antiheroine

noun

1. A female protagonist who proceeds in an unheroic manner, such as by criminal means, via cowardly actions, or for mercenary goals; a female antihero.

   “Since she sprang from the imagination of the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen in 1890, this coldhearted antiheroine has maintained a tight grip on the attention of audiences across the globe, outstripping all the many other complicated women in Ibsen’s oeuvre, even the door-slamming Nora of “A Doll’s House”.”

   “Fictional male antiheroes like television’s crime patriarchs Tony Soprano and Walter White have reigned for some time, but the antiheroine has only more recently had the opportunity to rise up – and become the cause of her own downfall. And while a “bad woman” may once have meant a period-piece protagonist who prioritized herself over finding a husband, today’s antiheroines are more complex, as the Netflix dark comedy “I Care a Lot” illustrates.”