In many ways, likability is very elaborate lie, a performance, a code of conduct dictating the proper way to be. Characters who don’t follow this code become unlikable. Critics who criticize a character’s unlikability cannot necessarily be faulted. They are merely expressing a wider cultural malaise with all things unpleasant, all things that dare to breach the norm of social acceptability.

Roxane Gay is talking about “unlikeable” women in Not Here To Make Friends, but it’s really applicable to other groups like other cultures, ASD, queer and genderqueer people, and more. 💬📚