Attractiveness Isolation: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}{{Needs Image}}

{{quote|''"He's nice," said Tawneee. "And he's very dependable," said Tawneee. And, as if dimly aware that this was still not sufficient, she added sadly, "If you must know, he's the first boy who's ever asked me out." ... There were goddesses who'd kill to look like Tawneee. Angua and Sally exchanged a glance. Light dawned. Ah, that was the problem. And this one's a baaaad case.''

 

 

The girl, on the other hand, feels unable to ask him herself, whether because of social custom, historical imperative, or some other reason. However, she isn't out of his league at all. In fact, so many guys have refused to ask her out on the grounds that she's out of their league that she begins to feel unwanted and ask if there's something wrong with her. She will also often feel inadequate and very lonely, and this in turn compounds the problem of her not being able to ask for herself; obviously there is a reason nobody wants her, and she too is afraid of rejection, making this cyclic.

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[Azumanga Daioh]]'':

** Sakaki is [[Huge Schoolgirl|an extraordinarily tall and athletic girl]] with several [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Crowning Moments of Awesome]] under her belt. But she's also very shy and affectionate. Other students are scared to talk to her either because they think she's too awesome or because she's intimidating. She winds up often wishing she'd get invited into club activities, since she's too timid to reach out for them herself.

** Hinagiku's sister, Yukiji also seems to have gotten this when she was younger, though only Kaoru seems to still be hanging on to it.

* Invoked in ''[[Half Prince]]'' by the titular character Prince, whose good looks attracts mobs of girls to swarm him. To defend himself from this, he adapted a look of self confidence and intimidation so that even though he'll still turn heads and have on lookers constantly, they'll feel too intimidated to approach him.

* In the Korean manhwa ''[[Cynical Orange]]'' the beautiful protagonist embodies this trope. The girls hate her and spread nasty rumours about her and only the delinquents actually ask her out. She does not have any friends until she meets her [[Love Interest]].

 

 

* This serves as the premise of the film ''[[She's Out of My League]]''

* Embodied by a nameless blonde in a bar in ''[[A Beautiful Mind]]'', where John Nash arrives at a mathematical reason for it happening.

** The main thing being illustrated by Nash in the scene is a common Game Theory model known as Prisoner's Dilemma, which essentially states that two competitors' greed - and incentive to not lose - dooms them to fail in their pursuit. It's not about the blonde being ignored so much as it is about the group of men working together to not step on one another's toes.

 

* Ayla and Jondalar do this to each other during ''[[The Valley of Horses]]''.

** Less because of beauty and more because of assumptions that had ''nothing to do'' with beauty. Jondalar assumes that, because of Ayla's isolation and silence, she's a shaman on a quest to commune with the Earth Mother; Ayla doesn't realise that the feelings she has for Jondalar are sexual. When she finally does realise it, she tries everything she can to get him to sleep with her, but Jondalar, under the impression that it would be improper, doesn't make a move. It's more mutual misunderstandings that come from being from different cultures that separates them, not their good looks.

* [[Defrosting Ice Queen|Lena]] from ''[[The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants]]'' is said by many different characters to be strikingly pretty, but to the point people are intimidated by her. [[Tall, Dark and Bishoujo|Her personality]] [[The Quiet One|makes this difficult as well.]]

 

* Discussed in ''[[Scrubs]]'', when J.D. asked the gift shop person if this applied to her, and then she said no.

* In one episode of ''[[Welcome Back, Kotter]]'', all of the Sweathogs except Vinnie Barbarino, the ladies' man, are asked out to the dance.

* Arguably, Mulder and Scully in [[The X-Files]]. It's obvious quite early on that they have feelings for each other - while Scully is just [[Selective Obliviousness|in denial]], Mulder assumes she's out of his league anyway, since he's an obsessive, loner [[Conspiracy Theorist|conspiracy nut]] in [[Married to the Job|a career black hole]] and she's, well, [[Hot Scientist|Scully]]. Despite the fact that she hasn't been on a successful date in all the years they've been working together.

 

* Psyche from [[Classical Mythology]] thought she was an example of this trope, but the real reason for her loneliness was because she was [[So Beautiful It's a Curse|so beautiful]] that the goddess of love and beauty herself kept her from finding a respectable husband out of spite.

 

* Happens in ''[[The Longest Journey]]'' when one Alatien woman is apparently very attractive among her kind, and despite her crush on an Alatien warrior, she is too shy to court him. Turns out that he's thought her out of his league all along, and hasn't even bothered asking her.

* In ''[[Planescape: Torment]]'' you can meet a Harmonium guard in the forum who has a nascent crush on one of the regulars, but has never dared approach her because he always sees her chatting and being social with other people and thinks this trope is in effect. She, on the other hand, is actually terribly lonely because she has a problem with being a [[Motor Mouth]], which means that none of the people she talks to ever comes back to talk with her more. The Nameless One can, depending on inclination, either tell the guard this particular piece of info (which gives him the resolve to confess) or tell him that she's actually incredibly popular with men (which breaks his heart). As with many of the game's side quests, Fell makes a unique tattoo out of either resolution.

* [[Tall, Dark and Bishoujo|Rin Tohsaka]] from ''[[Fate/stay night]]'' is the school idol and mutually 'off limits' to all the boys because she's so clearly out of their league. This really doesn't bother her much as it leaves her more time for her own studies and magus training, and means she won't have to reveal [[Bitch in Sheep's Clothing|her true nature to anyone]].

 

* [http://www.viruscomix.com/page465.html This] ''[[Subnormality]]'' strip, especially in the first panel.

* Done to each other in [http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=9 this] ''[[Questionable Content]]'' strip.

 

* [http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/sex/the-curse-of-being-cute-2439324/;_ylt=Am2elCgD68EzF1NBbYrjajSDbqU5 The Curse of Being Cute]

 

* The [[High School Dance|prom episode]] of ''[[Generator Rex]]'' makes a mention or two of how "hot girls don't get asked out". Rex is skeptical until [[Hot Scientist|Dr. Holiday]] confesses no one ever asked her to prom.

 

* He's hardly ugly himself, but Andy Lee of ''[[Hamish and Andy]]'' managed to snare a date (and later the heart) of Megan Gale, a real life Wonder Woman clone renowned for being one of the most beautiful women in the world (and dating Italian male models) by, in her own words, "being the only boy brave enough to ask me out." Aaaaaaaawwwwww. Curse you, Andy Lee.

* Pretty and beautiful women often suffer from "somebody's girl syndrome" (SGS) in which they are [[Hollywood Dateless|perpetually single]] while cute and average looking girls have boyfriends or are hanging around guys. That's because many guys think the hot chicks already have gorgeous boyfriends and are out of their league and won't approach them. Therefore, the hot chick contracts SGS as a result.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Romance Arc]]

[[Category:Love Tropes]]

[[Category:Solitary Tropes]]

[[Category:Unrequited Love Tropes]]