It is true that we don't have backstory on either of the ones I am calling unwounded.
That's why I don't permanently attach a Certified Asshole badge to Renee no matter how often she seems to earn it.
Renee's a yenta, is all: pushy, busybodied, gossiping, in everyone's business all the time, and the first person to call if you are in a jam. I have a theory that she is hated, not because she crashes across boundaries, but because she is female, unwounded, capable, and crashes across boundaries. Angus dancing triumphantly in nothing but a purple condom outside Faye's door in Marten's own apartment, when Marten has lusted in vain after Faye, passes unnoticed because Angus is a guy. Hannelore walking in and out of Faye's and Marten's apartment at will passes unnoticed because Hannelore is wounded. Faye punching and saying mean things is unnoticed because Faye is wounded. Renee acting like everyone else while unwounded and female produces sudden shock that boundaries are being crossed. It is not like she is big and dangerous like Elliot or Bubbles. She is capable, is all. Capable women aren't dangerous, they are just capable. It is unjust and unfair to condemn them for acting like everyone else. You don't have to like them, but that doesn't mean they are any worse than the next person.
I don't think that the crashing across boundaries is incidental or trivial either. Someone upthread points out correctly that much of the comedy in the strip runs off people crashing through boundaries, but that's not its only function. One of the strip's concerns is how you act when you live where all different kinds of people mix together. No one's village mores apply, because no one is in their home village anymore, and none of the village mores were designed for situations like these anyway. Instead, you rely on very basic courtesy, recently improvised rules of thumb, sincere good will, and apologies. QC is a comedy of bad manners because it is concerned with how you act when you are inevitably going to have bad manners sometimes. Clinton just made a gross social blunder by embracing Elliot and telling him to try his luck with the cute guy, but it will be OK because it was done good-heartedly. Renee blunders by overprotecting and micromanaging Brun's life, but it will be OK because it is done out of sincere concern. They all blunder, realize, apologize, and try again. It's how things work there.