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Given the popularity of the male antihero in U.S. television since the late 1990s, it is significant that these characters were not immediately accompanied by a proliferation of antiheroines. Through an analysis of the Lifetime drama  UnREAL  and the narrative construction of its antiheroine, Rachel Goldberg, this paper seeks to shed light on the obstacles that hinder the creation of antiheroines in television fiction. Our main argument is that due to complex gender politics, in which, women can’t be flawed, manipulative, or unethical without receiving criticism for their attitudes, antiheroines carry a heavy gender burden that doesn’t seem to apply to male antiheroes. The creation of antiheroines is a complicated process that negotiates with the antihero archetype but differs from it because of social and gender expectations placed upon these female characters. Here, we examine two important facets of this problem. First, whilst antiheroes are usually violent, antiheroines often express mental disorders. Second, we criticize the construction of antihero narratives as “universal,” whereas antiheroine narratives are wrongfully reduced to limited and inadequately constructed categories as the “strong female drama.”

“Wifeys, bitches, and sluts”: the gender burden and other obstacles behind the creation of television’s antiheroines