Beta Bitch

Seen here in her natural habitat: beside the alpha female.

"No, it's not the queen bee who is cruel. It's the lieutenant bees, the seconds in command, the other cool girls who have ascended to a high station but can only dream of being the queen bee herself. It is through them, typically unconsciously on the part of the queen bee, that the cruelty is meted out."

— Frederik DeBoer

Every Alpha Bitch needs a right hand gal pal. Someone to order the students to Make Way for the Princess, someone to give orders to the Girl Posse on behalf of the Alpha Bitch, someone to nod along with the Alpha Bitch's comments and sneer at her victims, you get the picture—she is The Dragon to the Alpha Bitch. The Beta Bitch is the BFF to an existing Alpha Bitch; they're likely to be Childhood Friends. She's usually there to assist her in her schemes and act as a gossip buddy. A lot of the time she's more like a servant and is treated like one by her supposed friend, thus making her an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain. Other times she might be waiting in the wings for her chance to backstab her and usurp the role for herself, in which case it will probably prove there is a Popularity Cycle at work.

The Beta Bitch's appearance may vary, although it is universally agreed she will not be as attractive or influential as her boss. Sometimes she is a nerd herself (which is convenient, as it gives the Alpha Bitch someone whose academic success she can exploit), other times they are indistinguishable. Making them a minority is also popular (usually an Asian Airhead or Sassy Black Woman), especially if the Alpha already has the stereotypical rich, blonde look in lock.

If the Alpha Bitch in question is actually a Lovable Alpha Bitch then the Beta Bitch will be the really nasty one and may even be jealous of the friendship between the Lovable Alpha Bitch and the Loser Protagonist. Others may be the Former Friend of Alpha Bitch, but she rarely is. And, of course, there are the examples that are outright in love with the Alpha, leading to several cases of Ignored Enamored Underling.

Has nothing to do with Super Mecha Death Christ 2000 B.C. Version 4.0 Beta Bitch.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Louisa, to Eliza Regan in the Boarding School arc of Candy♡Candy. While Eliza tends to be a Karma Houdini, Louisa gets a nice dish of karma when her family goes the Riches to Rags way.
• Rosalie from Cross Ange is this to any Alpha Bitch. She was this to Zola, then was this to Hilda when the former died, and is also this to Chris when Hilda left the both of them.
• Carmen from Hollow Fields is this to resident Alpha Bitch Summer Polanski, as she shoves Lucy Snow out of her group and bullies her alongside Summer. However, this isn't because of her own personality, but because Summer is a bad influence for her. In reality, she is a meek girl that cares deeply for her friends, and eventually befriends Lucy by the end of Volume 3.
• In Kill la Kill, Nonon Jazukure is the Childhood Friend of Satsuki Kiryuin, and thus even closer to her than the other members of the Elite Four. Played with because, like Satsuki and the others, she's a The Mole and Good All Along.
• Mai Housaka and Maki Kouno from Private Actress's Boarding School two-parter, acting as "seconds" to Alpha Bitch Kana Juumonji later known as Satoka Ryoudo. Mai is specially unsettling because she uses her Creepy Crows mascots to help Kana murder people. Maki, however, ends up having a Heel–Face Turn thanks to Shiho.
• Keiko Sonoda, to Nanami Kiryuu in Revolutionary Girl Utena. She seems to be the only member of her Girl Posse with at least some bits of a distinct personality. Specially in the Black Rose arc, where she goes the From Nobody to Nightmare way.
• Mihaya Ozaki from Shadow Star is the beta bitch to one really nasty Alpha Bitch named Aki Honda. When their victim Hiroko acquires a "mon" named Oni... both she and Aki die in very gruesome manners.
• Hisako Arato in Food Wars! is a subversion. She is the assistant of Academic Alpha Bitch Erina Nakiri, who isn't actually a mean person but is an extremely haughty perfectionist who looks down on pretty much everyone. Hisako looks up to Erina and seems content with being her Number Two, while Erina wishes that their relationship could be more of a traditional friendship. At the start of the story it's clear that a lot of Erina's arrogant attitude has rubbed off on Hisako, to the point she takes to hate protagonist Soma Yukihira on principle simply because Erina dislikes him, and she falls into a depression after losing in the Fall Classic, to the point she leaves Erina out of feelings of inadequacy, unaware that Erina isn't angry at her for it. Her Character Development following her internship with Soma helps her grow out of this.
• Miki from Failed Princesses is part of Nanaki Fujishiro's group of gyarus, and took part in bullying the plain and unattractive Kanade Kurokawa. When Fujishiro saw the error of her ways and started to befriend Kurokawa, Miki cut ties with Kurokawa and became even more vicious toward Fujishiro, apparently blaming Kurokawa for how Fujishiro changed. While Fujishiro remains bitter toward Miki for much of the series, she's forced to accept the fact that Miki only started bullying Kurokawa because Fujishiro did it first.

Comic Books

• Princess Jasmin of Princess Ugg is this to Princess Julifer's Alpha Bitch. Since she doesn't have to room with Ulga or even be around her as much, it makes her even more unlikeable than Jule.

Fan Works

• In the Danny Phantom fanfic Resurrected Memories: Star starts out as the typical "satellite" to Alpha Bitch Paulina… except that deep down, she is a tragic Deconstruction of one. Star is shown to secretly be very insecure and neurotic and only seems to follow Paulina out of fear of being cast out of the A-Listers and be friendless much like how Valerie had been. The way she broke down in tears over being criticized one too many times by Paulina had Ember genuinely pity her.
• In many Miraculous Ladybug Post-Chameleon salt fics (ex. Burning Bridges, Building Confidence), Alya is portrayed as Lila's right hand and is willing to bully Marinette to protect her 'best friend'.
• In Ma Fille and Shining and Sweet, after Claire enters her mean-girl stage, she gains a small Girl Posse, and her new Best Friend Sasha Cloverway becomes her second-in-command. Sasha is the most similar to Claire of the bunch, as while Veronica is a physical bully and Mia has no respect for authority, Sasha and Claire are both classic, gossipy mean girls.

Films — Animation

• Aria Blaze, from My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks. Of the film's trio of antagonists, she's obviously the second-in-command.
• In Wreck-It Ralph, Rancis Fluggerbutter and Candlehead are this to Taffyta Muttonfudge.

Films — Live-Action

• Heather in Bad Reputation, though as the film progresses it becomes clear that she is even worse than the Alpha Bitch.
• All of the film adaptations of Carrie turn one of the book's characters into one of these to give Chris a gal pal to help her with the prank. Norma is the Beta Bitch in the 1976 film, Tina in the 2002 and 2013 films. Neither was actually evil in the book, though Tina was friendly with Chris.
• Caitlin from The Duff is the mean-spirited minion to Madison, the resident Alpha Bitch. She also serves as The Dragon to Madison and films Bianca twice to humiliate her.
• Mean Girls
  • Gretchen appears to be this to Regina initially. However, the supposed heroine Cady winds up becoming this, eventually rising to become the Alpha Bitch almost by accident.
  • Alternate Character Interpretation has led to fans theorising that Regina could have been this to Janis back when they were friends, eventually Backstabbing the Alpha Bitch to become the Queen Bee she is at the beginning of the film.
• Heather Duke in Heathers fits the Butt-Monkey servant variety and is convinced to become the new Alpha Bitch when Heather Chandler dies.
• Played with in The Hole. Frankie is portrayed as the Alpha Bitch in Liz's story but in the real version of the story she and Liz appear to be equal.
• Marcie Fox is this to Courtney in Jawbreaker, mainly because she's a mean-spirited dimwit who likes to leave the plotting to other people. Later, Vylette becomes this when her new-found popularity goes to her head and she starts to encroach on Courtney's Alpha Bitch role.
• Kim is this to Charleen in Mirror Mirror (1990), and becomes Megan's next victim after she has dealt with Charleen.
• Nikki to Stacy in Odd Girl Out. Stacy seems conflicted about tormenting Vanessa while Nikki is a straight up villain and leads the bullying on.
• The Rage: Carrie 2 has Tracy as the Alpha Bitch and Monica as her Beta Bitch. Monica spends most of the film trying to befriend Rachel, all so they can humiliate her at a party.
• Liz in Sleepover to Stacy. In a twist, it's Stacy who gets the occasional Pet the Dog moment while Liz is barely developed at all.
• Alpha Bitch Brooke's best friend Tiffany serves this role in The Witch Files. She doesn't play a major role in the plot, but does serve as a Spanner in the Works when she is crowned Spring Queen instead of Jules.

