Why Does My Son Only Like the Bad Guys?

By Tova Ross for Kveller.com

If you have an evil cackle, malicious facial expressions, the odd wart or two or green-colored skin, and pick fights with heroic, selfless individuals, chances are: you are a storybook villain, and my son just adores you.

For the past few months, my 3 ½-year-old has been utterly entranced by the “bad guy” in everything from biblical stories and children’s books to comic strips and movies. In discussing the Purim holiday, he perked up only when we told him of Haman, asking numerous questions: “Mommy, is he a bad guy?” “But why is he mean to Mordechai?” “How come he wants to hurt the Jewish people?” Though he is interested in Batman and other masked heroes of his ilk, my son is way more transfixed by the Joker, as made evident when he pulls his pants down several times a day, bends over to prominently display his character underwear to me, and asks, “Mommy, who do YOU want to be on my underwear? I want to be the Joker because he’s mean!”

We all love a good story, with the usual suspects: protagonist, antagonist, and adversity before the ultimate triumph of good over evil. It’s a simple formula, interpreted time and again in so many interesting ways, and it goes without saying that most of us tend to root for the protagonist. But almost without fail, my child cheers on his or her crooked counterpart. And while it’s cute to watch him practice his mean face by scrunching up his nose and squinting his eyes, and playact at being the villain by using the best threats he knows–”I’m going to…. take away your snack and put you in a time-out, Mommy! BOO AHH AHH!”–I wonder if there’s something amiss in the fact that he seems so drawn toward the antihero.

It happened again last night. I’ve been impatiently waiting to watch the Disney movies of my youth with my children. Because my son is also currently fascinated by sharks and sea life, I decided it was time to start with The Little Mermaid, perhaps against my better judgment. There’s possibly no Disney villain as frightening as Ursula, along with her eel minions, Flotsam and Jetsam, but God invented the fast-forward button for a reason, I figured. With a bowl of freshly-popped popcorn that we generously split 90/10 (you can guess who belongs with which ratio), we settled on the couch to watch Ariel’s adventure under the sea.

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