The Anti-Hero

                            Society loves the rebellious man, the rogue with loveable  traits.

There are many reasons that society especially women are fascinated with bad boys. It doesn't matter where you come from or your up bringing. We love the guy that we can't control yet some how these men are able to control us.

For some a bad boy is always in trouble with the law, a drug user  and he is often violent. Those  tendencies may not be directed at the people he loves. Women tend to imagine that a bad boy is a good guy when he's at home with his family and he does all his dirty deeds outside of the home.

Some of our favorites of recent are men like Walter White from Breaking Bad. We love Walter, he's the anti hero. He's what we're attracted too, what some want to be. Yet we hate his wife Skylar, why? Because she didn't appreciate him for being a bad boy.  Another example is Dexter Morgan from the Showtime series Dexter. He is the ultimate  anti hero. He's a serial killer that only harms those who do bad things.  Daryl Dixon from the Walking Dead. He's a loner, he grew up in an extremely dysfunctional family and even in the mist of an Zombie Apocalypse he's still rebellious.

When you're writing a novel with an antihero, you have to remember to make your anti-hero appealing to both men and women. Make him sexy, make him strong with a desire to protect his family and friends. He needs to be honorable, loyal, with the self control to turn off his good guy behavior and destroy the enemy when it's necessary.

Often women like older bad boys. The father-daughter relationship, someone who can chastise them for their bad deeds. This often shows up in the recent crop of billionaire bad boys with the young naïve girl. (This is not my cup of tea. I prefer the Harley riding, tattooed, just got out of prison kind of guy for my novels. The under dog, not someone who has everything handed to him on a silver platter.)

The other anti-hero is popular in novels and life is the man that needs saving. Women love trying to be the savior. Help out the alcoholic, the drug user, the gang member. Make him into a better person. The appeal is the transformation  to make him a good guy which never turns out well for those involved. The challenge is gone, the drama is no longer in the relationship.

The biggest reason society loves a bad boy is the chance at adventure. If your bored with life  hook up with a bad boy. Bored with your marriage, friends, family, hating the nine to five job. The bad boy will take you away from all that is normal. This is why we love the new genre of motorcycle romance novels and the urban romance novels.

I'm no different. In Hells Vipers, You Belong to Me my latest novel. My anti-hero is Nuke along with all of the Hells Vipers. Though in this first of many in the series Nuke is the focus. I'm completely dick whipped by my character Nuke. He's the ultimate bad boy for me and his love interest Jasmine.
I hope that the rest of my readers feel the same way.