Literature

• Jessie, to Lavinia, in A Little Princess. Jessie is the less malicious version.
• Fish in a Tree: Jessica serves this role to Shay. Of course, Shay often intimidates her into going along with Shay's bullying.
• Rychie to Katrinka in Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates. She's an example of the Beta Bitch being the meaner of the two - the narrator says that Katrinka is The Ditz and would have been much nicer had Hilda been her best friend instead of Rychie.
• The Dana Girls has Ina Mason, always accompanying her alpha Lettie Briggs.
• Jessica Hunter is this to Mackenzie Hollister in Dork Diaries
• Nighttime Is My Time: Laura Wilcox was indicated to be this to head bitch Alison in school; they were close friends and often egged each other on in making nasty jokes at the expense of their classmates. In adulthood, while Laura is still a bit shallow and insensitive at times, she seems to have mellowed out a lot and is nowhere near as bitchy as she was in school. The Owl isn't convinced she's changed though, and intends to kill her for tormenting him in school.
• From Sharon M. Draper's bestselling novel Out of My Mind, we absolutely cannot forget Molly to Claire. Along with Claire, she goes around with her as she gossips about and bullies Melody, a girl with cerebral palsy.

Live-Action TV

• Claire to Kate in Lizzie McGuire. One episode has her taking the reins while Kate is injured and she is even worse.
• Muffy to Alana (and later Bianca) in That's So Raven. She seems to act as Alana's secretary to the rest of the students and translates whenever Alana speaks Spanish.
• Drucilla to Ethel in The Worst Witch though in a twist, she is Ethel's only friend as the rest of the girls despise them both. She pulls off a Heel–Face Turn at the end of the series.
• Harmony to Cordelia in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. After Cordelia's social standing is ruined by dating Xander, Harmony becomes the new Alpha Bitch.
• Tiffany to Miriam in H₂O: Just Add Water. From what we see of her, she's not mean at all.
• Santana to Quinn in Glee, at least initially. Santana quickly ascends to Alpha Bitch as Quinn goes through her redemption arc, then later Santana goes through a redemption arc of her own.
• Penelope to whoever acts as the reigning Alpha Bitch in Gossip Girl, the "eager to become alpha herself" type. Unfortunately for her, she is just not in one league with Blair, Serena or even Little J.
• Cobra Kai: Moon is the beta to Yasmine's Alpha Bitch, and initially quite loyal, but is very quick to discard her old friends when the Cobra Kai begin to climb the social ladder.
• HEX had one of these per season to Alpha Bitch Roxanne. Season 1's Beta Bitch was Gemma, who functioned mostly as a love rival to Cassie for Troy's affections. Season 2 had Alex in the role, who seemed nicer than Gemma but was quick to turn on Roxanne after her affair with Jez was exposed. Alex then fully backstabs Roxanne and becomes the new queen bee courtesy of Malachi, as shown when she, Jo and several other students corner her and then drag her to the cafeteria to be sacrificed.

