Positive Discrimination: Difference between revisions
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She may not be the star who actually saves the day (or she often will but will simply not get public credit for it, but since she's [[Purity Sue|so selfless]] she [[Think Nothing of It|doesn't really care]]), but she will never hinder the progress of the team. In fact, this trope is far more blatant if she's in a relatively minor role but is consistently better than the non-minority male lead at damn near everything. There doesn't seem to be much middle ground between this and the [[Faux Action Girl]]; people go to extremes. The sad irony? [[Creator's Pet|The creators usually want the audience to be proud of or in awe of this character]]; instead, the character is just ''so'' [[Mary Sue|perfect]] that [[The Scrappy|she's hated by the audience (and sometimes in-universe too) with all the fires of Hell]].
Though this trope is more common with racial minorities, women, and sometimes gays and bisexuals, it is sometimes applied to disabled people as well. This often leads to [[Disability Superpower]], [[Handicapped Badass]], [[Idiot Savant]], [[Inspirationally Disadvantaged]], and other tropes that, done wrong, will imply that disability actually makes a person superior to non-disabled people. Unlike with other minorities, it has not yet become generally recognized that disabled people can be portrayed just about any way non-disabled ones can be. In an effort to compensate for a history of stigmatizing the disabled by using them as [[Morality Pet
Sometimes the writers are being deliberately [[Anvilicious]] about equality and discrimination. Other times, they're just concerned about [[Unfortunate Implications|looking sexist or racist]] if the only "X" on the show does something wrong, since "X" isn't on the list of [[Acceptable Targets]], and they overcompensate the other direction. Rarely do they come across the solution of simply having more than one "X", which is, of course, half the problem of the [[Token Minority]] in the first place. Of course, this trope, just like all tropes by their nature, has its own inertia, and thus adding more X doesn't always solve the problem. Instead, ''all'' of X will still be unfailingly more competent and better than the others, essentially making the [[Unfortunate Implications]] of "X is superior in every way to Y" explicit.
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This trope can usually be averted simply by adding more than one of the given minority; then they can spread the competence around. Failing that, they can try not making it a big deal that the character is X, and maybe no one will care that they're also depicted as flawed human beings. [[Speculative Fiction]] can manage the latter pretty well by creating a culture where women/"minorities" are in positions of power and no one thinks it's unusual (invoking [[Fantastic Racism]] optional), but sometimes they dip into this trope anyway.
The issue of
If a [[Lady Land]] is a utopian paradise, it's probably running on this trope.
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* In ''[[Eyeshield 21]]'', Patrick "Panther" Spencer, basically the only black character in the series, gets this treatment. By the final arc, where a chapter or play doesn't seem to be able to go by without saying he's greater than everyone else due to "his black genes", it really sticks out.
** Though early on, Panther's main trait was his being a [[Determinator]] (he worked hard to impress his racist coach, misinterpreted the racism as his not being good enough, and worked even ''harder''). While his race did come into it as described, it's not like they had the "he's awesome 'cuz he's black!" attitude the whole time.
* There are two female Espada in ''[[Bleach]]'', past and current.
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** Circumstances are contrived to make sure her character is the most effective (this last part possibly justified as the [[Game Master]] showing favoritism towards her). She excels against several weak opponents, but her low hit points make her weak against a tougher foe and the group has no real tank due to this.
** To be fair, this has less to do with her being female but more with her filling the role of the newcomer that the resident jerkass thinks he can walk all over. Just as in every movie where an apparent naive newcomer sits down at a poker table with a bunch of cardsharps who think they can scam him out of his money, [[The Magic Poker Equation|they will invariably be the ones who end up losing]], either because of karma or because the newcomer wasn't quite as new at the game as they thought.
*** Its been said they've managed to alienate all the Male gamers (even the eleven year olds) with their [[Jerkass
* Done in the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' films with Hermione Granger (much less so in the books). The film version of Ron is rather [[Flanderize
** Averted from the fifth film onwards. Notably when the kids are being restrained by the Death Eaters, Ron struggles against his captor while Hermione just cowers in fear. And Ron is given a few CMOA in the seventh film to balance things out a bit.
* In ''[[How to Train Your Dragon (animation)|How to Train Your Dragon]]'', Astrid has established that she is not only the most competent trainee but the ''only'' competent trainee. The others (who are mostly boys) barely do anything to the dragons.
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== Literature ==
* Robert Jordan's ''[[Wheel of Time]]'' seems to have this at first glance: Half of the nations and organizations in that [[The Verse|world]] are [[Lady Land|openly matriarchal]], and in the rest the women are in control anyway. But it soon turns into what's almost a [[Subverted Trope|reversal]], or even [[Straw Feminist|Straw Feminism]], since ''all women in this world'' turn out to be both incompetent ''and'' [[
** Doesn't fit here in THIS context - what Jordan has shown is that BOTH sides think this of the other, thus the split in Aes Sedai factions (the male from the female) enhances his concept of "United you stand, divided you fall."
** It should also be pointed out that<ref>
* Of the four protagonists of Patrick Tilley's ''The Amtrak Wars'', the two guys are pretty deeply flawed, get slightly better or a lot worse, and die. The two girls wind up more or less saints by the end, and live.
* Subverted in the ''[[Discworld]]'' book ''[[Discworld/Jingo|Jingo]]'', where 71-Hour Achmed tells Vimes "''Truly'' treat all men equally. Allow Klatchians the right to be scheming bastards."
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*** That being said, Holly still seemed smarter as a female, especially in episodes like "Backwards" with her theory on "The Big Crunch" and in "Polymorph" she was actually able to recognize the creature (a shapeshifter) when even Rimmer (who is always insulting Holly's intelligence) was too distracted by its current shape (his mother)
* In the comedy ''Chalk'', Suzy Travis is the sarcastic, intelligent straight man to the rest of the teaching department's idiotic fools - especially headmaster Mr Slatt. However, this is subverted in the second season as she slowly turns into Slatt herself.
* ''[[News Radio]]''
* ''[[The Office]]'' (USA): Even though Stanley and Darryl have clearly been obnoxious or inappropriately insubordinate, Michael constantly ignores it for the cameras, fearing accusations of racism. The show is also pretty impressive when it comes to gender: the female characters are exactly as flawed as the male ones.
* ''[[Spin City]]'' averted this cleverly with [[Twofer Token Minority|gay black guy]] Carter. Carter was highly intelligent, extremely good at his job and often acted as the voice of reason, but he was a flawed character in other ways such as his neuroses and hyper-sensitivity to racial and sexual discrimination.
* In the BBC version of ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]]'', the character of Djaq is a [[Twofer Token Minority|double token minority]]- the one non-white outlaw and the only female member of the group. She is frequently shown to be more intelligent than the other characters and is usually the one to tell them off for being idiots, kicks butt while fighting, has incredible healing powers, and can always get herself out of a fix with her Saracen know-how.
** It got worse in S3, in which Djaq (whose [[Twofer Token Minority]] status was at least alleviated by a likeable personality and a plausible backstory for her assortment of skills) is written out and replaced by Kate, whose characterization was a mess of [[Double Standard
* Pretty much any family sitcom involves a wife who is far more intelligent and level headed than her spouse. This usually leads to one or two episodes where the trend is reversed so the husband can be right at least once. This one pretty much goes back to ''[[The Honeymooners]]''.
** Although sometimes they make it so the wife is ''still'' right anyway because the husband starts flaunting the fact he was right and messes up again. If you are a man on one of these shows, you simply cannot win.
* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] and then massively subverted in the ''[[Inspector Morse]]'' episode "Twilight of the Gods." Nobody, including Morse, wants to believe anything ''too'' bad about Andrew
* ''[[It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia]]'' had Sweet Dee, who started out in this trope but was quickly [[Averted Trope]] when the writers realized there was no reason Dee would hang out with such a horrible group of people if she wasn't just like them.
