Scan barcode
chamu_yenigalla's review
3.0
Anna Bogutskaya explained how bitches, mean girls, sluts, trainwrecks, weirdos on the screens liberated women from being nice and without the trap of likeability.
This book explains how the female characters have been changed and accepted over the years and how the audiences reacted to certain female characters and how it's acceptance reflected the acceptance of female in the society.
The book starts on a promising note and touches interesting points like the women who are not moral, upstanding, polite and kind characters are not acceptable for the audiences but when they are done by a man they will get the awards for being authentic and true to life. The author explained this whole concept with actual examples of Hollywood movies and how those actors who played the roles of unapolegitic or unlikeable characters played were ostracised and criticised. In the recent times also it's "Skyler White" the most hated in Breaking bad but not Walter and even in Game of thrones it's "Ceresi Lannister" who is publicly humilated for her role in GOT but not Tywin.
But after the start the context is repetitive and also the references are way too too much. I don't know most of the movies she mentioned and it became an hassle for me regarding that even though she explains the plot but it's exhaustive to read like that u know. At some point in the book I just skimmed through to it to go to the next unlikeable character narrative.
Even though it repetitive and a bit boring, the context is great and the points she mentioned are damn interesting even when I'm watching a movie on Netflix my mind evolved into the arguments she put forward in the book and emboldened it to the movie. She made me think about the scenarios happening to female roles and their characters assesments in the movie, tv and daily life.
Some takes of the author in the book,
"Men will be called committeed bachelors if they sleep around but women will be called as slut"... The reference she made for this is "Sex and the City" tv show where male character is called as committed bachelore where as Samantha is called as slut.
"The divide between the word and the writer becomes so much burlier when the latter is a woman"... Talking about the Gillian Flynn when they criticised her for writing "Gone girl" and introducing a Psycho women for the first time.
This book explains how the female characters have been changed and accepted over the years and how the audiences reacted to certain female characters and how it's acceptance reflected the acceptance of female in the society.
The book starts on a promising note and touches interesting points like the women who are not moral, upstanding, polite and kind characters are not acceptable for the audiences but when they are done by a man they will get the awards for being authentic and true to life. The author explained this whole concept with actual examples of Hollywood movies and how those actors who played the roles of unapolegitic or unlikeable characters played were ostracised and criticised. In the recent times also it's "Skyler White" the most hated in Breaking bad but not Walter and even in Game of thrones it's "Ceresi Lannister" who is publicly humilated for her role in GOT but not Tywin.
But after the start the context is repetitive and also the references are way too too much. I don't know most of the movies she mentioned and it became an hassle for me regarding that even though she explains the plot but it's exhaustive to read like that u know. At some point in the book I just skimmed through to it to go to the next unlikeable character narrative.
Even though it repetitive and a bit boring, the context is great and the points she mentioned are damn interesting even when I'm watching a movie on Netflix my mind evolved into the arguments she put forward in the book and emboldened it to the movie. She made me think about the scenarios happening to female roles and their characters assesments in the movie, tv and daily life.
Some takes of the author in the book,
"Men will be called committeed bachelors if they sleep around but women will be called as slut"... The reference she made for this is "Sex and the City" tv show where male character is called as committed bachelore where as Samantha is called as slut.
"The divide between the word and the writer becomes so much burlier when the latter is a woman"... Talking about the Gillian Flynn when they criticised her for writing "Gone girl" and introducing a Psycho women for the first time.
hinoki's review
challenging
emotional
informative
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
An interesting look at some tropes related to woman characters in media over the years. I thought some of the chapters were better than others (the first chapter is a bit boring, so if you are on the fence to continue I would recommend continuing.) I don't think you need to be familiar with every show/movie mentioned to enjoy the book.
jesuu__'s review
As other reviews have pointed out, while the premise was super cool and was a opportunity to focus of how female characters fall into very few, and very misogynistic, options, the execution was simply not it.
It felt like a very simplistic analysis where the author would point out a film, described it and call it a day.
It felt like a very simplistic analysis where the author would point out a film, described it and call it a day.
shannonigans322's review
funny
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
This is the pop culture analysis that I'm here for. Once again, it took me a while to get through this text, not at the fault of the author, but rather my tired brain. If you're a deep consumer of television and film, I highly recommend that you check this one out.