A very specific list of books and movies with unconventional looking/conventionally unattractive heroines

Some good examples for ugly heroines are featured in this article (x)

“Ever notice how most heroines in novels just happen to also be devastatingly gorgeous? As if their long, flowing hair or sparkling eyes somehow make them more worthy of the title of heroine? Of course, given that so many classic popular novels about women were written about [sic] men, it kind of makes sense that literature would be so full of idealized versions of women that dude authors kind of wish they could hook up with.

It’d be nice if the occasional lady in literature was just, you know, a person, rather than some silk-skinned goddess or one of the other many adjectives that plague the women of literature who are just trying to go about their business of surviving whatever cruel plots the author has devised for them. I mean, there are plenty of male heroes in literature who get by with the looks of Cyrano de Bergerac, or Quasimodo, or Oscar Wao, or, more often than not, with no idea at all as to their general attractiveness. So, where are all the “ugly” ladies in literature?”

This article also makes some good points about the importance of ugly heroines. (x)

And here is my personal list (in no particular order):

Books 

• Jane
  Eyre – Charlotte Brontë

The mother of all ugly heroines.

• Howl’s
  Moving Castle – Diana Wynne Jones

The heroine perceives herself as unattractive. After being cursed
she spends the majority of the book as an old woman.

• Uprooted – Naomi
  Novik

The heroine is certainly not as attractive as her beautiful best
friend who gets her own interesting plot line. 

• The
  Darkangel (the Darkangel Trilogy, #1) – Meredith Ann Pierce

The protagonist starts out as unattractive, later she undergoes a transformation of
her appearance which represents a turning point in her character development.

• Cobwebb
  Bride – Vera Nazarian

This book has lots of female characters of all shapes and sizes.
The main heroine is plain and a bit overweight. Another important
famale character is dead and looks the part. Both have very
attractive love interests.

• Lords
  of Rainbow – Vera Nazarian 

Very masculine looking heroine (hairy).

• Wintersong (Wintersong,
  #1) – S. Jae-Jones

She’s plain.

• Bones
  of the Fair (Darest, #2) – Andrea K. Höst

Other characters in this book are baffled by the interest of
the very attractive male protagonist in the heroine. 

• Radiance (Wraith
  Kings, #1) – Grace Draven

This heroine is actually very attractive by human standards.
Unfortunately the male protagonist isn’t human and he finds her
appalling and he’s just as ugly to her. The like each other from the
start.

• Stolen
  Songbird (The Malediction Trilogy, #1) – Danielle L. Jensen

The heroine spends her time around
(mostly) human looking and extremely attractive trolls. She’s not
quite up to their standards.

• Keeping
  it Real (Quatum Gravity #1) – Justina Robson

The heroine is almost a cyborg. Her extremities were replaced by
completely overpowered prosthetics after a horrific assault while
working as a government agent. She’s traumatized, in pain, doesn’t
have full control of her new body and hasn’t come to terms with her
new menacing look. The rock star demon elf protagonist is very much
into her. Yes, really. This book uses and often subverts every trope
known to fantasy and science fiction.

• Herb-Witch (Lord
  Alchemist Duology, #1) – Elizabeth McCoy

Within the world described in this book the heroine’s look is not only considered
ugly but also shameful as it reveals her barbarian heritage.

• The
  Silver Metal Lover (Slilver Metal Lover #1) – Tanith Lee

The protagonist starts out as rather plain, later she undergoes a transformation of
her appearance which represents a turning point in her character development. 

• The
  Last Hour of Gann – R. Lee Smith

The heroine is fat. She does lose weight while trying to survive
on a hostile alien planet though. The lizard man protagonist is
interested in her either way. All kinds of trigger warnings for this
book: violence, rape, gore, death. It’s also over 900 pages long.
Crazy.

• A Million Open Doors (Giraut #1) – John Barnes

This one stands out as it’s the only book written by a man. It’s
also one of my earliest conscious encounters with an unattractive
female protagonist. For me that was a formative experience. Rather on
the hard side of science fiction the narrative follows the good
looking male protagonist who is a kind of emissary from a culture that values
aesthetics to the extreme coming to a planet where people live by a
more practical approach to life. The female protagonist assigned to him as his assistant is so ugly to him that he can’t
stop staring. After some culture clashing they get married. 