* It's been noted (half-jokingly) that the only people to get a definitively happy ending at the end of series 4 of ''[[Skins]]'' are {{spoiler|the lesbians and the black guy}}.
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*** Though it should be noted that Kira has also been fighting Cardassians almost her entire life, was a very effective resistance fighter when she was, and is not above fighting dirty, while Damar was more of a shipman and as such had less experience with close combat.
*** Kira's background as a [[Hot-Blooded]] fighter in [[La Résistance]] also put her at a disadvantage in diplomatic situations and forced her to adapt to life as Sisko's [[The Lancer|second in command]].
* In-universe [[Fantastic Racism]] version here: In ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'', Dr. Pulaski is well-known for her casual dismissal of Data as anything other than a mere machine. However, she is shocked--''shocked''
* ''[[iCarly]]'' has the episode ''iHireAnIdiot'' where Carly and Sam hire a male intern based on the fact that he's handsome, despite him being an idiot. For revenge, Freddie hires an attractive female intern who is also an idiot. At the end of the episode, it turned out that she was actually a brilliant college student pretending to be stupid.
* Parodied in ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'', where Marshall's father suggests he borrow an umbrella from the Koreans down the hall, since Koreans are apparently all wise enough to be [[Crazy Prepared|prepared for any situation]] and compassionate enough to lend their things out to neighbors. Marshall is just as confused as everyone else. Note, however, that the Koreans ''did'' lend him an umbrella.
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== Video Games ==
* Coco Bandicoot of the ''[[Crash Bandicoot]]'' series is significantly more intelligent and [[Closer to Earth]] than her brother ([[Idiot Hero|though that's not much of a challenge]]) and [[Action Girl|not far off in terms of physical power either]]. Interestingly, as more female characters were introduced in later titles, Coco seemed to gain more prominant [[Took a Level in Jerkass|obnoxious]] and [[Took a Level In Dumbass|idiotic]] tendancies (in addition to [[Damsel in Distress|getting kidnapped frequently]]), though still seems somewhat saner than her male comrades.
* In ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius]]'', [[Fantastic Racism]] between humans and the shapeshifting beast-men races called the Laguz are a major theme. While there are many senselessly evil or stupid human characters, in the first installment of the verse there was not a single evil Laguz. They were either outright heroic, brutally tortured and crazily brainwashed into attacking the heroes, or had a [[Anti-Villain|very good reason]] for opposing the good guys.<ref>Yes, this includes Naesala and his ravens, considering that all the piracy and mercenary work they do is for the sake of feeding their people at home.</ref>
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' began its existence with Marge and Lisa being clearly smarter and more sensible than their male relatives. This was taken to the extreme in an episode where it was revealed that there was a "Simpson gene" for stupidity which only affected males ([[Discontinuity|we don't mention that episode much]], [[Canon Discontinuity|and the writers seem to have retconned it]]). As the series progressed, Marge developed her own idiotic habits, but so did everyone else in Springfield... save Lisa, who apparently absorbed every ounce of common sense and intelligence in the city. Of course, it didn't have anywhere else to ''go''. It was [[Early Installment Weirdness|much different in the very earliest episodes]]: Homer was relatively well-adjusted (if a bit naive), Marge was a [[Lady Drunk]], and Bart and Lisa were equally annoying, bratty nitwits
On the DVD commentaries, Al Jean has said that they once considered a bit that had Homer strangling Lisa, but others on the staff objected and were downright uncomfortable with such a notion. Jean then added that such opinions haven't been expressed in regards to Homer strangling Bart. It's perhaps worth noting that this trope stands tall in most of their cultural parodies too. For example, their Adam and Eve parody is altered so that Adam was tempted to eat the forbidden fruit, [[Dirty Coward|and then frames Eve for it]], meanwhile the Milhouse-enacted Moses is depicted as an incompetent coward with the Lisa-enacted Aaron suggesting to free the Hebrews (albeit self preserving enough to bully [[The Scapegoat|Moses]] to defy the Pharaoh for her). The show ''really'' thrives on this trope with everything they do. Granted the probable reason the show manages to use this so consistently without being outright insufferable is that the girl cast are only more competent ''compared to the males''. Lisa and Marge are gifted but still highly flawed individuals that can play the [[Idiot Ball]] or even act like [[Jerkass]] types on frequent occasions, just not nearly as consistently as Homer and Bart.
