Unlikeable Female Protagonists
“Create a flawless character and you create an insufferable one”
Margaret Atwood (Speech, 1994)
Growing up, I was always drawn towards books with a likeable female protagonist. I loved a princess fairy-tale or fiction with pretty, smart, and adventurous women; especially those with a male love interest. I felt comfortable escaping into fiction where female characters behaved as I expected. It became an unknowing stereotype in my head that when I felt uncomfortable with a female protagonist who I deemed ‘unlikeable’ I would simply put the book down unfinished, or never pick it up in the first place. However, the phenomenon that is the ‘unlikeable’ female, has risen in popularity and now plays an integral role in modern literature.
This unconscious biased has come from a deep-rooted misogyny that permeates literature, including characterisation. Unlikeable male protagonists are far more common, the allure of arrogance or sexy confidence has almost made them likeable. Hence why people praise the character of Jordan Belfort, who made money off his memoir, The Wolf of Wall Street, aided by the fact that he was played by sweetheart actor Leonardo DiCaprio.[1]
Studying English has forced me to explore many genres and authors, and I stumbled across authors such as Ottessa Mosfegh, in her text My Year of Rest and Relaxation, and Lisa Taddeo in her novel Animal, both place an unlikeable female at the centre of the novel and both texts have become favourites of mine. I began to question why unlikeable female protagonists are so unnerving, and whether the development of the ‘unlikeable’ female protagonist is feminist.
Mosfegh has an unnamed protagonist in My Year of Rest and Relaxation. The main girl is obnoxiously aware of her terrible personality and behaviour but makes no attempt to seem to care or alter it. Described as a stereotypical blonde beauty, she is unapologetic for her beauty and privilege, especially her financial situation. Throughout, she makes sexist and insulting comments about other women and her best friend Reva who she blatantly disrespects. What makes the protagonist so challenging, is that Moshfegh never gives the girl a name. This allows her to become depersonalised and thus warp into anyone in the reader’s mind; even themselves. [2]
However, it could be argued, that Moshfegh that as unlikeable as she may be, is a product of her circumstance. Moshfegh makes a commentary on systematic misogyny, classism, and capitalist America. The novel is based in the US at the height of noughties culture, Moshfegh paints a vivid picture of the wider world: ‘heroin chic’ body standards set by models, sexism within the workplace, hyper sexualisation of the female body and rampant capitalism in the US. If the character was male, her arrogance and brutal honesty would be excused or non-surprising to the reader. The realistic portrayal begs the question, can she be blamed for a system working against her? Should we pity her or be simply impassive to her character?
Animal, by Lisa Taddeo, deals with a woman in her thirties called Joan, who has been and continues to go through an identity crisis. Like the protagonist in My Year of Rest and Relaxation, she has few friends and no parents. She is largely ostracised by society. The character in Lisa Taddeo’s novel is not as obviously unlikeable as in Moshfegh’s and again it is subject to perspective. Her survival instincts, with no inheritance to fall back on, comes in the form of men. [3]
She allows herself to get involved with multiple married men, to be given things that she can sell. Her past, with two dead parents, means that she is vulnerable, and the reader sees how this is exploited. Although many would disagree with her choice of married men, it is a primitive survival instinct, she has no choice but to go along despite the power is very much in the man’s hands.
The men seemed to fall under the bracket of creepy, older men, with better jobs. Despite her outwardly anti-heroine characterisation, like the protagonist in My Year of Rest and Relaxation, you cannot help but root for the characters. Their helpless situation can often hit close to home and the struggles they face do evoke pity. The ruthlessness and desperation of Joan lies in the name of the Novel, Animal. Her primal instincts of survival are all she is using to survive.
The pity I felt reading the two texts, manifested in some hope for their redemption until I realised, they do not need redemption. Both authors have pushed the boundaries of gender expectations and subverted the ‘heroine’. It creates women who appear anti-feminist in their actions, doing what they can to survive, which is a realistic and hard representation to stomach.
It is important to have female protagonists that do not fit the ‘norm’ and challenge our understanding of reading about relatable women ‘comfortably’. It also allows writers to explore difficult concepts such as abuse in a nuanced manner and from a first-person perspective. Although it may be difficult for the reader, understanding the women and why they act a specific way, allows for important conversations to be had.
[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0993846/
[2] Otessa Moshfegh ‘My Year of Rest and Relaxation’ (Penguin Press, 2018)
[3] Lisa Taddeo ‘Animal’ (Bloomsbury, 2021)