Stepford Smiler: Difference between revisions
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[[File:Stepford Smiler 9727.jpg|link=The Stepford Wives (2004 film)|frame|OK, you can stop [[The Un-Smile|smiling]] now... [[Uncanny Valley|Please?]]]]
{{quote|''"He always smiled, and he always chuckled, but inside he did not notice anyone, did not care; it was his body that smiled, nodded and shook hands. Nothing touched his mind, which remained remote."''
|'''[[Philip K. Dick]]'''|''[[Ubik]]''}}
Everyone loves [[Purity Sue]]. [[Love Is in the Air|They can't help it!]] She's [[Mary Poppins|practically perfect in every way.]] The '''Stepford Smiler''' is much like [[Purity Sue]]: she's bright, chipper, and an all-around pleasant person to be with.
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It's all a lie, of course.
The
These are the three main types of Stepford Smiler:
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Depressed Type [[Heroes|Heroines]] or show co-stars that are Stepford Smilers can either be played straight (they really are that [[The Ditz|shallow]]) or to gain viewer sympathy as they struggle to live up to their own impossible ideals. [[Villains|Villainesses]] like the [[Evil Matriarch]] who are Stepford Smilers are usually played one of two ways: it can either humanize them, much like the heroine, or it can accentuate their evil by contrasting it with their soullessness. Feminine pronouns are used throughout this trope because the '''Stepford Smiler''' is a [[Always Female|traditionally female]] role, though there are many male examples too. Sometimes, they're even a couple.
The Empty Type
Scared yet? It gets worse.
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* Vincent and Carrie Raymond (in Geoph Essex's ''Lovely Assistant'') are astonishingly warm and cheerful [[The Beautiful Elite|Beautiful People]], {{spoiler|though their plans to summon a galaxy-sized monster and destroy the world places them squarely as Insane Type Stepford Smilers}}. Jenny even thinks about the Stepford effect by name.
* ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]''
** [[Harry Potter/Characters/Muggles|Petunia Dursley]] is a fine example of the sort who initially seems to ''be'' her mask. ''[[
** [[Complete Monster|Dolores]] [[Harry Potter/Characters/Ministry of Magic|Umbridge]]. Part of the reason this character is so effective is that she wraps her sadism and violence in an unnerving Stepford mask.
** [[Harry Potter/Characters/Hogwarts Students|Luna Lovegood]] is a Depressed Type played straight. She's an [[Iron Woobie]] who is bullied viciously for her eccentric personality, and she didn't have any friends until she was a teenager. But despite this pain she is still happy and cheerful...''[[Beneath the Mask|on the outside]]''.
*** Luna could also be a subversion, if her serene personality is completely genuine.
** Xenophilius Lovegood puts on a Depressed Type act in ''[[
* Almost the entire main cast of Jodi Picoult's ''Nineteen minutes'' (Barring Peter, Jordan and possibly Patrick)
** [[The Woobie|Josie]] is a Depressed Type, pretending to be the perfect Golden girl whilst simultaneously having to put up with an abusive boyfriend, neglectful mother and niggling suspicion that if she stops smiling for even a second, everyone will realize she's nothing special.
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