Inconstant Endeavors: The Elusiveness Of The Anti-Heroine

Lianne Williamson
Wed, 22 Apr 2026 17:51:40 PDT

The anti-heroine is a difficult woman to define. The intent of this project was to find the markers and signifiers for the character of the anti-heroine. Only recently, with modernism and then post-modernism, has the equation of beauty = woman started to change. What has occurred is the opposite, the grotesque. How are female artists using the grotesque to open up the possibilities for how women are allowed to act? Although women are now being allowed, in film, to DO what men do, i.e. kill people, they are still coming across in stereotypically female ways. The women are still beautiful, they use violence, they have to be more manly than men. How has second and third wave feminist theory opened up the realm of writing about the bitch? In the past decade literally thousands of books have been written with "bitch" in the title. Is the "bitch" the same thing as the anti-heroine? In the creative part of the dissertation, I have attempted to write a multi-faceted anti-heroine who isn't necessarily a bitch, doesn't participate in violence, has a sense of humor, and is writing about both female and feminist subjects. The critical essay looks at literary influences on my writing and my own definition of the anti-heroine. My research has shown that the anti-heroine is an extremely elusive character and is quite different from the male anti-hero. What we can say is that she defies stereotyping, is a complex creation, may or may not be beautiful, and acts rather than reacts.