Positive Discrimination: Difference between revisions

* There was a time in the 1980s when [[Marvel Comics]]' two flagship ensemble teams, the [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]] and [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]], both had black female leaders. However, there's a reason why Storm caught on with readers and became a very popular character and [[Captain Ersatz|Captain Marvel]] (yes, that [[Nextwave|Captain Marvel]]) did not. Basically, the latter was a girl scout who was as close to being [[The Cape (trope)]] without actually wearing one, whereas the former actually had more than one dimension and is an interesting character in her own right.

** In addition to Storm of the X-Men and Monica "Formerly Known as Captain Marvel" Rambeau of [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]] and [[Nextwave]], Slingshot naturally gravitated to the leadership role of [[Dynamo 5]], Skyrocket was the field leader of the Power Company, Misty Knight led Heroes for Hire, Vixen briefly gravitated to the leadership role of the [[Justice League]], Jet of the Global Guardians, Vaporlock of Infinity Incorporated, Kid Quantum II of the [[Legion of Super-Heroes]], Amanda Waller of the [[Suicide Squad]] ... basically, if you put a black woman on a superhero team, chances are she'll be running the show eventually. Oh, and Bumblebee ended up leading Titans East on the ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'' cartoon.

* Amy in ''[[Sonic the Comic]]'' was made into [[The Lancer]] with [[Improbable Aiming Skills]] due to [[Executive Meddling]]. She had few flaws compared to her very flawed male counterparts, and even Tekno (another thoroughly competent female character). Ironically her intitial persona was surprisingly close to the lovesick [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass]] Amy of the later games.

* While Amy herself is a much more abrasive character in the [[Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)|American Sonic comics]], it plays this straight with a fair few other characters. Sally and Bunnie are usually more rashional and [[Closer to Earth]] than many male Freedom Fighters, who are often harbored by significant flaws like arrogance or temper issues, meanwhile the female leads' shortcomings are often more minor or down to circumstance than deep personality issues (eg. Bunnie's robotocization, Sally's responsibilities as leader and monarch). Julie Su leans less into this vien, more or less acting as a [[Distaff Counterpart]] to Knuckles, though is still ''slightly'' more rashional than him.

** 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''.

** 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.

* 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|Idiot Balls]] of the same scale as Sonic and Antoine.

** 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.

* Subverted in ''[[Tuff Puppy]]'', which has [[Action Girl]] Kitty Katswell as [[The Chew Toy]].

* Though she does have her flaws, Piper of ''[[Storm Hawks]]'' is the most competent member of the [[Five-Man Band]]...of course she's also the token female, [[Ambiguously Brown]]...[[Les Yay|may or may not be a lesbian,]] [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|or at least bisexual.]]