Unlikeable Female Characters: Flawed Female Characters and the Power They Hold

by Anna Bogutskaya

The unlikeable female character is the antithesis of the strong female character. The strong female lead is perfect—and perfectly boring. It is a gilded cage used not just by films themselves but by the industry who tried to capitalize on the rise of pop culture feminism. The love for this trope, which underpinned mainstream pop feminism, is almost gone now. The strong female character is another reflection of a ridiculous binary of good and bad, empowering or disempowered, that erases all nuance and shades of gray. Women are complicated, and we want our characters to reflect that, to be allowed space to breathe. Guide books on how to be a “good” woman belong in the bin, along with the repressive, overidealized versions of womanhood that have been fed to us for decades through our screens, our books, and our music.