The Unhinged Woman Trope
I support women’s rights, but more importantly, I support women’s wrongs.
Feminism has come a long way. The fight to be seen as an equal human being, the right to vote, work, go to school, own property, have children — or not; it has been a slow, relatively sad uphill climb looking for the end destination. A lot of time and energy was spent proving that women have value too — they can contribute ideas and are just as intelligent; but women can be assholes too and there is nothing more enjoyable than a female main character that just sucks — whether there’s a reason behind it or not.
I get woman are strong and independent now and I love that — we needed that. But… I think it’s time for us, as a group, to collectively enter our toxic, messy era. I fall hook, line and sinker for stories with objectively immoral female characters- it’s actually more exciting to read about a woman who makes bad decisions and is chaotic and self-destructive- some of them figure it out by the end but some of them don’t and that’s okay.
Here is a collection of books that embody “the unhinged woman” trope.
Boy Parts by Eliza Clark
Irina is shocking. She is a part-time photographer, part-time bartender, she’s quite lost in life and wants to get her art of the ground. She has a little bit of success/fame in the photography world and a big time magazine approaches her to buy some of her work. So far so normal right? Wrong.
Her muse of choice when it comes to photography are guys she usually dates and asks them to pose in compromising positions, but because she is described as beautiful they go along with far more than they are comfortable with. And from there the drinking, drugs , partying and wanting to push her photography further just delves into chaos.
Highly recommend if you want a book where you have no idea what is coming next and a pretty much irredeemable main character.
The Flight Attendant: A Novel by Chris Bohjalian
I can’t tell if Cassandra is purposefully choosing the wrong decision in her life at every turn or if she is genuinely being dumb. She’s a binge drinking, alcoholic flight attendant but still lacking enough self awareness to think she is just having fun and doesn’t have a drinking problem.
Until she wakes up in a hotel room in a pool of blood next to a recently murdered man. It’s a mixture of whodunnit storytelling and reverse engineering from that night to try and find out what happened. Because she is introduced as a mess it’s implied there’s no way she is coordinated or sophisticated enough to commit a murder but all signs do point to her.
For true crime, thriller and Agatha Christie fans.
How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie
This is my one out of my two 5 star reads this year. This book is just fun, it was such a joy to read.
By society’s standards Grace is unhinged but subjectively — her motivations make complete sense. She is seeking revenge from her rich father that has ignored her existence even when her mother fell sick and she became homeless.
Her revenge comes in the form of murder. She has been planning meticulously to kill her fathers side of the family, saving her father for last. Her type of unhinged is the scariest because she has nothing left to lose but I’d be lying to say it’s not satisfying to watch.
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Esther is different from the other women I have spoken about previously, the others have been in a passionate, thrilling way but for poor Esther it’s in more of a depressing way.
This is a heavier read that follows Esther’s descent into a mental breakdown, she is working as an intern at a magazine in NYC — what should have been a dream come true just leaves her feeling depressed and anxious. I wouldn’t say Esther is a nice person but her treatment towards other people is understandable.
It’s truly terrifying how relevant this book is, the themes of academic validation, mental health struggles, aimlessness, the pressures of being a woman couldn't be more topical.
Even though I love the mayhem and anarchy that comes from a ‘crazy’ female character sometimes the more calm and steady version of crazy is just as interesting.
I had a hankering earlier in the year for this type of trope because it gets boring reading about flawed people doing bad things but ultimately turning it around because deep down they are actually a good person. Because not everyone is.
