39,327
edits
Positive Discrimination: Difference between revisions
m
remove bogus category
m (update links) |
m (remove bogus category) |
||
Line 39:
** Shirow Masamune loves this trope.
** Deunan from his previous manga ''[[Appleseed]]'' is much less perfect and relies heavily on her much more level headed partner/boyfriend Briareos. Yet she is still the only woman of the unit and by far the most badass officer on the force.
* Kirika and Mirielle from ''[[Noir]]'' are assassins who regularly use bumbling male thugs for target practice. Most male antagonists in this series fall under the "bumbling thug" descriptor. When they go up against more elegant, dangerous, and skilled opponents, the opponents are almost always female. In an aversion, the only character who manages to successfully manipulate them into serving his goals and get away with it (read: live) is male.
* 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.
Line 77:
** 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 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.
* 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.
** And then you get whiplash when they leave training and she becomes a complete [[Faux Action Girl]] who's no use at all.
Line 86:
** James Rhodes is also much more responsible, level-headed, and reasonable than Tony, to the point that he really does seem to be a much better choice for keeping the Iron Man suit. Although in fairness, these three characters being more mature than Tony might have less to do with the fact that they're all minorities, and more with it being a very low bar.
* The early movies starring [[Adam Sandler]] would often show not just Adam's character but practically everyone else to be annoying, bizarre, or just plain unpleasant (due to [[Rule of Funny]], of course). The one exception would be the pretty young woman whom the Sandler character lusts after, who was always about as [[Mary Sue]] as it could get: always did the right thing, never disgraced or embarrassed, and without any but the smallest flaws that could be easily ignored by the story. The implication was that Sandler didn't deserve such a perfect creature and had to spend the entire movie reforming his behavior to be worthy of her. As time went on, the usual Sandler formula began to be subverted. In ''[[Big Daddy]]'', for instance, the girl Sandler is with at the start of the film is even more morally flawed than he is, and [[Break the Haughty|receives her comeuppance in the final scene as most of the movie's characters (both male and female) laugh at her]]. And the remake of ''Mr. Deeds'' [[Inverted Trope|turns the trope completely inside-out]]: the heroine of the story is actually a ''villain'' at the start of it (well, more of a [[Defector From Decadence]]) while Deeds (Sandler) is [[Incorruptible Pure Pureness]] personified. The girl ends up having to suffer quite a few indignities (including a brutal [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]]) as part of her [[Heel Face Turn]] and to prove to Deeds that ''she's'' worthy of ''him'' - and, just to add insult to injury, also discovers that in ''this'' film, [[Slapstick Knows No Gender]].
** ''[[The Waterboy]]'' subverts this, too: Sandler's love interest is good-hearted, but also somewhat trashy and a petty criminal to boot.
* [[George Lucas]]' ''[[Red Tails]]'' does this with the African-American Tuskegee Airmen, not by making them unusually good but by making their white counterparts incredibly incompetent.
Line 92:
* 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'' [[Jerkass|jerkasses]].
** 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> until a certain point in the plot</ref> any male [[Our Monsters Are Different|Aes Sedai]] are (now) slowly driven insane by the Dark One's tainting of saidin<ref> the male half of all magical energy</ref>. All these men, back in the Age of Legends, going immediately insane was responsible for the [[Apocalypse How|Breaking of the World]]. Also worth nothing is that the women of the time stubbornly refused to help even when their own plan had pretty much collapsed around their ears. Then again, they make it a point that if the women had joined in, it could have been even worse as both sexes would have gone wild. Or the men's plan could have worked and the Breaking never would have happened. It's left ambiguous.
* 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."
Line 132:
** ''[[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]].
* 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.
* ''[[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.
Line 145:
* It's a trope of R&B in and of itself. Male R&B singers usually serenade women. Female R&B singers usually sing about bad relationships. Comedian Pablo Francisco even makes a joke about this.
* The [[Distaff Counterpart]] flipside of the above trope, is the many love songs are sung by men, who see women not just as regular people, but as [[Mary Sue|GODDESSES]]. Or at least the male singer can't stand to be without them.
** In the most extreme cases, men think that they're not [[Nobody Thinks It Will Work|GOOD ENOUGH for women]]. Case in point: Tal Bachman "She's So High" (She's perfect as she can be/Why should I even bother?)
** Men don't just treat their girlfriends with respect, they SPOIL them with love. Like pretty much every [[Justin Bieber]] song. Even in the breakup song "Baby" he promises to do anything for his girl if she stays with him.
*** If they're the one who made her suffer by accident, he begs for forgiveness because he'll more than make up for it. Jason Derulo with "Whatcha Say" (When the roof came in/and the truth came out/I just didn't know what to do/But when I become a star/We'll be living so large/I'll do anything for you.)
* All American Reject's song "Gives You Hell" is initially about an ex-girlfriend, but due to this trope, the video is about opposite neighbors...
