Positive Discrimination: Difference between revisions

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Contrast with [[Closer to Earth]]. Almost all instances of [[You Go Girl]] are this, when women are displayed as superior to their male competitors in sports or other traditionally male domains. The [[Innocent Bigot]] may display Positive Discrimination, but in this case it will be [[Lampshaded]] as a bad thing. [[You Are a Credit To Your Race]] is a related trope. Taking the polar opposite tack leads to [[Mighty Whitey]]. A very frequent character trait of the [[Gamer Chick]].

'''[[No Real Life Examples Please]]'''

'''[[No Real Life Examples, Please]]'''

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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|Jerkassery]], so going outside [[No ~~Womans~~ Land]] is pretty much their last option. Being a newcomer, of course, leaves her less jaded and still [[Functional Genre Savvy]] enough to appreciate the story the GM was working so hard to write. As evidenced by {{spoiler|using a very rare unlimited wish so that a dorky but lovable [[NPC]] could be resurrected and [[Rescued From the Scrappy Heap]]. The resident [[Munchkin]] berates her for wasting her potential [[Game Breaker]] on puny [[Character Development]] and says [[Screw This, I'm Outta Here]]}}. She's also Kas's ex girlfriend, and seems to be pretty good at predicting his behavior.

*** Its been said they've managed to alienate all the Male gamers (even the eleven year olds) with their [[Jerkass|Jerkassery]], so going outside [[No Woman's Land]] is pretty much their last option. Being a newcomer, of course, leaves her less jaded and still [[Functional Genre Savvy]] enough to appreciate the story the GM was working so hard to write. As evidenced by {{spoiler|using a very rare unlimited wish so that a dorky but lovable [[NPC]] could be resurrected and [[Rescued From the Scrappy Heap]]. The resident [[Munchkin]] berates her for wasting her potential [[Game Breaker]] on puny [[Character Development]] and says [[Screw This, I'm Outta Here]]}}. She's also Kas's ex girlfriend, and seems to be pretty good at predicting his behavior.

* Done in the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' films with Hermione Granger (much less so in the books). The film version of Ron is rather [[Flanderize|Flanderized]], being much more cowardly and incompetent than he is in the books, with most of his good material being given to Hermione. One major example is in the first film, when the [[Power Trio]] is caught by a man eating plant. Ron panics and is nearly crushed by the plant, while Hermione is the first to figure out how to escape, and subsequently saves Ron. In the book, while it is still Ron being crushed, Hermione is the one who panics and Ron has to yell at her to snap her back to her senses. She is still the one to save him, but if Ron hadn't kept a cool head (while being crushed to death), he might not have survived.

** 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.

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** ''[[Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'': In one episode, Kira totally kicked the ass of Gul Damar, a Cardassian, with him never landing one blow in return. Keep in mind, the Cardassians are portrayed as very large, well-muscled aliens and this particular one had been in the military for most of his life.

*** 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]].

*** 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''-- when Data is defeated in a chess-like game by a flesh-and-blood man, fully expecting him to ace the challenge.

* ''[[I Carly]]'' 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.

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** Well, Susie ''is'' the oldest kid (barely older than Angelica). Also, Angelica's parents are also successful, and Phil & Lil's parents apparently run their own business. Only Stu, Didi, and Chazz are the "average" ones.

** Susie was a late addition to the original cast who quickly was utilized as a counter/foil to Angelica and to play a good 'big sister' role for the younger babies. It could be argued that since the intent was to add a an older character that the babies could look up to anyways she would have had the same positive traits no matter what race she was given. She may very well be an example of an intentionally good character who just happened to also be black for diversity sake.

** It's worth noting that this is somewhat in contrast to Suzie's debut role in "Meet The Carmichaels", where she is introduced as [[Bratty Half Pint|fickle crybaby]]. [[What the Hell, Hero?|"Tricycle Thief"]] also greatly subverts her [[Canon Sue]] role.

** It's worth noting that this is somewhat in contrast to Suzie's debut role in "Meet The Carmichaels", where she is introduced as [[Bratty Half-Pint|fickle crybaby]]. [[What the Hell, Hero?|"Tricycle Thief"]] also greatly subverts her [[Canon Sue]] role.

** It's also worth noting that ''[[All Grown Up]]'' subverts this even more by giving Susie realistic flaws. In the first episode she is easily conned by a woman into giving her $1000 thinking it's for a record deal, in another she completely buckles under pressure when she has to juggle an audition and a spot on her language team, she's shown to resent how the others look on her as perfect as well as sometimes acting rudely towards Angelica.

** In the first movie, the black female rookie park ranger is much more competent than the experienced white male park ranger.

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** While ''[[South Park (Animation)|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 (Animation)|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.

* An odd subversion occurs in ''[[Adventure Time (Animation)|Adventure Time]]''. One episode deals with an [[Alternate Universe]] populated by [[Rule ~~Sixty Three~~|gender-flipped]] versions of the cast. While most of the gender-flipped characters are on par with their counterparts in competence, the Ice Queen is noticeably more dangerous and competent then her [[Spear Counterpart]] [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain|Ice King]]. Then it's revealed that {{spoiler|the whole episode was a fanfic written by the Ice King, with the Ice Queen as an unconventional self-insert. The gender-flipped characters are aware of the Ice King's existence, and [[Wish Fulfillment|everyone sings his praises and all the girls want to marry him.]]}}

* An odd subversion occurs in ''[[Adventure Time (Animation)|Adventure Time]]''. One episode deals with an [[Alternate Universe]] populated by [[Rule 63|gender-flipped]] versions of the cast. While most of the gender-flipped characters are on par with their counterparts in competence, the Ice Queen is noticeably more dangerous and competent then her [[Spear Counterpart]] [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain|Ice King]]. Then it's revealed that {{spoiler|the whole episode was a fanfic written by the Ice King, with the Ice Queen as an unconventional self-insert. The gender-flipped characters are aware of the Ice King's existence, and [[Wish Fulfillment|everyone sings his praises and all the girls want to marry him.]]}}

* In ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', [[Magnificent Bastard|Azula]] is more dangerous than [[Noble Demon|Zuko.]]

** She was also favored by her father for her more cruel and dangerous behavior, while Zuko was always being told how much worse he was then her.

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** It gets better after a [[Retool]] that switches settings to focus on a world with [[Gladiator Games]]. The one girl there, Kiina, is brash, aggressive, and blunt; traits that help her in the arena but make her a pain to deal with outside of it.

*** Though, [[The Movie]] actually shows her as a [[Genki Girl]] with a little [[Tsundere]] thrown in the mix.

** Actually kind of [[Averted Trope|Averted]] on the original team, as Toa Onua, a male, was very wise and never argued with the others, unlike Gali who frequently argued with [[Hot Blooded|Tahu]] and [[Ineffectual Loner|Kopaka]].

** Actually kind of [[Averted Trope|Averted]] on the original team, as Toa Onua, a male, was very wise and never argued with the others, unlike Gali who frequently argued with [[Hot-Blooded|Tahu]] and [[Ineffectual Loner|Kopaka]].

* Across all forms of fiction, it is very common to treat bigotry as something only white men do. White women are usually, at worst, an [[Innocent Bigot]] (unless, of course, they're a standin for a [[Strawman Character|female political figure]]), but are generally presented as too intelligent and empathetic to be prejudiced. If a non-white character is ever portrayed as bigoted, it will almost always be a "humorous subversion" or even treated as justified, as they will only hate white people. Ethnic characters being prejudiced against other non-white ethnicities is almost completely unheard of in fiction, as they are usually portrayed as above such things or knowing better. Many works even have two different minorities ''teaming up against common racism'', even though in [[Real Life]] that either usually didn't happen or was subverted. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), for example, has included white members from its very earliest days.

* There's also a common [[Double Standard]] in the real world of excusing members of minority groups for sexist or homophobic (or yes, sometimes even racist) beliefs or attitudes, with the justification that any criticism of this behavior would be [[Culture Justifies Anything|"disrespectful to their culture."]] During the age of European imperialism, this dilemma came up a ''lot''. One famous case study focused on the controversy surrounding female genital mutilation among the Kikuyu tribe of Kenya (then known as British East Africa). The British colonizers were caught on the prongs of a [[Morton's Fork]]: if they condemned the practice, they faced the [[Mighty Whitey]] accusation; but if they tolerated and/or defended the practice, they would be attacked by feminist groups.

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[[Category:Osu]]

[[Category:Positive Discrimination]]

[[Category:Trope]]