antiheroine

• anti-heroine

From anti- +‎ heroine.

antiheroine (plural antiheroines)

1. (literature, roleplaying games) A female protagonist who proceeds in an unheroic manner, such as by criminal means, via cowardly actions, or for mercenary goals; a female antihero.
   • 2009 January 18, Charles Isherwood, “Hedda Forever: An Antiheroine for the Ages”, in The New York Times‎^[1], archived from the original on 9 June 2012:

     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”.

   • 2021 August 11, Jacqui Palumbo, “Rosamund Pike in ‘I Care a Lot’ and six more recommendations if you love an antiheroine”, in CNN‎^[2]:

     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.

• antihero