Victim Women Can't Be Fictional Villains
False Assumption: Members of official victim groups like women cannot be portrayed doing bad things in modern novels or TV shows.
Written by FARAgent on February 10, 2026
Novels and TV once featured adventuresses like Becky Sharp or Scarlett O’Hara, women who schemed and slept their way to power. These stories entertained audiences with realistic flaws in female characters. Richer technology shifted tastes to visual media, and male readers turned to video games, but the big change came from cultural rules.
Fiction writers now face taboos against showing protected groups negatively. Women, as official victims, must stay sympathetic. A new novel reviewed in the Washington Post flips a real-life Chinese adventuress tale into a satire of white rich people's microaggressions. Real adventuresses like Wendi Deng Murdoch still thrive in gossip columns, marrying up and trading partners, but fiction sanitizes them.
Growing critics note this produces dull stories. Books like The Satisfaction Café bore readers by targeting safe villains instead of complex heroines. Dissenters argue the spell holds because institutional backing demands reverence for victim groups, but questions mount about why realistic tales vanished.
People Involved
- In recent years, Kathy Wang wrote The Satisfaction Café, a novel that could have explored an adventuress but instead highlighted white microaggressions. [1] She conformed to cultural taboos against negative portrayals of women from victim groups. [1]
- Ron Charles reviewed the book in the Washington Post, praising its shift from the heroine's scheming to critiques of rich white snobbery. [1] He enforced a reverence for such victim groups. [1]
- Meanwhile, Wendi Deng Murdoch lived as a real-life adventuress, marrying older white men like Rupert Murdoch, divorcing strategically, and connecting with elites such as Tony Blair. [1] She thrived beyond the constraints that limit fiction. [1]
▶ Supporting Quotes (3)
“Kathy Wang’s novel is an antidote for our global dissatisfaction “The Satisfaction Café” is an upper crust satire about a woman who wonders if there could be a way to create more happiness in life.”— The Decline of the Adventuress
“Review by Ron Charles On the first page of “The Satisfaction Café,” Kathy Wang writes, “Joan had not thought she would stab her husband.””— The Decline of the Adventuress
“the gold-digging adventuress Wendi Deng Murdoch, the Chinese volleyball player who stole her first white American husband from his wife, but then dumped him to become Rupert Murdoch’s third wife”— The Decline of the Adventuress
Organizations Involved
The Washington Post played a role by publishing a review that framed The Satisfaction Café as a sharp critique of wealthy whites. [1] This promoted sanitized stories avoiding negative depictions of female protagonists from victim groups. [1] Broader publishing industry supported narratives that turned adventuresses into victims. [1] It restricted backing for realistic portrayals of negative traits. [1] Critics argue these institutions sustained the assumption through selective endorsement. [1]
▶ Supporting Quotes (2)
“this new novel is less about the Asian immigrant’s machinations to climb the social ladder in America than about rich white people’s racist and sexist microaggressions toward her.”— The Decline of the Adventuress
“(You can still spread gossip, of course, about real adventuresses, but don’t expect to get too much institutional backing for your novel or movie about one.)”— The Decline of the Adventuress
The Foundation
The assumption took root in norms that placed official victim groups like women off-limits for negative fictional portrayals. [1] It seemed credible amid growing reverence for such groups. [1] Yet mounting evidence challenges this by pointing to real-life adventuresses and the sub-belief that only whites can be villains. [1] Spellcheckers rejected terms like 'adventuresses' for positive figures such as Amelia Earhart. [1] This propped up views that scheming women like Wallis Simpson were outdated and inappropriate. [1] Growing questions surround whether these foundations ignored complex realities. [1]
▶ Supporting Quotes (2)
“One reason is because you aren’t supposed to tell fictional stories these days about members of Official Victim Groups, like women, doing bad things.”— The Decline of the Adventuress
“Spellcheckers now seldom recognize the plural “adventuresses” and try to change it to “adventurous:” e.g. Amelia Earhart or Sally Ride are considered appropriate roles models”— The Decline of the Adventuress
How It Spread
The idea spread through book reviews and media outlets like the Washington Post. [1] They shifted focus from adventuress flaws to victim narratives. [1] Institutional praise for compliant stories reinforced the taboo. [1] Cultural norms deemed 'adventuress' in poor taste. [1] This pushed fiction toward feminized, reverent portrayals via social pressure in publishing. [1] Critics argue such mechanisms propagated the assumption despite emerging doubts. [1]
▶ Supporting Quotes (2)
“Wang mines these tense relationships for the novel’s sharpest critique of wealthy people who have faith “that things will always be such a way.””— The Decline of the Adventuress
“Nowadays, the mere word “adventuress” is considered in “dated” poor taste.”— The Decline of the Adventuress
Harm Caused
Fiction grew boring and less significant under this influence. [1] Novels like The Satisfaction Café muted plots to target safe white villains. [1] This contributed to a cultural decline in storytelling quality. [1] The novel's significance waned partly from avoiding complex female villains. [1] It forced reliance on visual media or games over rich literary traditions. [1] Mounting evidence suggests these harms stemmed from the contested assumption. [1]
▶ Supporting Quotes (2)
“But this new novel is less about the Asian immigrant’s machinations to climb the social ladder in America than about rich white people’s racist and sexist microaggressions toward her.”— The Decline of the Adventuress
“There has been much speculation over the reasons for the decline of the significance of the novel in our culture.”— The Decline of the Adventuress
Sources
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[1]
The Decline of the Adventuressreputable_journalism