* "Broken Heels" by Alexandra Burke is about how much better at everything women are than men.
Line 161:
== Professional Wrestling ==
* Pro wrestling had this problem from the very beginning.
** When wrestling shows first began to appear on TV, Westerns were popular, so it was perhaps inevitable that "Indian chief" characters would appear. The promoters were aware that depicting a member of America's smallest minority group as a cheating, savage, murderous heel would be, to put it lightly, kind of mean - so they set out to subvert the negative stereotype and totally overdid it. Just about every Native American character between the 1940s and the 1990s - Chief Jay Strongbow most famously - was the [[Noble Savage]] incarnate and always a hero. Not until just before the "Attitude Era" would Tatanka (a real-life Lumbee from North Carolina, [[Fake Nationality|although he depicted a Lakota]]) turn ''spectacularly'' heel, joining Ted DiBiase's Million Dollar Corporation. (Later, when he returned to WWE in the mid-2000s, Tatanka would turn heel in a different way, this time painting his face with creepy makeup and claiming to be a "vengeful ghost warrior" - and even then, his new gimmick was so [[Badass]] that it just resulted in [[Draco in Leather Pants|Draco In A Leather Loincloth]]. Worse, he got only two matches with the new gimmick before [[Put on a Bus|mysteriously disappearing]].)
** Black wrestlers also faced this problem. Perhaps due to outbreaks of racially charged violence that tended to erupt in wrestling arenas in some parts of the country, promoters had to be very careful never to A) feature black athletes too prominently; or B) have them engage in behavior, even in [[Kayfabe]], that could lead to race riots. The result was that guys like Art Thomas and Bobo Brazil never got to depict anything more interesting than the standard boring good guy who didn't do anything extraordinary, at least at first. Ernie "Big Cat" Ladd was the first to defy the tradition in the 1960s, [[Refuge in Audacity|transforming himself into one of the most obnoxious and bullying heels of his era]].
*** Even though WWE now features several prominent black wrestlers, traces of the hapless black hero of yore can still sometimes be seen, usually with Kofi Kingston, the only African-born (from Ghana) WWE Superstar. While he has always been a face and can more than hold his own with some of WWE's best (even defeating [[Chris Jericho]] for the Intercontinental Championship in his first pay-per-view appearance!), many of his storylines have seen him [[Jobber|job]] to the heels or get stuck in the tag-team ranks. Probably one of Kingston's most degrading moments was when he was attacked by [[Edge]] just before the 2009 Raw Elimination Chamber Match and prevented from competing at all, for no other reason than so that Edge could win the World Heavyweight Championship (and get a good [[Kick the Dog]] moment in the bargain).
* In all eras, female wrestlers almost never have the moral or psychological depth of their male counterparts. WWE's Divas and TNA's Knockouts can be heels, of course, but they're more likely to [[Poke the Poodle|commit petty or annoying misdeeds]] than to act truly evil. (This may now be changing, with Katarina "Winter" Waters in TNA portraying a character who has clearly crossed the [[Moral Event Horizon]].)
** Currently [[Beth Phoenix]] and Natalya like trapping the other divas in painful looking submission holds and holding the house microphone up to their face so the entire arena can hear them scream. Then there's [[Complete Monster|Kharma]].
Line 174:
== 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>. It got a bit better in the sequel, with a few Laguz bandits, some Laguz too big on the whole [[Blood Knight]] thing etc., but not exceptionally either.
Line 197:
** Don't forget the episode "Gwen 10", where Gwen is instantly better with the Omnitrix.
** And when it's time to hand out [[An Aesop]], Ben's always the one it's handed to (or [[Anvilicious|beat over the head with]]). Despite Gwen almost always having just as big a part in her arguments with Ben as he did (being insulting, condescending, shrill, and, well, argumentative), no one ever seemed to express that this might be a bad thing, not even with a "catch more flies with honey" type thing.
** This is averted in the later series(Alien Force and Ultimate Alien), where there are even times she needs to learn an Aesop.
*** But then winds up being reapplied when she's given the most reliable and [[Green Lantern Ring|versatile]] powers on the show, while Ben has to deal with the still occasionally unruly Omnitrix (and even has it futz with his mind repeatedly), and Kevin's powers are only good for hitting things (and he's constantly getting [[The Worf Effect|Worfed]] anyway). The only two times her powers were a drawback were when she had to deal with her grandmother, and when they threatened to make her [[God Mode Sue|even more powerful than before]].
* In both versions of ''[[Jonny Quest]]'', Hadji is intelligent, resourceful, knows Judo, and may or may not have mystic powers. ''[[Jonny Quest: The Real Adventures|Jonny Quest the Real Adventures]]'' makes him a computer whiz ''and'' an Indian prince.
Line 228:
* In ''[[The Goode Family]]'' this was lampshaded with the quote "We can't hire minorities! That's racist! [[Hypocritical Humor|It's whites only at the Goode house.]]"
* ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]:'' Every time the female league members are shown sparring with the male league members, the female members win, despite their individual powers, strengths, any invulnerability, their level of training, and basic logic.
** Personality-wise, all the team members have flaws - black [[Green Lantern]] John Stewart is quick to jump to conclusions and lay blame, and Hawkgirl is hot-headed. [[Wonder Woman]]'s main flaw seems to be that she's a bit naive and stuck up. In fact, the least flawed character seems to be the white male Batman, but that's because he's [[Crazy Awesome]].
*** Of course, one could claim that Batman's in the minority of being the only [[Badass Normal|person without superpowers]] on the team; and when you're on a team with Green Lantern and Superman, that practically counts as a disability superpower.
*** Batman has issues of his own [[Informed Flaw|which are mentioned but rarely used against him]], namely his obsessiveness, lack of trust, and anti-social tendencies.
** The most glaring use of this trope was when Superman and Wonder Woman were tricked into fighting each other and Diana beat him half to death. Though this might be justified in that Superman caught onto the illusion first and spent the majority of the fight trying to be as inoffensive as possible to try and find a way to snap Wonder Woman out of it.
* Partly averted in ''[[Cats Don't Dance]]'', as Sawyer is subjected to quite a bit of humiliating slapstick in the opening. Played straighter in that her dance scenes lack the more comedic takes that Danny employs.
* In ''[[Rugrats]]'', African-American Susie is the smartest of all the babies, her dad is the creator of a widely successful TV show and her mom is a doctor.
Line 258:
* In ''[[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.
** Keep in mind that this is not seen as a good thing, and that ultimately, Azula's badass qualities were less admirable considering that she's a troubled sociopath. Arguably, the trope is played straighter with Azula's sidekicks, Mai and Ty Lee, who were almost as threatening as Azula, but nowhere near as psychotic, and portrayed in a far more positive light.
* Penny of ''[[Inspector Gadget]]'', the most down to earth character on the show and several times more competant than her Uncle Gadget and the entire police department combined, it is not rare for her to save the day almost single handedly while the latter completely screw things up (keeping in mind she is a ten year old girl). Granted Brain is near equally skilled, if far more blundering and neurotic in execution. Other female characters such as bumbling MAD agents appear but are rare.
* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' more or less completely averts this. While this is to be expected since the large majority of the cast are female, the show also goes to great lengths to show similarly varying degrees of competence and morality with their few male characters. Spike in particular, while rarely the main hero, trades the [[Idiot Ball]] and [[Sanity Ball]] rather equally with Twilight Sparkle with both showing a similar dependance on each other (this is keeping in mind Twilight is one of the saner female characters).
Line 287:
* Melvin Udall ([[Jack Nicholson]]) in ''[[As Good as It Gets]]'' is a lonely romance novelist afflicted with a serious case of obsessive-compulsive disorder (which, granted, isn't a "traditional" disability but still can - and often does - wreak quite a bit of havoc with its victims' daily lives). In a more trite or inoffensive film he'd come off as [[The Woobie]] due to this trope. But director James L. Brooks turns him into more of a [[Jerkass Woobie]] whose extreme shortage of social skills has made him unbearably rude and misanthropic. (He's been prescribed pills for his disorder, but never takes them because he's too ashamed to.) Much of the movie is concerned with Melvin slowly becoming friendlier and more sensitive, especially to a gay neighbor whom he had mocked earlier in the film. Especially shocking is a scene in which Melvin, irritated that his daily breakfast at the diner just down the street from his apartment is not going as planned, offhandedly mocks a waitress for being [[Hollywood Pudgy|"fat."]] The restaurant owner immediately flies into a rage and [[Break the Haughty|forces Melvin to leave the building]], prompting ''everyone'' else in the diner to [[And There Was Much Rejoicing|burst into wild applause]] - a humiliating punishment that would ''never'' be administered to any disabled character suffering from any ailment more serious than OCD, unless said character blatantly crossed the [[Moral Event Horizon]].
** But it can also be seen as a straight white guy needing a gay man and a woman to make him less of a jerk so he can be happy.
* Danish short film Election Night completely obliterates this. The entire movie is about a guy who, in his constant quest to be as politically correct as possible and thus has an [[Everything Is Racist]] attitude to just about everything, is trying to go vote on time and has to take several different taxis - two of the three are driven by deplorable white men (one is heavily hinted to be a neo-nazi) - but one is driven by a sterotypical immigrant cab driver who suddenly asks him to vote to 'make sure those Yellow bastards get the hell out of the country' because they keep closing down kebab bars and opening chinese restaurants instead.
* The disabled protagonists of ''[[Rory O'Shea Was Here]]'' are as flawed and human as everyone else in the film.
Line 293:
[[Category:Meta Concepts]]
[[Category:Race Tropes]]
[[Category:Positive Discrimination]]
[[Category:No Real Life Examples, Please]]
| |||