Gender Dynamics Index: Difference between revisions

This index compiles tropes that illustrate how gender is used in fiction.

 

 

This index is divided into five sections:

* Gender Dynamic Metatropes: Illustrating the underlying dynamic in characterization of male and female charaters that give rise to many [[Double Standards]].

* Female Tropes: How the Gender Dynamic Metatropes manifest for female characters.

* Male Tropes: How the Gender Dynamic Metatropes manifest for male characters.

* Contrasts: Direct contrasts between [[Always Female]] and [[Always Male]] Tropes that illustrate gender dynamics.

* In Real Life: Research that illustrates aspects of Gender Dynamics. (Acceptable: studies on double standards in how we view men and women or media that illustrates a double standard. Unacceptable: Political writings aiming to use evidence of double standards to advance an agenda.)

 

 

* [[Bait and Switch Lesbians]]

* [[Cat Fight]]: Fights between women are often played as fanservice or amusing bickering rather than legitimate, serious battle.

* [[Cute Monster Girl]]: Female monsters still have to be attractive to human males.

* [[Karma Houdini]]: more often applied to villainous female characters.

* [[Villainesses Want Heroes]]: All that a villainess needs to be redeemed is true love. Or just good sex.

 

In summary, objectification is when a female character is reduced down to her passive attributes and her agency denied. It can manifest in being valued for fanservice, but more subtly when a female character is characterized as good or competent ''because'' she's female or her negative actions downplayed as the fault of a male character. The implication is that objects, namely women, don't have the ability to make moral choices; their existence is summed up by their attributes and all their apparent 'choices' are the result of the agency of real people, namely men.

Women are often used for reaction shots. This heightens horror, imparts a sense of urgency and distress, deepens the emotional impact of events, and sets a mood.

 

 

In terms of characterization, female characters often put more emphasis on their emotional reactions to events and actions taken by others than actual actions taken in response. A female character's emotional sensitivity is seen as a big part of her femininity (see "[[The Princess and the Pea]]"). In essence, the more vulnerable, the more delicate, the more she suffers, and the greater emphasis on her inability to recover or take proactive action—her victimhood—the more feminine she appears. Even in modern works this holds true. Active women may be portrayed as positive characters, but their [[Men Are Strong, Women Are Pretty|agency does not make them more feminine]].

== Male Tropes ==

 

 

'''Actified'''

In situations where a character needs more passive, nurturing emotions to succeed, male characters are often shown as useless or actively malevolent. This includes raising kids and other family situations.

 

 

* [[Awkward Father-Son Bonding Activity]]

'''Proactive/Reactive'''

 

 

'''Expendable'''

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Sociology Tropes]]

[[Category:Characters As Device]]

[[Category:Gender and Sexuality Tropes]]

[[Category:Narrative Tropes]]