The Problem With the Byronic Hero - written by Khadijah

 

                                                        The Problem With the Byronic Hero

Byronic hero: a type of fictional character who is a moody, brooding, rebel, often one haunted by a dark secret from his past. If you are a regular reader of YA novels you have definitely come across this hero prototype before: he is found in nearly every fantasy. At first, I enjoyed his presence in books; he always offered a depth of character that the other male characters were lacking in, but then I started to notice patterns, both in the books themselves and in the way people talked about them. The presence of a Byronic hero almost always resulted in at least one of the following: some type of verbal abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and on and on. Abuse, abuse, abuse!!! Literally, any type of abusive behavior that you can think of I found in these books and they were perpetrated by the hero of the story.!?!!? And he is who we are supposed to root for???? Not only is this abuse trivialized, but it’s also excused and often even romanticized because he’s LiVeD a hARd LiFE.

In every book, as soon as the Byronic hero is introduced he is immediately described as the most beautiful man ever (or something along those lines) and this aura doesn’t die down, in fact, the female MC (his love interest) just finds him to be more attractive as the book goes on. Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with attractive book characters, in fact, I love em, but I have a MAJOR issue with how Mr. Byronic’s attractiveness is used, because it masks extremely predatory behavior as desirable. I’ve read scenes where the “hero” will literally force himself on his love interest, sometimes she’ll even say “no” (she of course doesn’t need to say no for it not to be consensual, but I digress). And I’m just sitting there like, ummmmmm isn’t this sexual assault? But instead of writing this action in a negative light, it’s written as romantic because yeah every outward action the girl exudes is one of fear (backing up, etc.) but so what, because her thoughts are a jumble of how handsome he is and how she just LOOOOOVES him. So if you're a hot guy, consent doesn’t matter, because if she doesn’t give in she’s just lying to herself and she actually wants you? Got it. 

Even more disturbing is the fact that I’ll go online to get some affirmation that this dude is crazy and this girl needs to get out of this relationship stat, and all I find is other girls swooning over these very questionable scenes and talking about how they want a man just like our Mr. Byron, like he isn’t a borderline rapist. And the disgusting cherry on top is the male villain of the story often acts the same way as the hero (down to the sexual assault), but he is actually seen as a monster since he isn’t as attractive as our lovely “hero.” And even worse, there is often another guy--a “nice” guy--who is written with literally nothing that makes a guy attractive (sense of humor, confidence, wit, etc.) besides having a cute face (though not nearly as nice as our Byronic hero’s). He’s just plain boring, like reading his dialogue literally feels like staring at a blank wall boring, so of course, no one is attracted to him. Because ya know when you're a decent guy you have zero personality and being a “nice” guy is your one personality trait.

His attractiveness is not only used as an excuse for his sexual abusiveness; no no no: it's used to excuse his controlling behavior too, because the MC just can’t get enough of his dominating nature *rolls eyes.* This dynamic in their relationship is actually really confusing because nine times out of ten the main girl is written to be this super independent, empowered female, who doesn't let anyone control her; she’s always mouthing off at the hero for how controlling he is, but it’s never done in a way that actually demands respect, and is all bark because she just ends up doing what he says anyway. This supposedly empowered and independent female is unable to recognize that her man isn’t giving her the respect she deserves??? Isn’t she supposed to be a role model for girls??? The funny thing is her father is oftentimes this abusive control freak and a Byronic hero in his own right, who she runs away from or constantly disobeys to get freedom, but she just runs straight into a younger version of her father: her love interest. I spy with my little eye the generational curse being romanticized!!!

The Byronic hero doesn’t only have attractiveness in his weaponry; guess what else he has… his trauma of course!!! Yes when the main girl finally gets fed up with his controlling and emotionally unavailable nature he ropes her back in by giving her the emotional intimacy that she wants, but does it in a very, let’s say, questionable way. He goes on and on about how hard his life has been and how she is the only good thing in it and we get the totally overused scene of them showing each other their scars and acting like they are in a healthy relationship afterward. UGH!!! Spotting all of these red flags I go to the internet seeking an outlet for my discomfort and what do I see? I see a bunch of people talking about how that scene made them fall in love with Mr. Byronic, and he was ‘just so sweet’ when he told her he would die without her. Him basically telling someone that they need to be around in order for him to live is sweet?!?!?!?! Ain’t that a classic manipulation technique??? Another problematic thing about using his trauma as a reason to be a TERRIBLE person is that it supports the idea that people with trauma can never heal and those around them should just deal with any inexcusable behavior from them because they can’t help it.

I’m not saying that Byronic heroes have no place in literature, in fact, I can name a few that I love and who hold a place in my heart, well, I can name one: Kaz Brekker. So why am I okay with Mr. Brekker even though he exudes the same toxic traits as all the others of his kind? First, he never abuses Inej, ever--he never touches her without permission and I admit that he literally can’t, but even if he didn’t have intimacy issues I contend that he would still make sure to get consent. He never is overly controlling either, for example, when she said she was leaving you know what he did?? HE BOUGHT HER A BOAAAAATT!!!!!! Yes, you read that right! He didn’t say “you’re not allowed to leave,” or “if you leave I’ll die,” he said (with his actions) “even though I'm sad I will support you in this and help you get happiness.” YA’LL SEE WHY I LOVE THIS MANNN!!!!! So all that is to say there is a right way to do this character trope and the people doing it wrong have zero excuses!!!

The last, but definitely not least, issue that I’m going to touch on is the general ethics of writing these characters into books that are aimed at teens. Authors have the chance to influence millions of youth with their books. Many teenagers, like myself, have had no experience with healthy romance/love and don’t even have an example of it in our real lives, so even if we know the romance in books is not real, it is the only example of romance we have. And even if teens have examples of romance/love in their lives that does not mean that the books they read don’t affect them. I read at least 100 books a year--that’s THOUSANDS of words--if I didn’t have people teaching me to think critically about literally everything I consume I would not have written this, and I would be one of the masses indoctrinated to romanticize or even seek out extremely toxic relationships. Most of the people who write and publish books are old enough to consider the widespread influence they can have, so why are they comfortable using that power to further this, frankly, misogynistic agenda. I have seen interviews where authors are questioned about their sexist male characters and they dismiss and excuse his toxicity saying that he was just read wrong or that they wrote him like that because that’s what people want to read. Teen readers like romance, so if all the romance we see is toxic then, of course, that’s what we’ll like, and even if teens like toxic romances better that doesn’t give adults the right to appease them; if a teen likes drugs, an adult shouldn’t give it to them and say “well they like it, so I have to give them what they want.” Besides, we readers wouldn’t know if we liked toxic romance unless an adult wrote a whole book surrounding it. The few people I have seen talking about this issue are always quick to say that they don’t blame the authors, but I want us all to step away from that and finally start holding adults accountable for their actions that can possibly hurt minors.