5 Pieces of Literature Where the Female Characters Deserved Better

While having white male authors running the dominant discourse in literature for centuries has left room for plenty of misogyny (and other forms of bigotry that I will touch upon in separate posts) in literature, any author is capable of writing a piece that poorly represents certain groups. Before I begin, keep in mind that this is a list of works with certain flaws that contribute to some form of misogyny, whether it be the treatment received by female characters or the decisions they make. That does not make this a blacklist of ban-worthy books. In fact, some of these are well-written and address other important themes; to this day, 1984 is well-known for how it inspired so much skepticism in the government and so vividly described a world that, in some ways, became reality. It Ends With Us shares the journey of a girl whose story reflects the author's experience as a victim of domestic violence. But of course, literature has its flaws.

To those who are new to the term, misogyny is, according to the Oxford dictionary, the "dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women". Some pieces of literature, including the ones listed here, negatively portray women without necessarily being misogynistic. Some do this in a way that's so obvious that it's laughable, but others do so in a way that subtly, perhaps even unintentionally, digs at certain stigmas and stereotypes that surround women. And these subtler portrayals can often be interpreted in multiple different ways.

1. The Taming of the Shrew, by William Shakespeare. Put simply, the two female leads are sisters named Katherine and Bianca, and their father has decided that Bianca can't get married until Katherine—the contentious, irritable "shrew"—gets married first. Eventually, a man named Petruchio marries Katherine (let me add that he's also late to their own wedding), only to ban her from sleeping and eating in an effort to "tame" her into a compliant wife. Oh, and by the way, it works. This play is the oldest work of literature in this list, so the stereotype of the perfect woman being a devoted wife was largely unquestioned at the time when it was written. Feminism didn't exist at the time, but it did surprise me that Shakespeare wrote this kind of play while some of his other plays involve consistently strong female leads and even, in the case of Twelfth Night, question the idea that gender is predetermined and permanent.

2. Carrie by Stephen King. I'm not particularly fond of horror, but I've heard a lot of mixed opinions about this one in particular, so, just like any other person who makes excellent decisions, I decided to read it and see for myself. I got through the first 20 pages, which was enough for me to see that it was most definitely not written with concern about positive female body image. Carrie, being on the heavier side, is described as a "fat, whiny bag of lard". And of all things to turn her into a telekinetic psychopath, it's her first period. I get that Carrie represents a victim of bullying and all sorts of unfair treatment, but in my opinion, having girls reacting to other girls' periods by screaming "Plug it up!" and throwing tampons (which we spend thousands of dollars on throughout our lives) at them bolsters the stigma around menstruation by feeding into the common fear of not fully concealing it. After resorting to the Internet to spoil the rest of this book for myself, I've concluded that the book's response to the aforementioned stigma is sending the main character on a murderous rampage for revenge before she ultimately dies. Lovely. But again, if I ever become interested in horror, I should probably make sure to read the whole book before forming opinions about it.

3. 1984 by George Orwell. We spent enough time in school on this book for me to get a solid idea of how big of a reputation it's racked up. But putting aside the uncannily accurate predictions of what Communist dictatorships would be like, Julia (the female lead) deserved better. The first time Winston (the main character) sees Julia, he hates her because "round her sweet supple waist, which seemed to ask to encircle it with your arm, there was only the odious scarlet sash, aggressive symbol of chastity." Basically, the first time he sees her, he believes he's entitled to have sex with her and loathes her because he can't. When they do start having sex later on as an act of rebellion against the Party, his main concern isn't losing her as a person. He's concerned about losing access to her body. Even though Julia's smart enough to have survived all her subtle acts of rebellion against the Party (so far), Orwell gives her a mindset where she doesn't really have any goals apart from getting away with personal pleasure. Instead, Winston is the one with the goal of causing substantial damage to the Party, even though many of his rebellious acts, like writing all his traitorous thoughts in his journal, are much more rash than Julia's form of rebellion. It's like Orwell needed a female character with enough brains to help move the story forward, but didn't want her to be smarter or possess a better sense of morals than Winston.

4. It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover. No matter how many times Ryle says he's going to change, or that he regrets what he did each time he hurts Lily, he clearly can't stop himself from doing it again. I was honestly glad that Lily divorces him and finally escapes a cycle of abuse that goes as far back as her childhood. Good for her. Victims of abuse often don't have the choice or opportunity to do that. Except she then gets with someone she loved as a teenager. And as great as Atlas may be, Lily's decision to marry someone she used to love years ago, in my opinion, deals a major blow to the book's theme of moving on from the past and regaining control of our own lives. Plus, by escaping Ryle, Lily escapes her old life where she suffered at the hands of multiple people because of violence. But the immediate switch she makes to Atlas equates her "new life" to having a "new partner"—a trope that doesn't do justice for how Lily was impacted by her trauma and also hints at the age-old stereotype of women finding happiness once they find the right man. I'd have liked to see her get to know herself a bit better and use her freedom to explore what new dreams she has before moving into a new marriage. But who knows—maybe her getting with Atlas is symbolic of how we can't entirely shed ourselves of the past and how some parts are worth holding onto.

There are many other works of literature out there that I could probably include in this list, but these are the only four that I'm familiar with to varying degrees. The last one is an excerpt that I found on Buzzfeed that I couldn't help but laugh at:

5. The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike. I've never heard of this book before, and I don't think there's any context needed to know that it's a strange way of pushing male dominance: "She had to sit on the toilet some minutes waiting for the pee to come. Men, they were able to conjure it up immediately, that was one of their powers, that thunderous splashing as they stood lordly over the bowl. Everything about them was more direct, their insides weren't the maze women's were, for the pee to find its way through." I wish this was fake, but I looked it up and found this excerpt in the online PDF version of this book.

So, those were all examples of red flags when it comes to writing about female characters. Stay tuned for a post about the green flags, and if you haven't already, become a member today to gain access to my exclusive articles and send requests for the topics of your choice!

And if you're looking for funny examples of male authors writing poor descriptions of women, you can check out this article. I do think it's also important to look at books that meaningfully address sexism, so keep a lookout for a future post on that as well if this topic interests you. In the meantime, check out this list of books that achieve just that!