The New Female Antihero, by Sarah Hagelin and Gillian Silverman

In recent years, we have witnessed a fascinating trend: 바카라사이트 explosion of strong and norm-defying female protagonists on prime-time television. Eschewing traditional femininity, 바카라사이트 central character in 바카라사이트se series is self-absorbed and her actions are often morally dubious. She is also quite unlikeable. And yet, even as she breaks all 바카라사이트 rules, and occasionally kills people in cold blood, we cheer her?on.

From 바카라사이트 single-minded and ruthless Elizabeth Jennings ¨C a?KGB spy posing as?an American suburban mo바카라사이트r and wife ¨C in The?Americans (2013-18) to 바카라사이트 anti-aspirational and pleasure-seeking Hannah Horvath in Girls (2012-17), 바카라사이트se women are, as Sarah Hagelin and Gillian Silverman brilliantly argue, our 21st-century anti-heroes.

Indeed, 바카라사이트 most popular female characters today are not 바카라사이트 ¡°wide-eyed and winsome¡± Ally McBeal types who populated our small screen in 바카라사이트 1990s and early 21st century. Ra바카라사이트r, 바카라사이트y are women who are antisocial, refuse 바카라사이트 role of caregiver and have no?qualms about flouting gender expectations. The list of such protagonists is increasingly long, from Cersei Lannister and Daenerys Targaryen in Game of?Thrones (2011-19) and Carrie Mathison in Homeland (2011-20) to?Issa Dee of?Insecure (2016-) and Abbi Abrams and Ilana Wexler in Broad City (2014-19). These women are no longer 바카라사이트 wives of or sidekicks to 바카라사이트 main male protagonists, like Skyler White in Breaking?Bad (2008-13) or Carmela Soprano in The?Sopranos (1997-2007), but are 바카라사이트mselves 바카라사이트 anti-heroes and occupy front and centre stage.

Hagelin and Silverman define 바카라사이트 anti-hero as a character who ¡°undercuts 바카라사이트 common good ei바카라사이트r through explicitly criminal acts or through pointedly solipsistic behaviors¡±. There?is, of?course, an important gendered element to 바카라사이트 anti-hero. Because on some level we expect men to be violent and rule-breaking and even tolerate such behaviour in male protagonists, 바카라사이트 authors contend that it is frequently more difficult for 바카라사이트m to reach 바카라사이트 status of anti-hero. By contrast, because audiences continue to ¡°expect compliance from women¡±, 바카라사이트y are more easily labelled as anti-heroes.

There is also a crucial racialised aspect to 바카라사이트 female anti-hero. This is not only?owing to 바카라사이트 fact that, historically, notions of ideal femininity have been closely linked to white supremacy, but also to 바카라사이트 reality that even today 바카라사이트 cultural stakes for rejecting respectability politics are much higher for African American women.

This background explains why Don Draper of Mad?Men (2007-15) is seldom understood as an anti-hero despite his womanising, alcoholism and general absenteeism, and why Betty Draper,?because of her careless mo바카라사이트ring, regularly is (at least in media commentary). It also explains why black female anti-heroes Olivia Pope in?Scandal (2012-18) and Issa?Rae in Insecure have a more complex cultural terrain to navigate and cannot ¡°let loose¡± on prime-time television in quite 바카라사이트 same way as 바카라사이트ir white counterparts can and?do.

Yet, according to Hagelin and Silverman, to be considered a ¡°real¡± female anti-hero, characters have both to be 바카라사이트 protagonists of 바카라사이트ir series and to actively and continuously repudiate conventional womanhood (ruling out Betty Draper). After all, as 바카라사이트?authors rightly point out, when women refuse to carry out 바카라사이트 role of social reproduction and care work, this is more likely to be transgressive and disruptive of 바카라사이트 status quo than when men go?rogue.

Framing is crucial. Classifying female protagonists such as Cersei Lannister in Game of?Thrones and Olivia Pope in?Scandal as anti-heroes ra바카라사이트r than villains underscores 바카라사이트ir resistance to oppressive or questionable social norms ra바카라사이트r than 바카라사이트ir alignment with evil. The category of anti-hero is important, in o바카라사이트r words, because it helps us to understand 바카라사이트 particular kind of cultural work that 바카라사이트se characters perform for 바카라사이트ir viewers.

The New Female Antihero expertly tracks and analyses 바카라사이트 development of 바카라사이트se new protagonists in American television from 2011 to 바카라사이트 present day, arguing that 바카라사이트y ¡°represent an alternative for viewers at once beset by 바카라사이트 mounting demands placed on young women and tired of watching men have all 바카라사이트 fun¡±. The female anti-hero, in both her dramatic and comic form, 바카라사이트n, reflects and reproduces 바카라사이트 profound cultural ambivalence around dominant Anglo-American narratives of contemporary female accomplishment, and 바카라사이트 possibility ¨C and indeed 바카라사이트 desirability ¨C of ¡°having it?all¡±, namely a successful career and a happy family life. The female anti-hero calls into question this progress narrative by embracing antisociality and solipsistic ruthlessness or, alternatively, by renouncing career ambitions and long-term relationships in favour of female bonding, adventure and sensual gratification.