Averted as well with Krusty the Clown and Karl. Krusty, who is a Jew, has simply too many flaws to even list. [[You Are What You Hate|He doesn't really see himself as a Jew and even hates Jews]] (mostly because of his [[Freudian Excuse|daddy issues]]), so there's that. Karl, who is black, is part of a [[Comic Trio]] with Homer and Lenny, and has no problem in getting drunk or joining their bizarre plans. Similarly, Apu is not presented in an unambiguously positive light. Indeed, in his early appearances he seemed little more than a broad caricature of Indian immigrants. Again, however they are more competent ''in comparison''. As stand alone characters the likes of Karl and Apu are fairly flawed and humanized, but much more toned down compared to their co stars and more likely to be [[The Straight Man]] against them (Karl indeed is often the [[Only Sane Man]] of the [[Comic Trio]], if only just).
** The episode "The Last Temptation of Homer" played this trope ridiculously straight, especially in comparison to the farcical depiction of female characters in earlier episodes. Facing a string of lawsuits, Mr. Burns is forced to adopt an affirmative action hiring policy so he at least won't get hit with an anti-discrimination lawsuit (though why he wouldn't have been forced to do this before 1993 is never explained). As a result, the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant hires its first-ever female technician, Mindy Simmons (voiced by guest star Michelle Pfeiffer). Much to Homer's consternation, he discovers that [[Distaff Counterpart|Mindy shares all of his good qualities]] (proudly working-class, friendly, fun-loving) and none of his bad ones. Indeed, despite being shown [[Big Eater|eating at least as much as Homer does]], Mindy never gains any weight and remains forever a sexy babe. And while she does have at least ''some'' flaws, Mindy seems downright perfect compared to silly, pathetic, bumbling, stupid Homer. She's definitely the more grown-up and sensible of the two, and all the humiliating gags in the episode are at Homer's expense. All this, of course, is to test Homer's morality: can he remain faithful to Marge while in the constant presence of this goddess (quite literally, as Homer imagines Mindy as Venus the first time he sees her)? A subversion of the trope finally came in a later episode, in which [[Continuity Nod|Homer finally confessed to his family his temptation to sleep with Mindy]] (which he didn't do), and assured everyone that they never see each other anymore, because Mindy [[Not So Above It All|"hit the bottle pretty hard and lost her job."]]
*** Amusingly this was despite the episode seemingly trying to subvert the trope and displaying Mindy as a bumbling, more compatable female for Homer, however many of her flaws mirroring Homer's are minor or merely implied. The show doesn't seem to know how to get away from this trope, even when it's ''trying it's hardest to avoid it''.
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** Averted with Kahn, Hank's Laotian neighbor, who from day one has been portrayed as a racist [[Jerkass]]. In the first episode they meet, Hank doesn't want to associate with him and Peggy accuses ''Hank'' of being a racist, causing Hank to remark, "What kind of country is this where you can only hate a man if he's white?"
* The major reason for the general fandom rejection of [[The Scrappy|Lola Bunny]] in ''[[Space Jam]]'', who aside from being the only new character didn't follow any of the usual humorous slapstick conventions. For instance, late in the film, Bugs pushes her out the way when one of the Monstars is about to squash her, as though she, unlike all the other toons and even Bugs himself afterwards, will not just get flattened like a pancake or some other [[Amusing Injuries|temporary cartoon injury]] that is easy to recover from. Even a ''human'' character in the movie gets flattened and does not receive permanent damage.
** One could argue this is less a case of
* Illustrated quite well in ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents]]''. Although (much like ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'') the emphasis on humor quickly turned the entire cast into idiots, viewers were constantly reminded that Cosmo and Timmy's dad were ''far'' stupider than their female counterparts Wanda and Mrs. Turner.
** However, that's not to say Wanda and Mrs. Turner are perfect (or even close). Wanda borders on being a complete bitch more often than not, while Mrs. Turner is still (usually) neglectful and not exactly a genius, even if she seems so in comparison to Mr. Turner. As for other female characters, Vicky is the embodiment of evil, Tootie and Veronica are borderline-psychotic stalkers, and Trixie is a bit bitchy and air headed. In fact, the guys on average, sans Cosmo and Mr. Turner, probably have it better off. Despite some of their flaws (Timmy being a bit of a slow minded [[Jerkass]], AJ being a bit of an [[Insufferable Genius]], Chester being poorer than dirt), they're all otherwise relatively normal kids who are (usually) able to handle themselves.
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* With ''[[Danny Phantom]]'', Butch Hartman was able to do it all over again with Danny's parents. In the early episodes, though goofy, Jack was portrayed as a visionary ghost-hunter whose over-enthusiasm often got in the way of common sense, while Maddie was soft-spoken and more of his assistant. By halfway into the first season, it completely flipped: Maddie became the bold action-oriented commanding ghost hunter, while Jack could barely even point a rifle in the right direction.
** To be fair, though, Jack's positive side was that he was clearly the more enthusiastic of the two, and had a lot more invested in the job. While he's not great on the field, it seems that many of the ghost-catching inventions were in fact his creation, and when the chips were down, [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass|Jack was very capable.]]
**
** Danny eventually averts this for the most part come Season Three through [[Character Development]]. If anything, his only [[Book Dumb]] moments occur as an excuse to give Sam a reason to nag, an act that is all but pointless by that point.
* In ''[[Yin Yang Yo!|Yin Yang Yo]]'', the two main leads are basically girl and boy versions of each other. Yin is the overly girlish girl who likes ponies and anything pink and naturally is the more studious, mature, and level-headed of the two. Yang is a crass, crude-humor spouting blue bunny who likes boyish things like monster trucks, mindless video games, fighting anything that moves, and not studying. Also the more likely to receive [[Amusing Injuries|physical slapstick]]. Once again, the three shows share writers and directors, so not much of a surprise.
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* ''[[Sealab 2021]]'' invokes this trope with Dr. Quinn, in order to mock it.
* Averted with [[Genki Girl]] Frida Suez of ''[[El Tigre]]''. She is just as mischievous and misguided as Manny, if not more so. In the same vein as Babs, she also suffers double the amount of [[Amusing Injuries|painful-looking slapstick]] than her male co-star.
* In ''[[Wolverine and the X-Men]]'', when Wolverine is unconscious after braving a fire to save a little girl, the little girl's parents want to help him (risking their whole family), but another member of the group wants to turn him in to the mutant registration forces. Fair enough. The little girl's parents are also a mixed race couple and the other guy is white. Okay, fine. Except the mixed-race couple are toned, young, attractive, and wearing fashionable clothes, while the white guy is fat, middle-aged, balding, and wears Bermuda shorts and Hawaiian shirts. Successful mix of
** Also happens in ''[[X-Men: Evolution|X-Men Evolution]]''. Humans in their area (who seem less ethnically diverse than the mutants) find out about the mutants and freak out. So the X-Men take a Caribbean cruise to 'take a break' from the bigotry. They are exposed as mutants and treated as freaks/outcasts by the other passengers (almost all of whom are white) when Jean uses her powers to put out a fire. They visit an island where they are again revealed to be mutants, though the dark skinned islanders are shown to be extremely friendly and actually admire them for their abilities.
*** Of course, Boom Boom was the one who caused the fire by blowing up someone's plate out of annoyance, so yeah. And the islanders are welcoming to the mutants after Amara saves them from a volcano (yes, she accidentally triggers a second eruption, but they don't really see the connection).
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* ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]'' has a five man band, the only one with an actual hint of common sense is Numbuh 5, who is female and black. However, Numbuh 3 averts as the resident [[Cloudcuckoolander]], giving her the least common sense of the five. Granted, given the series, having the most common sense doesn't tell you that much.
** Ahem, the male and white Numbuh 1 is the leader and is pretty much [[The Ace]] with a few fundamental flaws. Add to the fact that [[Asian Airhead|Numbuh 3 is a complete ditz as well as being Asian]], it's pretty well balanced out. Numbuh 5 is also a [[Sassy Black Woman]] (she's played by Cree Summer so it's a given).
* Princess Sally Acorn of the ''[[Sonic Sat AM|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' animated series seemed to gradually get hit by this trope. While [[Closer to Earth]] compared to Sonic in early episodes, she was still capable of being flawed in judgement or acting equally childish or arrogant. However, in the second season she is increasingly emphasized as the most competent member of the team, with a lot of [[Idiot Ball|follies and screw-ups]] made by others such as Sonic being due to not [[Canon Sue|listening to her advice earlier]]. Bunnie and Dulcy were ditzier in personality, but still less prone to [[Idiot Ball
** In [[Archie Sonic|the comic]], Sally (especially in the beginning) was not only the smartest, bravest, most sensible, and overall best Freedom Fighter (yes, despite Sonic's name being on the series), but she actually expected everyone else to be [[Genre Savvy]] enough about this trope to ''know that she was''. She once berated Sonic for saving her from a roboticizer... because she had a gizmo (that was of course never mentioned or brought up again) in her boots that not only would have protected her, but analyzed how the machine worked so they could reverse it. Keep in mind, she ''didn't tell Sonic about this'', she just naturally expected him to know she was perfectly in control and everything was going according to her plan, even though it just looked like another situation where he needed to save her, like every other issue.
*** In both medias early on, Sally's competaece was balanced by occasional moments of being equally prissy, [[Small Name, Big Ego|egotistical]] and [[Bratty Teenage Daughter|childish]] as Sonic (her refusal to tell Sonic seemed more due to being irritated by him and refusing to discuss with him any further, thus her sulking [[Hoist by His Own Petard|leading to her own downfall]]), and of course, as mentioned, [[Damsel in Distress|getting kidnapped a lot]]. Sometimes even Sonic had to hand her an Aesop. It was only later on in both medias that Sally became [[Closer to Earth|the source of nearly all of the team's common sense]] with most of the team unable to work without her direction.
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* June is the only main girl in the wraparound shorts on ''[[Ka Blam!|Ka Blam]]''. She's also (at least from season two onwards) the most competent of evryone.
* Villain example; [[Dark Action Girl|Jinx]] is the only female member of [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|the HIVE Five]] on ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'', and is also the only one of them to both largely escape [[Villain Decay]] {{spoiler|and get to do a [[Heel Face Turn]]}}.
* In one episode of ''[[South Park]]'', the boys are forced to attend the Museum of Tolerance. One display shows a stereotyped young Asian with a calculator, to show that even ''positive''
** While ''[[South Park]]'' is usually known for it's "equal target" rule, it has leaned slightly into this vein concerning recurring characters. The blatantly named Token Black has few distinguishing flaws and is one of the more normal acting kids, while previously shrill and idiot prone female characters like Wendy, Sharon or Sheila are now [[Closer to Earth]], with the majority of their now toned down [[Serious Business|overreacting]] or [[Soapbox Sadie|protesting]] proved to be justified. Of course any non white male celebrity is still free game.
* On ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'', the evil villain organisation L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N. is about half comprised of women and at least one is Asian.
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