Professional Wrestling

• "Honorary Homewrecker" Jetta was this to The Minnesota Home Wrecking Crew: The Lovely Lacey and The Radiant Rain. But then she became an official member as they became the International Home Wrecking Crew, making her simply the one who talked about herself the least. The Home Wrecking Crew also never had an alpha bitch, as Lacey and Rain both believed themselves to be the best thing in pro wrestling and decided to become "life partners" to put an end to their feud over the issue. Jetta they seemingly just liked.
• Lana Star tended to corrupt people into being hers in Women Of Wrestling such as chemist lab technician Poison, cheerleader Patti Pep(who Star renamed Patti Pizzazz), Amber O'Neal(Beverly Hills Babe). She also hired a personal assistant, Kitty, after Pep and fired her before O'Neal.
• Lollipop was the Beta Bitch of Team Blondage (though Amber O'Neal was more of a Jerk Jock, GeeStar a brute, making Krissy Vaine the only "traditional" Alpha Bitch). In this case she was the goofiest and least malicious, though would happily go along with what the others wanted to do.
• Velvet Sky was the beta bitch with Angelina Love in The Beautiful People, then to Madison Rayne after Love got deported. Then to Love again after she eventually rejoined the group.
• Layla to Michelle McCool, back when they were co-reigning Divas Champion. Layla took most of the damage in matches, agreed enthusiastically with anything Michelle said, and took the abuse when it all went wrong. Like Lollipop she was also the goofier of them. Unlike Lollipop Layla was still pretty vicious, just more incompetent than Michelle. Their alliance imploded eventually, and Layla was turned face.
• Layla briefly filled this role to A.J. Lee - who convinced her to betray Kaitlyn. But AJ soon recruited other Divas in Alicia Fox and Aksana to help her as well - and they all abandoned her right before a big title match.
• Ditto for Brie Bella or Nikki Bella and vice versa, especially when one of them is the Divas champion. As Nikki ultimately had a longer title reign, Brie spent more time in this role. Even in the 2018 storyline with the twins vs Ronda Rousey, Brie was portrayed as Nikki's minion.
• Summer Rae on NXT corrupted Sasha Banks and convinced her to have a Face–Heel Turn and join her as the Beautiful Fierce Females. When Charlotte was added to the group and Summer disappeared from NXT, Sasha remained in this role.
• Tamina Snuka filled this role briefly to Alicia Fox during 2011. This alliance quietly disappeared when Alicia was turned Face.
  • Tamina has practically made a career of this with the vast majority of her time when she's a Heel being spent as the muscle/bodyguard to other female Heels. In addition to the aforementioned Alicia Fox, she has also played this role to Vickie Guerrero, A.J. Lee, and Naomi at various times. Even when she was paired in a tag team with Nia Jax (WWE's other female Samoan powerhouse and Tamina's real life cousin), Nia was the one who did 99% of the talking in promos and got the bigger focus with Tamina mostly just acting as Nia's backup.
• Kiera Hogan is the beta bitch of The Cutie Pie Club. While Candy Cartwright is the "leader", the group is actually named for Hogan, whom Cartwright adores. Aria Blake in turn is the omega bitch, whom Cartwright blames everything on and abuses even when Hogan is more passive or forgiving.(And Dementia D'Rose is The Brute).
• Katey Harvey in PWU was able to corrupt Valkyrie Cain into turning heel and becoming her ally. It wasn't until Katey was injured that Valkyrie was able to be pushed on her own.
• The stable Vince's Devils tended to portray Torrie Wilson as the leader, while Candice Michelle was a valet providing Fanservice. When Candice was chosen to pose for Playboy, she turned on Torrie and gave the latter a Heel–Face Turn.

Video Games

• Taylor to Victoria Chase in Life Is Strange.
• Psychonauts: Franke Athens is this to her friend Kitty Bubai. Exemplified if you try and show them the button Sasha Nein gives to Raz.
  Raz: Hey, look. I got a button. Can I join your little craft club?
  Franke: Hey, look! I've got an ugly face! Can I join your ugly club?
  Kitty: Um, leave the insults to me next time, okay, Franke?

Visual Novels

• In Shining Song Starnova, Haruka is the second most popular member of the idol unit Quasar after its center Shiro, and while Shiro is (mostly) aloof, Haruka is a deeply unpleasant and nasty individual. When Mariya was let go from Quasar for being too old, Haruka led the other girls in humiliating her by stripping her naked and shoving her face into a bag full of human shit. She also makes no secret of the fact that she's gunning for Shiro's position.

Web Animation

• In Teen Girl Squad, Cheerleader is the leader of the group, with So-and-So usually positioned as her second-in-command. When she was unable to join the others at camp, The Ugly One got a temporary promotion. Unlike many examples, though, Cheerleader is the only malicious one, and the others don't actually like her.
• The Most Popular Girls in School: Brittnay Matthews to Mackenzie Zales, and Taylor McDevitt to Tanya Berkowitz. In the former pair's case, their friendship, while toxic, is genuine.

Webcomics

• Lucy in El Goonish Shive. Diane is the Alpha Bitch (later revealed to be a Lovable Alpha Bitch) of her group. Lucy is regularly nasty to Rhoda, the third member of the group. She doesn't seem to be particularly impressed with Diane either, which is kind of a subversion; it seems she just hangs with them because they're popular, and lets Diane take the lead because that seems to be important to her. Until it turns out that Lucy is actually in love with Diane and is her Beta Bitch because it feels as close to dating her as she can ever get.
• Anecdote of Error: Nishkose joins in on Shimei's taunts, and is even worse once we see them alone and learn how abrasive she is to her own friends. She doesn't even have Shimei's few redeeming traits.
• Sara is this to Penny in Penny and Aggie, being her oldest friend and right hand woman. In a subversion, Sara is acknowledged in-universe as being the nicest of Penny's group (and Penny herself is nowhere near as bad as Aggie's group thinks she is), and Penny genuinely values their friendship. Sara even gets cast as Lady Macbeth alongside Penny's Macbeth.

