Description

How bitches, trainwrecks, shrews, and crazy women have taken over pop culture and liberated women from having to be nice.

Female characters throughout history have been burdened by the moral trap that is likeability. Any woman who dares to reveal her messy side has been treated as a cautionary tale. Today, unlikeable female characters are everywhere in film, TV, and wider pop culture. For the first time ever, they are being accepted by audiences and even showered with industry awards. We are finally accepting that women are-gasp-fully fledged human beings. How did we get to this point?

Unlikeable Female Characters traces the evolution of highly memorable female characters, from Samantha Jones as “The Slut” in Sex and the City to the iconic Mean Girl, Regina George, examining what exactly makes them popular, how audiences have reacted to them, and the ways in which pop culture is finally allowing us to celebrate the complexities of being a woman. Anna Bogutskaya, film programmer, broadcaster, and co-founder of the horror film collective and podcast The Final Girls, takes us on a journey through popular film, TV, and music, looking at the nuances of womanhood on and off-screen to reveal whether pop culture-and society-is finally ready to embrace complicated women.

Publisher Review

Fascinating, insightful, and kick-ass. * Emma Jane Unsworth, author of Animals * Deeply researched, with fascinating behind-the-scenes details and insightful analysis. It is also wildly entertaining * RogerEbert.com * Part-cultural expose, part-Taylor Swift album * Clarisse Loughrey, film critic * Reclaiming the word 'unlikeable' has never felt so good * Rhianna Dhillon, film critic and broadcaster * A fresh feminist appraisal of the pop culture canon * Publishers Weekly *