History Main / WickedStepmother

* Also subverted in ''DanAndMabsFurryAdventures'', Alexi (Dan's half-sister) [[http://www.missmab.com/Comics/Vol_306.php considers her stepmother Dee to be her mother]], and Dee [[http://www.missmab.com/Comics considers Alexi to be her daughter]].

* No mention of Anne Boleyn? [[{{Understatement}} She and Mary Tudor did not have a good relationship.]] She made sure Mary became part of her own daughter, Elizabeth's, household staff to teach Mary 'her place.' There's also evidence that she may have put the other staff up to treating Mary abusively.

Her tactics vary widely. She may simply [[CinderellaCircumstances oppress the heroine, keeping her in rags and slaving at household work]] -- sometimes going as far as assigning the ImpossibleTask. As a WickedWitch, she may [[InvoluntaryShapeshifting transform]] the child(ren) into animals. She may drive or send them off. She may act [[FamilyUnfriendlyViolence violently]] toward them and even [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath kill]] them (and perhaps cap that by [[DueToTheDead cooking them up and serving them to their father]].)

* In ''[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/twelvedancing/stories/katiecrackernuts.html Katie Crackernuts]]'', the [[GreenEyedMonster envious]] stepmother has her stepdaughter Anne's head [[InvoluntaryShapeshifting turned into a sheep's head]]. Subverted in that the Katie of the title is ''her own daughter'', who sees what she's done and sets out with her stepsister Anne to escape and solve the problem; normally the stepdaughter is the heroine.

** Arguably [[JustifiedTrope justified]]: Feanor's mother suffered DeathByChildbirth, but elves can come back to life after spending a certain amount of time in the afterlife. Notably, Feanor's father is the only elf we ever hear of remarrying.

* No mention of Anne Boleyn? [[Understatement She and Mary Tudor did not have a good relationship.]] She made sure Mary became part of her own daughter, Elizabeth's, household staff to teach Mary 'her place.' There's also evidence that she may have put the other staff up to treating Mary abusively.

* An episode of the {{Hentai}} anthology series ''CoolDevices'' features a corrupt detective stepfather drugging his stepdaughter and gang-raping her along with two drug manufacturers.

* In ''PetshopOfHorrors'' there is an Inversion in one story in which the stepmother is the protagonist and the stepdaughter is wicked and is tying to make sure that she is left penniless by tricking her ill father into divorcing the woman.
* In ''GhostHunt'', a little girl's possessed doll told her that her stepmother was evil and trying to poison her.

* ''{{Labyrinth}}''. {{Lampshaded}} and subverted. Sarah's stepmother complains that Sarah ''treats'' her like a classic fairytale wicked stepmother, no matter how nice she is.

The WickedStepmother, the woman hostile to her stepchildren, is a perennial trope. OlderThanDirt, she appears constantly in legends and folklore around the world. She seldom appears played straight in modern works, except when they are retelling {{Fairy Tale}}s, but the number of retold fairy tales (especially {{Cinderella}}, SnowWhite, and HanselAndGretel) gives her a number of straight appearances. Many psychologists hypothesize that she is an ArchetypalCharacter, devised by children to contain all they hate in their mothers so they can continue to regard Mother as perfect. For any or all of these reasons, even decades (centuries?) of [[SubvertedTrope subversion]] have not tranformed her even into a DiscreditedTrope; she can still be played straight or subverted. {{Shout Out}}s are commonplace whenever dealing with a stepfamily.

* Sadly, this is common enough that doctors who specialize in child abuse refer to it as "Step-Monster Syndrome".

* An extremely early meme on the ''SailorMoon'' anime noted the show's more streamlined look resulted in OnlySixFaces, meaning BigBad Queen Beryl (and later, a non-corrupt version of an unrelated villainess) somewhat resembled the only other prominent adult female on the show, the lead's ''mother''. Cue jokes of serious mommy issues.

* Averted with Jesus, who had a nice stepfather.

* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] and [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] on ''{{Rugrats}}'' when Chuckie imagines that Kira will be like this (complete with a Cinderella-esque DreamSequence). She subverts this not only by being very nice, but also by [[HappilyAdopted legally adopting]] Chuckie in the same episode.

* In ''[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/47junipertree.html The Juniper Tree]]'' and in ''[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/hanselgretel/stories/rosetree.html The Rose Tree]]'', the stepmother kills the child, [[ImAHumanitarian cooks the body]], and serves the dish to the child's father -- a girl in ''The Rose Tree'', but the boy of ''The Juniper Tree'' is the more common form. (Note that the half-sibling in these stories is invariably on good terms with the stepchild.)