Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Female Characters that Deserve a Giant Bitch Slap

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This meme was created because they are particularly fond of lists at The Broke and the Bookish. They love to share their lists with other bookish folks and LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week they post a new Top Ten list complete with one of their bloggers answers. Everyone is welcome to join. All they ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND sign Mister Linky at the bottom to share with all those who are participating. If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Don't worry if you can't come up with ten every time...just post what you can!
 
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Top Ten Female Characters that Deserve a Giant Bitch Slap

  1. Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey.  She was a complete control freak, drunk with her own power, and had absolutely no patience for anyone's opinion but her own.  I believe she was had no conscience whatsoever.
  2. Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger.  The consummate evil boss.
  3. Barbara Covett from Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller.  She was the most judgmental, duplicitous person, and yet she viewed herself as above reproach.  She always had an ulterior motive, and this was particularly evident in how she befriended others and then slowly eroded them from the inside out.  Creepy and obsessive.
  4. Elizabeth Gilbert from Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.  Not mean, but whiny, self-obsessed, and snobby.  She deserves a bitch slap just to bring her down a peg or two.
  5. Hilly Holbrook from The Help by Kathryn Stockett.  She embodied every bad Southern stereotype, she was the ultimate two-face who would not hesitate to throw anyone (even her own family) under the bus, and when she was crossed (especially by someone she viewed as inferior) she was very, very dangerous.
  6. Nellie Olsen from Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  The original bratty, spoiled child who believed the world revolved around her.  She was inherently mean, and treated everyone - parents included - shabbily.  When she acted nice, which was rare, it was with an ulterior motive borne out of selfishness.
  7. Dolores Umbridge & Bellatrix LeStrange from Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling.  Anyone who 1) followed Lord Voldemort, 2) delighted in torturing others, 3) bragged about killing people, or 4) basically embodied EVIL really should be at the top of any list of mean literary characters.
  8. Aunt Spiker & Aunt Sponge from James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl.  Caricatures for sure, but both are repulsive in every way...they are cruel, greedy (Aunt Sponge), vain, malicious, selfish, and they take great pleasure in tormenting James.
  9. Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmatians by Justine Korman.  Mean, mean, mean.
  10. Stepmother & Ugly Stepsisters in Cinderella.  Again, caricatures meant to hyperbolize nastiness, but certainly some of the most recognizable meanies in all of literature.

8 comments:

  1. Some good picks in there that I didn't even think of. I sort of want to re-read 101 Dalmations but don't want to read a Disneyfied editon!

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  2. Dolores and Bellatrix made my list too! I also agree with Hilly. She was a cruel and obnoxious person.

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  4. We have Hilly and Bellatrix in common. I also agree with your comments about Elizabeth Gilbert. I am a new follower. :)

    Reading Lark's Top 10

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  5. Nellie Olsen gets my vote - if for no other reason than she's needed it about a hundred years longer than most of the others.

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  6. SOOooo glad I wasn't the only person completely annoyed with Elizabeth Gilbert. She is needy and self-involved to a point that exhausts me.

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  7. Oh, and while I'm at it, Dolores Umbridge reminds me of someone I worked with....and someone you know! She gets my dander up every time I see her character.

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  8. I love you for #4. Seriously, she is whiny, self involved and NOT a good writer. She came to our city and one of the writers at my newspaper interviewed her. I SO wanted to be that person just to ask her so many questions. It was such a bad book, I just don't understand why so many people liked it. ARG! Ok, rant over. great list!!

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