#LONE WOLF PERSONALITY SERIES#

The fictional world has been filled with such Western cowboys riding into the sunset at the end of their films but also with Zorros, Sherlock Holmeses, James Bonds, Ethan Hunts ( Mission Impossible), and Walkers Texas Ranger, with Dark Knights (Batman) and Michael Knights ( Knight Rider). As Tim Edwards explains in his “Lone Wolves: Masculinity, Cinema, and the Man Alone,” lone wolves are a “key figure” in cinema that are “historically located in the Western genre” (44) and a frequent major attribute “is their silence, rarely speaking of some unknown trauma they have suffered” (43). The character trope of the lone wolf is a hero (or antihero) who is resolutely focused on his mission to the detriment of his capability or willingness to have meaningful relationships, which makes him unattached and antisocial. This pattern is evident in many recent American, as well as British, television series, including some (such as Godless, Homecoming, and Sharp Objects) that have not yet received a lot of academic attention.

#LONE WOLF PERSONALITY SERIES#

In other words, the series constantly undermine these heroines’ disinterest in relational roles and single-minded dedication to their jobs either by pathologizing the grounds for this behavior themselves or by punishing the characters who engage in it. Unlike male lone wolves, whose lack of steady relationships tends to go unquestioned or to be considered as heroic sacrifices, the depictions of female iterations of this character trope focus on this antisocial behavior and almost uniformly portray it negatively. Exploring how these antisocial heroines are depicted in specific television series that seem to attempt to approximate this kind of lone wolf in female characters reveals a glaring double-standard.

Nevertheless, some recent changes in the depictions of female television characters might have paved the way for the occurrence of (if only a small number of) antisocial heroines in contemporary American television. In other words, being antisocial, not filling the relational roles (of a girlfriend, a wife, a mother, a sister, or a daughter) that female characters have been reduced to for so long, still appears to be too much of a gender defiance for female protagonists. While it has by now become acceptable for female characters to have a job, excel at it, and even be in charge on occasion, not seeking a steady relationship and never wanting children still seem to be transgressions of norms, which may be tolerable for a villain but not for a heroine. However, whether in literature, film, or television, the “lone wolf” has been a commonly used character trope when it comes to male heroes/protagonists. … Her goal is singular: to be good at what she does, at all costs.” This kind of female protagonist, the “lone wolf,” who is single-mindedly focused on her profession and deprioritizes personal relationships, is exceptionally rare.

In her late 2016 article, “What Does It Mean to Be a ‘Good Woman’?”, Emily Rapp marveled at Homeland's Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes), admiring the “strange, fantastical, beautiful mess that makes her terrific at her job as CIA station chief and an outright failure as a partner, a mother, a friend.

Lone wolf personality