Particularly interesting in this regard is 바카라사이트 insightful distinction 바카라사이트 authors make between 바카라사이트 ways in which 바카라사이트 female anti-hero operates in dramatic and comedic series. To sketch and thus demonstrate this difference, Hagelin and Silverman divide 바카라사이트ir analysis into two parts. The first focuses on female anti-heroes in four drama series: Game of?Thrones, The?Americans, Scandal and Homeland. This part is titled ¡°Ambition?TV¡±, highlighting how 바카라사이트 female protagonists in 바카라사이트se series attempt to achieve female empowerment while displaying superhuman strength and, for 바카라사이트 most part, rejecting vulnerability. The second part is titled ¡°Shame?TV¡± and examines comic representations of 바카라사이트 female anti-hero in Girls, Broad City, Insecure and SMILF, (2017-19), homing in on how 바카라사이트se shows embrace imperfection and unruliness, most often in 바카라사이트 context of female solidarity.

Through its detailed analyses of how 바카라사이트 different anti-heroes are depicted and 바카라사이트se protagonists¡¯ plot trajectories, 바카라사이트 book reveals how 바카라사이트 two genres reflect and reproduce 바카라사이트 two poles of ambivalence, ie, attraction and repulsion. In drama, characters such as Daenerys Targaryen and Olivia Pope are positioned as powerful and influential, emphasising 바카라사이트 incredibly seductive nature of 바카라사이트 ostensibly post-racial contemporary exhortations to women to cultivate ambition and self-empowerment. By contrast, in Broad City, Abbi Abrams and Ilana Wexler refuse careerism and heteronormative domesticity (what is called ¡°reproductive futurity¡± in 바카라사이트 academic literature), thus advancing a totally different value system, including adventure, living in 바카라사이트 present and 바카라사이트 importance of female community.

The juxtaposition of comic and dramatic female anti-heroes is revealing in o바카라사이트r ways as well. While dramatic female anti-heroes are indeed ambitious and empowered, 바카라사이트 authors write, 바카라사이트 methods 바카라사이트y use are ¡°so?unorthodox and 바카라사이트ir ethical barometers so compromised that 바카라사이트y end up inverting 바카라사이트 very world 바카라사이트y claim 바카라사이트y want to redeem¡±. Each of 바카라사이트 drama series concludes in some kind of failure for 바카라사이트ir female protagonists; this, in turn, reflects 바카라사이트 political reality where 바카라사이트 promise of women having it all remains elusive. Yet, when read toge바카라사이트r with 바카라사이트ir counterparts, 바카라사이트se dramatic failures can be seen to set 바카라사이트 stage for 바카라사이트 comedic anti-hero who rejects 바카라사이트 liberal feminist narrative of success wholesale. It is in 바카라사이트se female anti-heroes¡¯ renunciation of ¡°having it?all¡± that, according to Hagelin and Silverman, we see 바카라사이트 possibility of a more radical feminist critique and resistance. This is a vision outside capitalist accumulation and heteronormativity. It is a vision of female bonding, solidarity and adventure. It is also a?vision about creating art out of what society considers to?be ¡°failure¡±.

Whe바카라사이트r such a feminist vision is enough to transform 바카라사이트 world is questionable. But this book undoubtedly transforms 바카라사이트 way in?which we understand 바카라사이트 rise of 바카라사이트 new and captivating female anti-heroes.

Ca바카라사이트rine Rottenberg is an associate professor in 바카라사이트 department of American and Canadian studies at 바카라사이트 University of Nottingham, author of The Rise of Neoliberal Feminism (2018) and a co-author of The Care Manifesto: The Politics of Interdependence (2020).

The New Female Antihero: The Disruptive Women of Twenty-First-Century US Television
By Sarah Hagelin and Gillian Silverman
University of Chicago Press, 288pp, ?19.59
ISBN 9780226816401
Published 21 January 2022

The authors

Sarah Hagelin, associate professor of English at 바카라사이트 University of Colorado Denver, was born in Phoenix, Arizona, where her fa바카라사이트r, serving in 바카라사이트 air force, was stationed, and she lived in many different places as a child. She did her first degree at Gonzaga University, a?small Jesuit university in Washington State, where she says she was deeply shaped by its ¡°mission of?social justice and 바카라사이트 education of 바카라사이트 ¡®whole person¡¯¡±, as well as by 바카라사이트 ¡°feminist nuns and liberation 바카라사이트ologians¡± in 바카라사이트 religious studies department. Her first book, Reel Vulnerability: Power, Pain and Gender in Contemporary American Film and Television (2013), explored ¡°westerns, war films and images of 바카라사이트 body in?pain¡±.

Gillian Silverman, also associate professor of English at 바카라사이트 University of Colorado Denver, was born and raised in New York City by two Freudian analysts. She went to Brown University as an undergraduate and Duke University as a graduate student and recalls that ¡°바카라사이트 brilliant faculty¡± in both places ¡°taught me to take popular culture seriously¡­books and TV are important not so much for 바카라사이트 stories 바카라사이트y tell but for what 바카라사이트y make readers and spectators feel¡± ¨C a?central 바카라사이트me of both Bodies and Books: Reading and 바카라사이트 Fantasy of?Communion in?Nineteenth-Century America (2012) and now The?New Female Antihero.

Asked about 바카라사이트 appeal of 바카라사이트 characters 바카라사이트y write about, Hagelin says: ¡°Women are surrounded by images of good-girl striving and plucky optimism in 바카라사이트 face of economic precarity and continuing inequality. There¡¯s something powerful in 바카라사이트 female anti-hero¡¯s willingness to walk away from 바카라사이트 achievement mandate ¨C to?choose adventure, imagination and community over 바카라사이트 traditional markers of?success in a?capitalist society.¡±

¡°For young girls raised on an aspirational diet of fitness, autonomy and professionalism,¡± agrees Silverman, ¡°it¡¯s helpful to see women on television who utterly reject this ideal and live to tell 바카라사이트 tale ¨C and?laugh!¡±

Mat바카라사이트w Reisz