Title: Unlikeable Female Characters: The Women Pop Culture Wants You to Hate

Author: Anna Bogutskaya

Publisher: Sourcebooks 2023

Genre: Nonfiction - Media Criticism

Pages: 340

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Fall TBR

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, 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.

A decent breakdown of various female archetypes in movies and television. This is my favorite gender studies book in years. It is entertaining and informative without being too dense or overly reductive. Bogutskaya deftly details the nine archetypes and how they have been represented in a variety of movies and television. I especially love the Mean Girl and the Angry Girl chapters. I’ll admit that this book was completely illuminating for me because of my past studies and general reading, but I did enjoying reading this book.

Next up on the TBR pile: