture Show: Magenta wears a black French Maid uniform and a slightly more revealing black outfit throughout the film. At least, until the end when she and Riff Raff reveal themselves as aliens.
  • Morticia and Wednesday from The Addams Family.
  • In TMNT, the fourth Ninja Turtles movie, new Foot Clan leader Karai is garbed entirely in black, save for her mask.
  • Mal of Inception is only in black for the opening sequence, but it wholly defines her character as a recurring obstacle to Cobb's extraction work in the rest of the movie.
  • The Dark Queen and Helena as the Dark Princess from Mirror Mask.
  • Lily of Black Swan, who is in competition for the role of the titular Black Swan with the protagonist, Nina, who is a Woman in White. The movie milks this for all it's worth.
  • Played with in Violent City: Vanessa has been a Femme Fatale Woman in White for the whole movie, manipulating her lover while retaining a facade of innocence. At the very end, once she gets to a position where she no longer needs to work through the men, she changes to all-black.
  • Helga from Disney's Atlantis the Lost Empire actually combines this with Blondes Are Evil where she is actually shown wearing a skimpy black dress during her introductory scene.
  • Matsu from the Joshuu Sasori series fits this to a tee, as an antiheroine out for revenge for her rape and humiliation in a Badass Longcoat done up to the neck, a Nice Hat and gloves, with only her face showing. The refusal of sexuality in particular is pretty unusual for 1972 Japan.
  • La Femme from the French film Inside.


Literature

  • A number of women in the Star Wars Expanded Universe wear black at least some of the time.
  • Nicci in the Sword of Truth series. Black is the only color she wears.
  • Dragaera'" has Sethra Lavode; hundreds of thousands of years old, a vampire, brilliant strategist, and sorceress powerful enough to worry gods. Naturally, she lives in a mountain made of black stone, has Black Eyes and hair, and dresses head to toe in black. Bonus points: in Dragaera, the color black represents sorcery and is one of the House colors for both Great Houses with which Sethra is associated.
    • And one of her hobbies is finding new ways to use black in interior decoration.
  • Discworld averts the heck out of this one. Whether it's the witches or Susan Sto Helit, the Disc's women in black seem to be good. But not nice.
    • Additionally, Nanny Ogg has pointed out that a black dress could signify anything: "Madam or Mother Superior, it was just a matter of details."
  • Semirhage in The Wheel of Time always dresses in black because she considers Lanfear, a Woman in White, to be her main rival.
  • Kiki Strike is a kiddie version of the Anti-Hero variant.
  • Lisbeth Salander in the Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson. Also leaning towards Anti-Hero.
  • What about the titular character of The Woman In Black?
  • Arpazia's final noteworthy gown in White as Snow is black, symbolic of her becoming a crone and cementing her reputation as a witch at court. The sight of her is enough to scare her daughter witless.
  • Tiphaine d'Ath of the Emberverse, who dresses all in black and begins her career as an assassin and quasi-ninja for Lady Sandra. She has a (deserved) reputation as being cool, nerveless, and lethal.
  • Vin from the Mistborn trilogy often embodies this trope, especially in the later books when it's used as a foil for Elend's Man in White


Live Action TV

  • The Vampira Show (1954) is one of the earliest representations of this trope on TV.
  • Elvira, Mistress of the Dark
  • In Doctor Who, when River Song returns in "The Time of Angels", she's got a lovely long black dress on that makes her look like a noir Femme Fatale. Considering it's hinted at that she served time in prison, has a secret she isn't telling the Doctor, and vandalized a home box with the message "Hello, sweetie" written in Old High Gallifreyan just to get the Doctor's attention, this probably fits. She may even possibly be the person who kills him, if the hints dropped at the end of the episode Flesh and Stone turn out to be as meaningful as they seem. So, it's safe to say this is intentional.
    • Contrast this with River's previous appearance dressed all in white, where she's an unambiguously good character, and her later appearance in the series five finale, where she again wears white and is very definitely on the Doctor's side.
    • And then her appearance in season six's mid-season finale, where some of her past is revealed—and this time, she's in grey.
  • Grayza likes black (and Stripperific, coincidentally, at least when she's not pregnant) and she's quite dangerous.
    • Although Aeryn from the same show also liked wearing black a lot (a black leather jacket and black leather pants, to be specific), and was an unambiguously good character. It's probably some remnant of her Peacekeeper training.
  • When Sarah goes undercover with Volkoff in Season 4 of Chuck, she not only wears black clothing, but also has black hair rather than her normal blonde.
  • Nikita from the CW show Nikita had naturally black/dark hair and loves wearing black clothing. However, she is a deconstruction of this trope in some ways as she is the hero of the show as well as a complete Badass and Femme Fatale. Many other characters who were and are a part of Division favor this trope as well - in particular, Michael.
  • Nicci in the season finale of Legend of the Seeker.
  • Darla in an episode of Angel very symbolically goes from wearing white to donning a black outfit. In said outfit, she joins Drusilla and, together, they commit a massacre.
  • Diana in Roar was a Woman in Black AND a Lady in Red. Given her dark, manipulative, seductive nature, this is unsurprising.
  • Having embraced the Dark Side completely, Morgana in Merlin is now dressed from head to toe in black.


Music

  • Lady Wore Black by Queensrÿche
  • "Cypress Grove" by Clutch. The women of cypress grove all dress in black.


Tabletop Games

  • In Dungeons and Dragons, some Suel deities such as Wee Jas or Shar apply. Many she-devils and demonesses also wear all black garments.


Video Games


Webcomics


Web Original


Western Animation

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