I know I'm in the minority (maybe not so much anymore) but I've always LOVED unlikeable female characters. I think I see my own flaws in them and realize others can also have them, and while sure, it'd be great to be perfect (eh, maybe not), the flaws are what make people interesting. I'm reading When You Get the Chance by Emma Lord right now, and while the main character isn't unlikeable in the way we might expect, she's extremely emotional and rash, and I see a lot of myself in her, which I'm loving, as I've never seen those characteristics in the main character. It's usually saved for the popular girl villain character.
Thanks so much for reading, Cassie! And that book sounds like it'll be right up my alley, so onto my ever-flowing TBR it goes. Also, I agree! I like that writers are now allowed to flesh out the humanness of women protagonists (previously you could select a flaw or two from an approved list or so it seemed).
When you say to think of the most interesting characters, the first that came to mind was the narrator in Gone Girl. The most unlikeable female character. But gosh, she’s just so memorable.
OMG yeah! I ended up watching the film and was horrified momentarily how they let someone without any redeeming qualities be the protagonist (esp that ending!!) but then realized just how many male-dominated films like that I've probably watched and not batted an eye against.
I was at Apollycon (a romance con) recently and Andie J. Christopher gave out "unlikeable heroine" stickers. I'm trying to figure out what place of honor to put mine.
That's an iconic sticker. I would never be able to stick it anywhere (as is evidenced by the growing mound of stickers in my drawer) but I sincerely hope you find a great spot for it (perhaps your tablet/iPad or maybe in a journal?).
This made me think of all the reviews that were written when Clair Messud's novel, "The Woman Upstairs," was published. All of the ones, mainly written by men, stressed how difficult it was to like the protagonist who announces at the outset that she is angry. One reviewer said, "I wouldn't want to be friends with (the protagonist). At some point, Messud said (paraphrasing here) she was not looking for friends in a novel... no one would read Lolita and want to be friends with Humbert Humbert, yet no reviewer mentioned HH's likability in the reviews for the book.
Yikes. I'm so glad Messud shut that bs review down. That's so irritating, honestly. Like in YA books, the male interests can be like a bazillion years old and potentially committing genocide and they still have fans. But anger in a female protagonist? OH NO HOW COULD YOU
I recently rewatched The Sopranos and The Wire, and the idea of the anti-hero(ine) pops up with some of those protagonists (I’m thinking of Livia Soprano, or detective Kima Breggs, respectively). I was shocked to see that warning you cited up above on Hulu. I wonder to what extent this anti-hero(ine) idea cropped up after 9/11 and the American realization that we’re not all we’re cracked up to be, and when the cycle will come back in earnest again (probably already?). Lisbeth Salander in the Stieg Larsson Millenium series also comes to mind from 2005, as does one of the great female characters in American comedy, Dee Reynolds in Always Sunny (same year). All of these women defy the stereotype of the maternal and the monogamous, which in puritanical America seems to be the required role forever and ever, as does the idea that we as Americans are actually cool.
But yeah, I've come across glimpses of how most of USA would like their women and by extension, women characters to be a certain way even though it's supposed to be the land of the free. Free, but not that free, I guess.
I know I'm in the minority (maybe not so much anymore) but I've always LOVED unlikeable female characters. I think I see my own flaws in them and realize others can also have them, and while sure, it'd be great to be perfect (eh, maybe not), the flaws are what make people interesting. I'm reading When You Get the Chance by Emma Lord right now, and while the main character isn't unlikeable in the way we might expect, she's extremely emotional and rash, and I see a lot of myself in her, which I'm loving, as I've never seen those characteristics in the main character. It's usually saved for the popular girl villain character.
Thanks so much for reading, Cassie! And that book sounds like it'll be right up my alley, so onto my ever-flowing TBR it goes. Also, I agree! I like that writers are now allowed to flesh out the humanness of women protagonists (previously you could select a flaw or two from an approved list or so it seemed).
When you say to think of the most interesting characters, the first that came to mind was the narrator in Gone Girl. The most unlikeable female character. But gosh, she’s just so memorable.
OMG yeah! I ended up watching the film and was horrified momentarily how they let someone without any redeeming qualities be the protagonist (esp that ending!!) but then realized just how many male-dominated films like that I've probably watched and not batted an eye against.
I was at Apollycon (a romance con) recently and Andie J. Christopher gave out "unlikeable heroine" stickers. I'm trying to figure out what place of honor to put mine.
That's an iconic sticker. I would never be able to stick it anywhere (as is evidenced by the growing mound of stickers in my drawer) but I sincerely hope you find a great spot for it (perhaps your tablet/iPad or maybe in a journal?).
This made me think of all the reviews that were written when Clair Messud's novel, "The Woman Upstairs," was published. All of the ones, mainly written by men, stressed how difficult it was to like the protagonist who announces at the outset that she is angry. One reviewer said, "I wouldn't want to be friends with (the protagonist). At some point, Messud said (paraphrasing here) she was not looking for friends in a novel... no one would read Lolita and want to be friends with Humbert Humbert, yet no reviewer mentioned HH's likability in the reviews for the book.
Yikes. I'm so glad Messud shut that bs review down. That's so irritating, honestly. Like in YA books, the male interests can be like a bazillion years old and potentially committing genocide and they still have fans. But anger in a female protagonist? OH NO HOW COULD YOU
Thanks for reading, Elizabeth! :D
I recently rewatched The Sopranos and The Wire, and the idea of the anti-hero(ine) pops up with some of those protagonists (I’m thinking of Livia Soprano, or detective Kima Breggs, respectively). I was shocked to see that warning you cited up above on Hulu. I wonder to what extent this anti-hero(ine) idea cropped up after 9/11 and the American realization that we’re not all we’re cracked up to be, and when the cycle will come back in earnest again (probably already?). Lisbeth Salander in the Stieg Larsson Millenium series also comes to mind from 2005, as does one of the great female characters in American comedy, Dee Reynolds in Always Sunny (same year). All of these women defy the stereotype of the maternal and the monogamous, which in puritanical America seems to be the required role forever and ever, as does the idea that we as Americans are actually cool.
That's interesting. Why 9/11 though, specifically?
But yeah, I've come across glimpses of how most of USA would like their women and by extension, women characters to be a certain way even though it's supposed to be the land of the free. Free, but not that free, I guess.