Western Animation

• In All Grown Up! Angelica is desperate to become this to Savannah but that role is already taken by Brianna.
• Amphibia: Anne is implied to have been this to Alpha Bitch Sasha, having been friends who defended each other from bullies for most of their childhood, and Anne would always go along with all of Sasha schemes and never stand up to her. This dynamic ended at the end of season 1, with Anne challenging her to a duel. The effects of the relationship, though, wouldn't be fully resolved until the end of the series, since Anne - unlike Sasha and Marcy - had no clear identity of herself or goals in life other than as their friend.
• Played with in As Told by Ginger, where the Beta Bitch, Miranda Killgallen, is the real villain. Her best friend, Courtney Grippling, is a Lovable Alpha Bitch who has taken an interest in the title character, and Miranda seems worried about being replaced.
• Subverted in Braceface. Alyson is friend of Nina, but she was never actually cruel or mean; she just did whatever Nina told her to do, because like a lot of teenagers, Alyson wants to be noticed and fit in. After, Alyson perform a Heel–Face Turn when she had a crush on Connor and Nina made her choose between her or him.
• Danny Phantom refers to this trope as "The Satellite," as in the girl who constantly revolves around the more popular girl. In this case, it's Star to Paulina.
• In Daria, Sandi is the President of the Fashion Club while the title character's sister, Quinn, is Vice President; their relationship is largely defined by grandiose displays of friendship combined with constant attempts to backstab each other, as each vies to become the most popular girl in school. (Whether Quinn is actually The Starscream or Sandi is Improperly Paranoid is a bit Depending on the Writer.) If one considers them equal Alpha Bitches, though, Tiffany would fulfill this trope, with Stacy at the bottom of the group.
• Detentionaire: Brandy plays this role to Kimmie in the Glamazons, and she's always trying to boost herself up the popularity totem pole (whether by throwing a huge party or claiming the newly-popular Lee as her boyfriend). Character Development sees her grow out of this and get kicked out of the Glamazons as a result.
• In The Fairly OddParents!, Veronica plays this role to Trixie. She is somewhat unhinged and doesn't so much want to replace Trixie as BE her.
• Lisa (short-haired redhead) is this to Connie D'Amico on Family Guy.
• Grojband: Mina is this to Trina, who she's been friends since Kindergarten. However, Mina's more of a Minion with an F in Evil, being on much friendlier terms with Grojband. Trina is also just as cruel and abusive towards Mina as she is towards Grojband.
• Miraculous Ladybug has Sabrina Raincomprix. Unusually, she's rather Geeky, but still a loyal minion to Chloé, who's been her Only Friend since they were young. (Marinette tried to change this, but failed.) Whether or not Sabrina just goes along with Chloé's schemes or has a mean streak of her own is Depending on the Writer. Their relationship is rather unbalanced, but still apparently genuine. Part way through the fifth season she stops being one when she breaks away from Chloé when Chloé and Lila take their vendetta against Marinette too far.
• Tiff is this to Brit in My Life as a Teenage Robot, while Pteresa functions as this for the both of them.
• Silver Spoon is this to Diamond Tiara in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. In the show's 5th anniversary episode, Silver Spoon turns on Diamond Tiara after being mistreated one too many times, and both are redeemed by the end.
• Boscha to Amity Blight in The Owl House; Amity is an Academic Alpha Bitch, but it becomes increasingly clear that she feels bad about her mean attitude and she goes through some massive Character Development, starting to patch up her broken friendship with her ex-best friend Willow and even falling in love with Luz Noceda. At this point, Boscha takes over as the new Alpha Bitch who is far worse than Amity ever was, lacking all of the latter's redeeming traits, and Boscha gets her own beta bitch in the less-malicious Skara.
• Appropriately titled, the Ashley clique in Recess has Ashley A as the Alpha Bitch and Ashley B as the Beta Bitch. When Ashley A is temporarily kicked out, Ashley B appears to be the leader.
• Sofia the First: Princess Hildegard, Amber's best friend and Number Two in Royal Prep's Girl Posse. Like Amber, she's doesn't actively bully other kids but she is pretty snobbish and dismissive of anyone she sees as beneath her. It's occasionally implied she has a genuine mean streak, unlike Amber who is just Innocently Insensitive.
• In Total Drama's first season, Lindsay is often forced to set others up for Heather's evil deeds, whether by keeping Gwen from entering the cabin whilst Heather searches for Gwen's diary, or standing with Heather when the latter forces Bridgette pick a side. Lindsay, however is a Minion with an F in Evil, not to mention dumb as a rock, so she often has trouble carrying out Heather's commands.

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