Books I haven’t read yet:

• Fairest – Gail Carson Levine

• The Eye of the Beholder (Fairytale Collection #1) – Elizabeth Darcy

• Miss Landon and Aubranael (Tales of Aylfenhame #1) – Charlotte E. English
• The Shadow Queen (Black Jewels #7) – Anne Bishop

Movies / TV series

• The Shape of Water

• Penelope

• Jane Eyre

• Howl’s Moving Castle

I’m always looking for more of my beloved ugly heroines. They are quite difficult to find. So if you know of a book or a movie, please let me know! Reblog this with your suggestions, chat me up, ask or submit. All suggestions are welcome.

TAG: On my blog I use the “unconventional looking / conventionally unattractive heroine” tag.

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What? It’s not realistic to have an attractive male protagonist fall in love with an unattractive/flawed heroine???? No way!!!???!

Ok, first of all you can fuck off with your realism in my escapism. And secondly what about all the boring, average and often even annoying male self insert characters? Nobody bats an eye at some Gary Stu getting the gorgeous girl in the end. That was actually pretty much the standard plot line for a long time in mainstream media. And I’m sick and tired of it.

I’m also sick and tired of over-abundance of stunningly beautiful girls and women in genre fiction. As if being unattractive or even only average looking makes you undeserving of being the heroine and falling in love. Oh wait, I’m being unfair. The romance genre actually offers a wealth of books with flawed heroines. Just google it! There are book lists on amazon and goodreads for every bodily imperfection (including disabilities) imaginable.

The romance genre in general is great in catering to the female
gaze. There is just one problem. I’m not into it. This is my
personal preference. In no way do I think that one genre is superior
to another. I love romance in my fantasy and science fiction but I
don’t want it to be the main focus of the story. I’m picky like
that.

On a personal level the reason for the wish to read about
unattractive, flawed or just average looking heroines is certainly
the identification factor. Do I think I’m ugly? No, but I’m also
not devastatingly beautiful and I’m totally ok with that. But there
was a time in my life when I wasn’t so confident, when I felt
unattractive. Some part of me will always feel like an awkward,
insecure teenager. That part of me needs to be stroked from time to
time. But I guess I’ve always been this way even before the crippling
effects of puberty. Even when I was I little girl I imagined stories
with normal (=like me) looking girls who were smart and capable and
often had to help some beautiful but useless princess. Guess who the
prince fell in love with at the end.

Apart from using an unattractive heroine as my self insert I just
think a hot guy falling in love with a girl or woman for her
character rather than her physical appearance is THE MOST ROMANTIC
THING EVER!!! It’s not that deep. Or is it? Beauty is worshipped in
our society. The pressure to be beautiful and therefore lovable is
much higher for girls and women than for men. As if a woman is only worthwhile if she is also considered physically attractive. The fact that there are
so few conventionally unattractive heroines in fiction actually
proves the point.

I’m talking strictly as a reader here but I guess having someone
fall for an unconventional looking woman is certainly more difficult
to write convincingly. Explaining and describing why someone would
fall for an average looking or conventionally unattractive woman
demands that the focus is on love rather than lust (I don’t mean
that it can’t or shouldn’t be sexy). The pay-off is also so much
sweeter. A declaration of love where the male protagonist says
something original instead of just stammering about the heroine’s
beauty is also much more satisfying.  Making the woman beautiful
often feels like a shortcut to me. Actually I’m now at point where I
need exceptional characterization to make me still care about a
beautiful heroine. That sounds petty and maybe it is but look at the
above list. It’s quite short compared to the tons of media
featuring physically flawless girls and women.

Oh, and as I’m already bitter let me talk about two tropes that I
hate with a passion: “The Makeover”. It’s most often found in movies
and goes as following. Unattractive coded (think glasses and
comfortable clothes) girl or woman played by a beautiful actress
learns how to use make-up and dons a skimpy dress and suddenly the
male love interest deems her worthy of his affection. Boom, true
love. NO, THANKS.

Yes, I’m aware that sometimes heroines undergo a physical
transformation that mark a turning point in their spiritual journey.
If that’s the case I’m usually okay with the beautifying effects of
character development.

The other trope is having a heroine that is described as unattractive within her world but is actually conforming to beauty standards of our world. For example the poor girl is ostracized because she’s a little bit too tall and rather thin. Tragic. She’d be a supermodel in our world. Or the heroine’s breasts are too round and her hips are too pronounced. So ugly. What a terrible fate to look like Nicky Minaj.

I want my heroines to be real woman. I love it when they are fat, extremely short/tall, have plain faces, have saggy breasts and huge thighs, when they are truly imperfect, when they are like me. Those fictional girls and women helped me learn to love myself.