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.

About the Author
Anna Bogutskaya is a London-based freelance film programmer, broadcaster, writer and creative producer, connected in both the worlds of US and UK film. She is also the co-founder of the horror film collective and podcast The Final Girls and Festival Director of Underwire Festival. Previously, Anna was the Film and Events Programmer at the British Film Institute. In 2019, she was selected as one of Screen International's Future Leaders in Curation and Programming and was invited to become a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and in 2020 was selected as a mentor at SXSW.

Reviews
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 *
This smart and thoughtful debut traces the evolution of female characters in media, from the earliest television shows, movies, and music to the present day examining the nuances of what it means to be a woman, on and off screen. * Irish Examiner *
Bogutskaya delivers a sweeping and deft polemic on how the flawed women of popular culture enrich our screens and warm our hearts. * The Quietus *
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 *



Book Information
ISBN 9781728274744
Author Anna Bogutskaya
Format Paperback
Page Count 352
Imprint Sourcebooks, Inc
Publisher Sourcebooks, Inc
Weight(grams) 325g
Dimensions(mm) 211mm * 140mm * 21mm